Post-election survey data show Spanish-language media's positive influence on US-born Latinos' core democratic attitudes

According to authors Wilson et al., there is little research on how consuming (not just having access to) Spanish-language media relates to US-born Latinos’ political attitudes and efficacy, not to mention their acculturation. The authors wanted to fill that research gap by analyzing data from three observational surveys of Latinos, spanning three presidential elections, including two studies that they accessed via the Resource Center for Minority Data: the Collaborative Multi-racial Post-election Survey (CMPS), 2008 (ICPSR 35163), and the Collaborative Multi-racial Post-election Survey (CMPS), United States, 2016 (ICPSR 38040). In the CMPS, respondents were Asian, Black, Latino, and White registered voters representing multiple US states and regions, using questionnaires provided in multiple languages. Crucial for the authors’ analysis were questions about respondents’ consumption of media, as well as measures of their political trust in government and their sense of political efficacy. Other key questions were added to the 2016 CMPS, including respondents’ recollections of Latino-oriented media content and their emotional reactions during the 2016 election season. Wilson et al. found that more consumption of Spanish-language media was consistently associated with higher levels of political trust and efficacy among US-born Latinos. These media outlets also evoked “emotional reactions to politics (especially positive ones) by focusing on Latino-oriented issues through a Latino lens.” Further, by doing so, Spanish-language media acted as “an agent of acculturation” by “bringing Latinos into the political system through processes of inclusion.” It also offered “shelter” from English-language media content that was more alienating due to its negative portrayal of Latinos and Latino issues, and which “as a whole has become corrosive to democratic attitudes.” Check the series page for more publications using CMPS data.