Bendixen & Associates. (2005). The Ethnic Media in America: The Giant Hidden in Plain Sight. Florida: The Center for American Progress and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund. Retrieved February 2, 2008, from the Final Report of the full_em_poll.

The New California Media study came from a poll of just under 1,900 adults in 2005.  The survey participants were African-American, Hispanic, Asian American, Arab-American and Native American.  The interviews were done in English and native languages.  This report was filled with charts on demographics of the survey participants such as age, income, region of the U.S. that they live in, country of birth, education and whether they are registered to vote. As the study's title suggests, ethnic media is widely consumed by minority groups in the United States -- a fact many Americans are oblivious to.  

According to the study, 45 percent of the people in these groups prefer ethnic media to the mainstream media. Consequently, 13 percent of all American adults consume ethnic media. In addition, 80 percent of the minority population is reached by ethnic media outlets amounting to a quarter of the entire US population. Hispanics make up the largest group in this category in their overall media consumption and in regard to television.  As far as ethnic media, there is a tie among Hispanics and African-Americans for the largest consumption group.  As far as newspapers, Hispanics lead Native Americans by one percentage point, and Native Americans lead Asian Americans by one percentage point.  

            The authors also looked at those people who access ethnic media, even if they are not “primary consumers.”  They compare between primary and secondary consumers of each ethnic group. The authors also study the reach of the ethnic media, especially ethnic television, radio,newspapers and internet sites.  Overall they showed that Arab Americans are the group with the highest Internet usage, quickly followed by Asian Americans with their tally greater than 50 percent. Arab Americans also visit ethnic websites more than any of their counterparts. 

            This detailed study reveals many interesting findings such as the conclusion that more Hispanic females than Hispanic males consume ethnic media. The authors also stated that half of the Asian American population prefers ethnic websites. In addition, they found that Native Americans read more tribal papers than mainstream papers.

            This study sheds light on ethnic media in a way that focuses not only on different ethnic groups, but also their subgroups. For example,the Hipanic ethnic category is broken down into Cubans, Central Americans, South Americans, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. This allows the reader to visualize the differences between these subgroups and makes them each individualized and unique, rather than just simply one big category. This study also shows that ethnic media outlets reach a large audience and hence will likely continue to expand and grow. Nevertheless, while ethnic media continues to grow, minority groups (with the exception of Hispanics) tend to rely on mainstream media for political and world news. (reviewed by Catherine Sobolewski)