Lin, W. Y. (2007). When the alternative goes mainstream: The competition between

ethnic TV and the internet in a Chinese community of Los Angeles. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 25. Retrieved April 25, 2008, from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

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This article can be accessed at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=26951319&site=ehost-live

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 Wan-Ying Lin is the Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Communication at the City University of Hong Kong. This work was submitted to the Mass Communications Division of the 57th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association at San Francisco, CA in 2007. Her areas of research include Social & Economic Implications of Technologies, New Media & Youth, Internet Campaigns, and Media Effects, among others. She can be reached at wanying@cityu.edu.hk

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The author studies "the extent to which the Internet intertwines with... ethnic television..." specifically among the Chinese community of Los Angeles, CA (a population of 330,000). After a qualitative description of the Chinese population in the County of Los Angeles (noting the significance of their settlement in the Monterey Park area), Lin introduces the source of her data, the Metamorphosis Project at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School. The Project studies the impact of diversity, globalization, and technological growth on urban communities. Through a telephone survey of residents in Greater Monterey Park of Los Angeles, 321 households were randomly selected. Participants were given a language choice (Mandarin, Cantonese, or English).

Lin reviews the literature on the subject of the displacement effect, which states that as new media arise, users spend less time with old media, as they accommodate the new technologies into their usage patterns. With respect to the question of Internet usage displacing traditional media, Lin sketches in widely contradictory results from various studies, arguing, "The mixed empirical findings suggest a limited explanatory power of the displacement thesis..." At this point, Lin introduces media system dependency (MSD) theory, which suggests media users are goal-directed, and choose media that support their particular goals. Lin is unclear on how the explanatory power of MSD theory accounts for the differences in hours spent consuming various media by different segments of the surveyed population. She does assert, however, that individuals' "goals direct [their] media behaviors and lead to displacement effects." She appears to be saying MSD theory does not replace displacement theory, but extends its reach.

Lin describes the goals of her research as "investigat[ing]... the inter-media relations between ethnic television and the [sic] Internet audiences... emphasiz[ing] the goals that drive individuals' media consumption..." She explores these issues by answering four research questions:

"RQ1: What is the profile of the ethnic Chinese TV audience in Los Angeles?" She includes people from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and "other Southeast Asian countries" in her sample. The reader is left to assume the respondents in this final category are "ethnic Chinese born in other countries." In addition, Lin notes other factors such as average age, income, education level, and car ownership. Summing up, she notes that in comparison with census data of all Asian groups in the U.S., the sample here "is older, with a mean age of 43 years old, but otherwise very similar." She also finds that viewership of ethnic TV is connected to whether one is a first generation immigrant -which would correspond to higher viewership -or from a later generation, which would adopt more English-language media (even while maintaining a connection to TV in the mother tongue).

"RQ2: To what extent do Internet users connect to ethnic TV, in comparison to mainstream TV?" Teasing out the results here gets a bit tricky, as the categories can become confusing -and, at a glance, the Tables are not brightly illuminating. In general, Lin finds that the more someone watches mainstream TV, the more likely she is to connect to the Internet. And the respondents who do not connect to the Internet at all watch significantly more ethnic television than their wired counterparts do.

"RQ3: To what extent do the Chinese immigrants depend on ethnic Chinese TV, in comparison to mainstream TV, to fulfill their goals of understanding, orientation, and play?" Lin finds that residents who depend more on TV for goal-fulfillment will lean more heavily on ethnic television, though there are some statistical anomalies -"curvilinear" results -which Lin expends little effort in explaining.

"RQ4: To what extent does the Internet displace ethnic TV to fulfill their goals of understanding, orientation, and play?" She finds that rather than having a "displacement effect," the Internet "neither increases nor decreases residents' existing ethnic TV viewing behavior..." Instead, she describes the Internet as providing an "additional, supplemental source..." for users. That said, the Internet is shown to take a segment of the audience away under two circumstances: First, TV viewers who purchase products on TV are starting to use the Internet for purchases. Second, those whose goal is stated as “relaxation” when viewing TV are migrating online.

The Metamorphis Project reveals that Chinese immigrants spend more time with ethnic media than do other immigrant groups they studied. In addition, Chinese immigrants are among "the early adopters of new technology," establishing greater penetration of Internet access in their homes, as well as spending more time online, than other ethnic groups in the Project. These are interesting factoids, but Lin neither seeks to explain them, nor to use them to make an inductive leap into new territory. It is difficult to know exactly why she included such tidbits, especially if they are available as part of the Metamorphosis Project results.

Lin concludes with a striking admission: "The data utilized in this study, despite pioneering [sic], were collected more than five years ago. Current investigation... may or may not paint a similar picture." In questions relating to development of the Internet, five years is a significant stretch, and one is left to wonder why she drew on such dated findings for her investigation. In addition, Lin never defined quite what was meant by "ethnic TV" -does this include only content produced in the United States by and for the ethnic Chinese community, or does it also include foreign-made content that is broadcast in Los Angeles? The survey questions did not address this issue, and it would likely be difficult -without finer content analysis -to know the specific origins of programming viewed by respondents. Such questions may have been outside the purview of the Metamorphosis Project, but if one is discussing ethnic media, this would appear to be significant.

Though focusing only on relatively narrow experiences of Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles, this article does provide valuable insight on how to approach the relationship between ethnic TV and the Internet. That said, Lin's study -in the opinion of this reviewer -is too compromised to be of great interest on its own. (In addition, the editing is sub-par, especially surprising as Lin received her Ph.D. from USC.) Ultimately, the questions raised here are of interest, and future research can build on her model for more timely, more detailed work.

(Reviewed by Ari Apelian) (Edited by Paul Russell Laverack -May, 2009)