The association between mass media news about interethnic contact and relations between ethnic minorities and natives: The perspective of African immigrants in Italy.
Year: 2024
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: OBJECTIVES: The present research investigated the role of a pervasive and often negative form of indirect contact, exposure to mass media news on interethnic contact. Specifically, we examined the associations between mass media exposure and both African immigrants' attitudes toward native Italians and their collective action intentions to achieve higher intergroup equality in the host country. METHOD: = 423) with African immigrants living in Italy. RESULTS: Exposure to negative mass media news was linked to less positive attitudes toward native Italians and more collective action of African immigrants. The negative link between negative mass media news exposure and intergroup attitudes was stronger for those African migrants who reported relatively low positive and negative direct intergroup contact. These findings were consistent across both studies. The positive link between negative mass media news exposure and collective action was stronger among African immigrants with relatively low negative direct intergroup contact. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence illustrates the independent and combined ways in which the valence of direct and indirect contact can affect immigrants' attitudes toward natives, and their motivation to build a more inclusive and equal society. Overall, results highlighted the greater strength of negative rather than positive indirect contact of immigrants, especially when they reported less positive direct contact experience with native Italians. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
DOI: 10.1037/cdp0000707
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4402985636