Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, The New York Times covered a revealing analysis by United We Dream Action in partnership with Harmony Labs on young Latinx media consumption aimed at learning more about how young Latinx people encountered stories about immigration in U.S. media.
The analysis looks at the television and online consumption habits of more than 20,000 Latinx people nationwide. Among the findings was that Latinx people, particularly men, over 36 were more likely to encounter polarizing anti-immigrant narratives than other cohorts mainly through right-wing news sites, television and YouTube.
Findings include that immigration-related content online can be divided into two major categories: stories about immigration and stories about immigrants. Young Latinx women ages 18 to 35 were more likely to seek out stories not just about immigration policy but also about immigrants and the immigrant experience. But young Latinx men in the same age cohort did not absorb much media about immigration or immigrants at all, either positive or negative. When they did consume immigration content, it tended to be about policy and stemmed from conservative-leaning sources, creating a content vacuum for these young people. This vacuum of immigrant content along with their concerns about the economy, and penchant for individualism make them easy targets for racialized disinformation about the role of immigrants in this country.
You can read more about the research here, as well as reading the full New York Times article here.