News from the Old Country : Media Consumption by the Basque Diaspora in the United States

Abstract

This study analyzes the ways in which the Basque diaspora community in the United States consumes news media from their home origin. Using survey data collected from over 400 Basque-Americans with varying generations (first, second, third, etc.), we explore the ways in which surveyed individuals consume media from their ancestral territory of origin, in this case, the Basque Country of Spain and France. This research is exploratory and descriptive of the media habits and behavior of individuals with Basque origins. We find that significant shifts in media consumption occur between first generation immigrants and those beyond the second generation. As we move across generations, we observe that individuals shift from engagement with home-origin media to engagement with Basque cultural activities, such as dancing clubs. Our study suggests that the importance of digital media from the homeland is growing, but that most consumption of information by the Basque diaspora is through social networks. Our findings also suggest that, among those who continue to consume home-origin media, it is mainly through readership of national newspapers (in this case, from Spain) rather than local newspapers (from the Basque Country). This article enriches our understanding of the media habits of the Basque diaspora and raises questions for future research about the effect of transnational media consumption on the political, social and economic behavior of immigrants in the United States.