Bridging mechanisms in multiethnic communities: Place-based communication, neighborhood belonging, and intergroup relations

ABSTRACT

Using communication infrastructure theory (CIT), this study examines how place-based communication, including neighborhood interpersonal discussion, geo-ethnic media, and local organizations, may have the potential to promote multiethnic intergroup relations through forging a sense of neighborhood belonging. Based on survey data consisting of 405 diverse community members, this study employs structural equation modeling to test the relationships among residents’ connection to place-based communication, their level of neighborhood belonging, out-group contact frequency, and perceived interaction quality across six interethnic dyads. Findings suggest that place-based communication does impact multiethnic intergroup interaction, but the direction and magnitude of such effects diverge along ethnic lines.

KEYWORDS:

• Multiethnic intergroup relations
• place-based communication
• neighborhood belonging
• communication infrastructure theory
• multiethnic community

Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge support received on data collection from Professor Michael Parks, Dr. Nien-Tsu Nancy Chen, Dr. Katherine Ognyanova, Evelyn Moreno, and Daniela Gerson.

We are grateful for the constructive comments from the editor and three anonymous reviewers at the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication.

Notes

1. Mid-point assignment is a standard procedure to generate a continuous measure of household income by allocating the midpoint income of their selected income category (Kaufman, Long, Liao, Cooper, & McGee, 1998). For example, if an respondent reported household income falling under the category of “15,000 to less than 20,000 dollars,” it was computed as 17,500 in the data set.

2. Control variables, including age, income, education, and residential tenure, are not shown in the graph for clearer presentation, but they were included in model estimation.

Additional information

Funding

We gracefully acknowledge financial support and intellectual contributions to this article from the Metamorphosis Project (http://www.metamorph.org/) and Annenberg Foundation at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California.