Revisiting the immigrant press

Abstract

Over time, research on the ‘immigrant press’ in the communication field has been subsumed by other theoretical concepts, particularly ‘ethnic’ and ‘transnational’ media. This article reevaluates the relevance of the ‘immigrant press’ as a theoretically distinct concept as articulated by Park in his foundational book The Immigrant Press and its Control. Drawing on 27 interviews with editors, journalists, and publishers in three areas of the United States with different immigration histories and profiles, we conclude Park’s defining characteristics of the immigrant press – an emphasis on the specificity of the first-generation immigrant’s experience, serving as a cultural and civic translator while facilitating national identity, and being an aid to assimilation – are all applicable today, more so than the major themes expressed in literature on ethnic and transnational media.