Spanish Vs. English Language Media Consumption and Latino Political Trust and Efficacy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Do Latinos who consume more Spanish language media relative to English language media express greater political trust and efficacy? While research produces increasing evidence that variations in English language media content shape core democratic attitudes like political trust, and that Spanish language media shapes acculturation and issue attitudes among Latinos, research has not explored whether broader linguistic media environments shape attitudes fundamental to democracy. Given revolutionary changes the English language media environment, and stark contrasts between English and Spanish language media environments in terms of fragmentation, ideological and partisan news reporting, narratives portraying Latinos as a “threat,” and Latino-oriented and affirming content, relative consumption of Spanish or English language news may come with important implications. Bilingual Latinos who consume varying mixtures of media from these environments offer a unique population for exploring these relationships. Building off studies relating patterns of Latino acculturation and Spanish language media to a variety of attitudinal effects, we explore the relationship between linguistic media consumption and political trust and efficacy using three unique datasets: the 2008 CMPS, 2016 CMPS, and our own survey conducted in 2021. We then leverage unique variables in the 2016 CMPS to explore whether Latino trust and efficacy relate directly to relative consumption of Spanish language media or indirectly to Spanish language media through recall of Latino-oriented content and induced emotional reactions.