The Effects of Seeing Spanish-Language Entertainment News on Outgroup Attitudes

• In Event: How People React to Societal Threats

Abstract

Does contact with the Spanish language through news media affect the political attitudes of English-speaking Americans? In this paper, we build on prior research on language contact to examine whether seeing Spanish-language news in political and non-political contexts –the politics and entertainment news sections– affects non-Spanish speakers’ racial attitudes. We also examine its effects on feelings of exclusion, an outcome largely overlooked by previous research on language contact. While some scholars have theorized that these language effects will be constrained to the domain of political news, we posit that they may extend to entertainment news if language serves as a group cue that triggers a sense of cultural threat. Thus, we expect that seeing Spanish-language news in either the politics or entertainment section will negatively affect the racial attitudes of non-Spanish speakers as well as their feelings of exclusion. In addition, we examine whether any negative effects are reduced when Spanish-language text is accompanied by a link to the English version. If they are, this could suggest that the negative effects of contact with Spanish are driven more by concerns over a communication barrier than a sense of threat. In sum, this research will shed light on the potential mechanisms behind language-based effects, contribute to our understanding of how non-political media shape political attitudes, and draw attention to feelings of exclusion as a political outcome.

Author

• Rebeca J. Agosto Rosa, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign