Changing Mass Media Consumption Patterns Before/After Relocation: East Asian International Students’ Mass Media Use and Acculturation Strategies

Abstract

The new global streaming platforms have provided international students with direct access to American media content before moving to the United States and continued access to their home country’s media content while studying in the United States. We considered prerelocation mass media use and changes in mass media consumption patterns after relocation and reexamined the relationship between international students’ mass media use and acculturation strategies (i.e., integration, separation, assimilation, and marginalization). We surveyed East Asian international students in a large U.S. public university (N = 148). Prerelocation consumption of American mass media played a more significant role than postrelocation consumption of American and Asian mass media in predicting assimilation and integration strategies, suggesting a remote acculturation effect through mass media exposure. Integration was primarily affected by prerelocation mass media use. In contrast, assimilation was continuously influenced by using American mass media before and after the relocation. We discuss the implications of these findings in understanding the relationship between mass media consumption and sojourners’ adoption of acculturation strategies in the time of global online streaming services.