Communication and the Sense of Community among the Members of an Immigrant Group

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This article develops the concept of sense of community and the communication concepts of expenditure of effort in the acquisition of information, likelihood that sources will provide desired information, and volume of information secured from sources. It examines these factors as predictors of the sense of community displayed toward each other by Trinidadian and Jamaican immigrants in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan tanarea. Stepwise multiple regressions revealed that the likelihood of friends and acquaintances providing desired information was the only significant predictor of the sense of community Trinidadian immigrants display toward Jamaican immigrants. However, the volume of information secured from immigrant community-oriented radio programs was the only significant predictor of the sense of community Jamaican immigrants displayed toward Trinidadian immigrants. Expenditure of effort was not a significant factor in the prediction of the sense of community that either group displayed toward the other.