Examining a Moderating Role of Migration on News Usage in an Intra-National Ethnic Setting

Abstract

The effect of cross border migration on news consumption has been well explored in uses and grtifications studies. Most of these studies focus on inter-national migrants with little empirical attention on intra-national migrants. Besides, most of these studies  have not examined migration within the context of ethnic variables like ethnic identity. This study is examining a possible moderating effect of migration on ethnic identity as a predictor of news usage among the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria. Survey questionnaires were administered on 400 undergraduates in three universities in Nigeria between January and April, 2014. We use Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach to measure the relationships among the variables Findings show ethnic migration having a significant moderating effect on ithe predictive power of ethnic identity on news gratifications.

Keywords: news, gratifications, ethnicity, ethnic identity, motivations, intra-national