Acculturation, Communication, and the U.S. Mass Media: The Experience of an Iranian Immigrant

Abstract

Through an autobiographical approach this study examines the critical role communication plays in acculturation. It argues that the mass media can play a contradictory role in the complex process of immigration: both facilitating as well as impeding that process. Focusing on the migration of Iranians to the United States, following the 1979 revolution there, the author shows that media characterizations and personal stereotyping can be traumatizing.