AAPI News Media: Origins and Futures

The first Asians arrived on U.S. soil in 1587, to what would one day become California. Within a few short decades, the land they touched became the birthplace of a vibrant and diverse news media ecosystem. For nearly two centuries, in the face of repeated threats from xenophobic policies – and outright violence – Asian American and Pacific Islander community news media have kept their communities safe, connected, and informed.

Inside the report, you will find the stories of AAPI news media leaders who not only made U.S. history, but wrote it. You will meet the Chinese-American publisher who traveled the country fighting against Chinese exclusion and anti-Asian hate; Lebanese American New Yorkers who invented Arabic linotype, prompting a global Arabic literary renaissance; Native Hawaiian activists who organized against U.S. colonial rule in in-language newspapers; Filipino American students who published pamphlets advocating for their civil rights; and Japanese American publishers who rebuilt their communities after their mass incarceration in concentration camps during World War II.

You will learn how immigrant and Indigenous AAPI communities reclaimed the broadcast networks intended to drive military or imperial expansion in their homelands to create shared cultural spaces for isolated and displaced communities – and how these networks paved the way for digital networks serving AAPI locally and in diasporic communities. You will gain insight into the challenges and opportunities in AAPI news media today, as they navigate scarcity and digital disinformation to continue supporting their communities.

The report builds on the AAPI Media Map & Directory, showcasing more than 650 outlets serving AAPI communities in 54 languages today, and represents the first major effort to examine the origins, evolution, and possible futures of AAPI media today. Never before has this ecosystem been viewed in its entirety, through all the time periods of its existence, and in all its manifestations – from hyperlocal immigrant newspapers and glossy special interest magazines to television and radio channels and digital multimedia platforms, all produced in AAPI languages or explicitly for AAPI communities.

AAPI continue to be underrepresented in the wider media landscape. The sheer range and versatility of AAPI media today underscores the need, as well as the appetite, for in-language and culturally relevant news, information, and civic engagement with their communities in the U.S. today.

READ THE REPORT

This report was made possible with the generous support of Democracy Fund, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and The Henry Luce Foundation.

We are also grateful for the support of our thought partners and project sponsors at TDW + Co and UMass Amherst’s GloTech Lab, specifically their Asian American Digital Politics Collective.

If you would like to learn more about the report and AAPI news media, or would like to participate in the Asian Media Initiative, please contact Kavitha Rajagopalan: