Voices from home and abroad New York City's Indo-Caribbean media

• Published in: International journal of cultural studies 2009-03, Vol.12 (2), p.167-185
• Main Author: Tanikella, Leela
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asians; Audiences; Broadcasting; Caribbean Cultural Groups; Diaspora; Identity; Indo-Caribbeans; Mass media; Mass Media Effects; Media; Migrants; National Identity; Negotiation; New York City; Public sphere; Race; Racial identity; Radio; South Asian Cultural Groups; Transnationalism; U.S.A
• ISSN: 1367-8779; 1460-356X
• DOI: 10.1177/1367877908099498

This article examines how New York City's Indo-Caribbean media represents and constructs diasporic and transnational identities. Analyzing weekly newspapers, radio programs and websites, it argues that as media producers negotiate content and programing with their audiences they produce a varied and multiple `Indo-Caribbean voice'. Indo-Caribbean communities are linking up with home and with India in specific geographic locations in New York City and in locally produced mediated forums. In this article, these connections are mapped locally and transnationally to understand the role of other racialized communities in the development of an Indo-Caribbean presence in the public sphere. The media examined here represent Indo-Caribbean communities as they negotiate belonging in the US that is mediated through relationships with their home countries as well as the Indian migrant community from South Asia.