Divisive Discourse: The Impact of Ethnic Origin Identity and Ethnic News on Misinformation and Foreign Policy Attitudes

Abstract Ethnic news, despite serving mostly ethnic minorities, can have politically consequential effects. In this article, I examine the role of ethnic news and ethnic origin identity in misinformation and foreign policy attitudes. Specifically, I compare the attitudes and opinions of Chinese and non-Chinese Asians on U.S. foreign policy towards China, trust in President Xi, concern about Chinese military power, and feelings toward China. Using an original survey with 1,050 Asian Americans. I found that the consumption of ethnic news is associated with misinformed beliefs, suggesting that ethnic news plays a role in disseminating misinformation. Furthermore, I found that the equal consumption of ethnic media and mainstream American news and primarily ethnic media leads to divergent foreign policy attitudes conditional on ethnic origin.