The department of periodicals and integration : a qualitative study of newspaper reading among some first generation immigrants

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to find out in which ways a group of first generation immigrants use Swedish papers and magazines in a public library and which information needs this group has about Swedish society. One important aspect in this essay is integration of immigrants in the Swedish society as a possible effect of newspaper reading. The method used in this study is qualitative. Data is generated through semi-structured interviews. The immigrants have been represented by eight persons from different ethnic groups. Through a literature survey of earlier research I have presented a background to immigrants’ information needs and possible connections between on the one hand education, employment, gender, duration of their stay in the country and on the other hand on the impact on information needs patterns. The study has two theoretical starting points: Diaz’ integration theory and a modified version of Höglund – Perssons’ model of information use. Of great interest for this essay have been the effects of the information use, especially integration of immigrants in Swedish society. The results of the analyses show that information seeking and information use have had a more profound effect on integration in the language community (kommunikativ integration) than on the social, structural and political integration. The majority of immigrants in the study do not feel integrated in the Swedish society. However we can conclude that this study tends to show that reading and information seeking have effect on some aspects of integration and that the public library has an important role in this process.Uppsatsnivå: