‘Here’ and ‘back home’: Imagining diasporic connections through Aotearoa New Zealand’s Pacific news media

Abstract

This case study of Pacific news media and their audiences demonstrates how ethnic news media use discourses and practices of ‘homeland’ and ‘diaspora’ to build identity and community belonging, and thereby serve a connective function for Pacific audiences. By highlighting key differences in media producers’ and audiences’ orientation to ideas of ‘home’, ‘homeland’ and the Pacific diaspora, however, this chapter further argues that a broader range of identities might be needed to better serve the youth of multigenerational migrant groups such as Pacific peoples in New Zealand, who appear to orient themselves to and across more diverse ethnic and transnational identities than is assumed by media producers.