Acculturation, pluralism, empowerment: Cultural images as strategic communication on Hispanic nonprofit websites

Acculturation, Pluralism, and Digital Social Advocacy in Nonprofit Strategic Communications

“…This study was developed as the second stage of a visual content analysis (Adams & Johnson, 2019) to confirm the intentionality and strategic decision making behind the choice of visuals used by these ethnic nonprofits. Based on the results, this study confirms that these nonprofit communicators are intentionally seeking to promote positive cultural prototypes.…”

“…The questions drew from the authors' previous study of Latinx nonprofit visual communication for the acculturation concept (Adams & Johnson, 2019). The strategic use prompts about information/management, public relations, and advocacy were based on literature describing the various uses in public relations for organizational websites and social media (Connolly-Ahern & Broadway, 2001;Curtis et al, 2010;Hon, 2015Hon, , 2016aHon, , 2016bSommerfeldt et al, 2012).…”

“…Considering this, a 2019 study of the visual communication of 141 nonprofit websites of organizations serving U.S. Latinx populations found that most websites used culturally symbolic images and photos of people engaged in acculturation activities such as education. They also depicted families or civic rights such as voting (Adams & Johnson, 2019). Fewer sites included in the study featured visuals portraying resistance to U.S. authority and regulation such as protests or marching.…”

“…Only two websites had visuals showing "immigrant threat" activities such as illegal border crossing (Adams & Johnson, 2019, p. 2). Therefore, these nonprofits seem to be making strategic decisions to use visual communication that depicts positive prototypes of their clients and members to connect with mainstream audiences and to dispel negative stereotypes proliferating online (Adams & Johnson, 2019). This literature led to the first two research questions:…”

“…Drawing from Hon's (2015) model of digital social advocacy and Kim's notions of acculturation as well the findings of a recent study examining acculturation, pluralism, and resistance visuals on U.S.-based nonprofit websites (Adams & Johnson, 2019), this research project explores how positive cultural prototypes depicting empowerment and advocacy messages are being used as activist counterpoints to perceived immigrant threats. The purpose of this study was to examine nonprofit communication by U.S. Latinx organizations in terms of digital social advocacy and consider how these resource-limited communicators might be leveraging digital media affordances to mobilize their publics and create social change similar to the way grassroots activists do.…”