Institutional completeness and communication acculturation: A comparison of Korean immigrants in Chicago and Hartford

This paper addresses the question of whether the institutional completeness of an ethnic community affects the communication acculturation patterns of the members of that ethnic community. The study examines the effects of institutional completeness upon the ethnic interpersonal and mass communication patterns. The research question was tested by applying some of the methods used in a study of a very institutionally complete ethnic group, the Chicago Korean community, studied by Young Kim, to a less institutionally complete ethnic group, the Greater Hartford Korean community. The results indicate that there are differences in some of the communication patterns which can be seen as evidence that the institutional completeness of an ethnic community influences certain aspects of the communication acculturation patterns of the immigrants within that community.