Page - 133 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Souley Hassane | Mainstream Media vs. Ethnic Minority Media 133 question or deliberate the accusations. The two types of media converge neither in their perception nor in their understanding of the issue. Journalists at Afrikara attempt to respond to any wayward comments made towards Islam, Muslims and Arabs. The debates on the positive effects of colonization have reinforced the distinction between mainstream and minority media. Analysis of the responses reveals that the concepts employed are often taken from social criticism and from the American experience, its success and ideas. The French system is directly confronted with its ostensible long-term values of freedom, equality and brotherhood. Reference is made to François Xavier Verschaves’ work on françafrique (French Africa) to explain French neo-colonialism’s methods of domination. But this work cannot explain why journalists, politicians and intellectuals suddenly abandon all pretense of respect for one another. The explanation for this is to be found in the ideological staging of information. If, indeed, there are many articles and interviews in Oumma.com from researchers and friends of the ‘Arab world’, similar texts are not to be found on Afrikara.com. Solidarity with African/Caribbeans is much too complicated. African specialists are more or less absent from African sites, whereas specia- lists of Islam are numerous on Oumma.com. This is true despite the fact that studies of Islam and of Africa stem from the same colonial inspiration. ‘Orientalism’ and ‘Africanism’ function with the same basic paradigms, those of a study of populations demeaned by a fundamental disciplinary essentialism. Apparently, society is not yet prepared to deal with diverging collective memories. In this context, the question of the media’s role in ‘restructuring’ or ‘de-structuring’ society is certainly a legitimate one. What will become of integration if the confrontation between the two media persists, and how is the ideological turnaround formulated on a global scale? In order to understand the nature of this confrontation, its content and its objectives, the actors should not be isolated from their actions, but should be seen as part of a global, coherent and integrated symbolic system. State- ments originating from the national press make sense within a specific vision and ideology of the world, just as everyday political and cultural actions do. The “abandonment of taboos” (Lindenberg 2002, p. 90) in French society proceeds from what Daniel Lindenberg has called the new reactionaries. The new era has firmly established the public vindication of racism, authoritaria- nism, a specific ‘moral order’, and security forces at the service of business. Behind the statements against Islam, Arabs and Blacks, is the condemnation of equality, brotherhood, freedom and human rights through public statements of certain intellectuals. These people, who freely admit their own xenophobia, also warn against European decadence, the deterioration of the values of knowledge and authority at school, and the loss of excellence and