Global Media Journal

Khaled Zammoum

The paper examines the fundamentals of French cultural and media policy for ethnic minorities of immigrant origin. Although the role of media in the integration policy is obvious, it was important to wonder if France has a media policy for those ethnic minorities and whether they have the right to access to communication and mass media means in French law. Through the analysis of several sociopolitical and cultural aspects of French texts, we found that the design of policy with regards to information and community or intra-ethnic communication was inspired by the French model of integration, which is based on Jacobin republican philosophy. The analysis shows that the lack of a media and cultural strategy of French authorities encouraged media frenzy about the problems of ethnic minorities, which involved lots of stereotypes that exploit the social and economic problems to accredit and strengthen the argument that minorities are a burden to the national economy. The results also show that it is necessary to reconstruct the political and media action towards French ethnic minorities, as we noted in this study that each ethnic community develops its own networks and communication and information spaces.