Ethnic radio in Paris

In the age of Globalization, a variety of voices from diasporas has emerged over the last few decades, which has become the cultural border between immigrants' country of origin and country of residence – what Homi Bhabha calls the “third space.” Among these voices there are the so-called ethnic media, i.e. those media made by and/or diffused to immigration-related populations and minorities. The aim of this study is to investigate the evolution path of ethnic media in those countries where the history of immigration is mature enough to configure the society as multicultural. More precisely, it is an attempt to define whether and how an evolution towards the mass media model is possible. To do so, the ethnic radio industry in Paris has been analyzed, taking as examples the experiences of two ethnic radio stations: Beur FM and Aligre FM. The major findings of the study show that the evolution path of ethnic radio – or, diversity radio, radios des diversités, in French – starts from the very idea of diversity, from the dualism between “ethnic” and “individual” diversity.