Voicing Diasporas is a significant contribution to the fields of media studies and of cultural studies because it argues that the media, particularly that produced in diaspora, constitute a key site for identity formation. Whereas ethnic media have often been discarded, by academics and politicians alike, for various reasons, this manuscript is a good attempt to show that ethnic media should be conceived of as a diasporic/ethnic public sphere 'where traditions are celebrated and debated, ideas are created and reinvented, and cultures are avowed and challenged.'

Isabelle Rigoni, MIGRINTER, Poitiers, France

Voicing Diasporas: Ethnic Radio in Paris and Berlin Between Cultural Renewal and Retention by Nabil Echcaibi examines how Muslim minorities of North African descent in France and Germany resist the typical glaring generalizations about immigrant laws of cultural citizenship in both countries. The author, who teaches journalism and media studies at the Center for Media, Religion and Culture at the University of Colorado in Boulder, describes and updates the notion of “diaspora” today, reviews the much broader role of diasporic media, explores the limits of French universalism as seen in the Paris station, reviews the comparatively different picture in Berlin, and Draws some conclusions from these two case studies.

Communication Booknotes Quarterly