Following the Senegalese migratory path through media representation

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the experiences and representations of Senegalese transmigrants, tracing their migration path from Senegal to one of their principal destinations in the 1990s – Italy. I should stress at the outset that the material presented in this chapter can be regarded as an offshoot from a wider research project on Senegalese migration to Italy.1 This research explored the interplay of two social phenomena: the representations and the institutional practices in the receiving society on the one hand; and on the other, the experiences and strategies adopted by immigrants, who rely on material and symbolic resources drawn through transnational networks. Although this broad research agenda did not have a central media focus, during my fieldwork in Senegal and in Italy I came across media representation many times and in different settings. It is not difficult to draw out these media representations and reactions into a narrative which follows the Senegalese migratory path into and out of Italy and Senegal. In particular I want to focus on the Senegalese reception of and response to Western media self-representation and (mis)representation of the ‘other’, using material gathered from interviews and episodes of participant observation. My analysis encourages me to suggest a cautious attitude towards what seem to me to be two over-polarised positions with regard to the impact of global and local media on cultural identity, namely• the ‘hypodermic’ conception of media representation and Western imperialism, which pictures consumers as cultural addicts unable in any way to resist their influence;• at the other extreme, the over-celebration of the capacity of the receiver to articulate and disarticulate images and media representations, producing ‘hybrid’ and ‘creolised’ counter-cultures.2