Sinardet, D., & Mortelmans, D. (2006). Between Al-Jazeera and CNN: Indicators of media use by Belgian ethnic minority youth. The European Journal of Communication Research, 31, 425-445.

Dave Sinardet is a professor at the University of Antwerp.  He is also known as a political scientist/analysis in Belgium.  He is most interested in federalism, national identity and nationalism.  Sinardet published a column in the Flemish newspaper called De Standaard.

Dimitri Mortelman is also a professor at the University of Antwerp where he teaches social and political science.  He teaches qualitative research methods and multivariate statistics.   

The core of the article is to assess the importance of ethnic-cultural differences as a reliable predictor of media use by ethnic groups in Belgium. Unlike many other European ethnic media studies, which often focus on media use among audiences without taking into account the ethnic background of the respondents, this article examines the influence of ethnicity by comparing it to other socio-economic and education variables of the youth in Belgium and their parents. The authors conducted a qualitative study on 49 secondary schools in the Belgium city of Antwerp to examine the media use and habits among young people with a Moroccan, Turkish, or Eastern European background.

The article begins with a historical background about ethnic minorities in Belgium and their media use habits. They came into this study with the notion that "ethnic minorities would be strongly focused on their 'own' media" (p. 425).  Readers are provided with a clear picture of the local and global ethnic media availability with an emphasis on the role media plays in adolescents forming their identities. Media also play a big part in reinforcing tradition and creating cultural continuity. The availability of local ethnic media, both in print and audio-visual is greatly restricted to non-existent in Belgium, which leads ethnic minorities to rely more on satellite dishes in order to keep up to date with what is going on back in their homeland. The local ethnic media that is available caters to minorities in that specific region. 

Interestingly, the authors compare the ethnic media and the global ethnic media, which sparked as a result of globalization. They state that while ethnic media, which they describe as "media for and by ethnic Diaspora" (p.427), is created by ethnic groups in Belgium, global ethnic media directly convey information from home countries. The process of cultural globalization has a specific impact on the socializing function of the media, particularly for adolescents who might find themselves on the crossroads of different cultures.

The authors found differences in the media use of some respondents that could be related to their ethnic background, especially among Turkish respondents who "show a much stronger interest for ethnic media than their Moroccan or Eastern European counterparts" (p.441). This was more common for Turkish males as Turkish females were more likely to be interested in mainstream media like other minority ethnic groups. They conclude that considering ‘ethnic minorities’ as a homogeneous category does not match reality. They stress that their study rejects the assumption they had that ethnic minorities would only be directed toward ethnic media or that their ethnic background would lead to a different pattern of media use. The results of their study showed that those that are highly educated are more likely to use print media. They came to the conclusion that although it was up to the adolescent to pick up a newspaper to read, more than likely the parent would influence which newspaper it was that they would choose. As the others put it, "If newspapers are available at all, the choice of the title is almost exclusively a parental decision" (p. 442).

Finally, the authors suggest that local ethnic Belgian media could achieve a better role in serving ethnic groups. They think that making minorities more visible in broadcasting would be helpful in this. Taking into account the lack of availability of local ethnic media in Belgium particularly, this assumption is unrealistic as it ignores the many challenges faced by Belgium ethnic media. However, even if local ethnic media could play a better role in providing ethnic groups with the national news and events without overlooking their ethnic needs, the need for a global ethnic media will always exist.

It is important to mention that the article is poorly written, which makes it hard for the reader to understand its argument. The authors themselves mention a few problems in their study.  One example is the fact that older respondents did not trust the researcher and were more reluctant to "criticize official institutions" (p. 433). Also, the topic is misleading, because it gives the impression that the main focus of the article is on the influence of Al Jazeera and CNN, an issue that is not even mentioned within the article. (Reviewed by Sahar El Zahed, Edited by Jennifer Marder and Anet Hovhanesian)