Study of the Ivorian public perception of the local integration strategy of French media in French speaking Africa

In Francophone Africa, the influence of Western media in general-French in particular-was often perceived as a manifestation of cultural imperialism. Over the past two decades, some changes in the conquest of the media space strategy in Africa by the French media through the development of a strategy of "glocalization" or local integration has been observed, which allows to deliver content most suited to the African public. It is in this perspective that the French media group called Canal + Africa has gradually opened to the media and African cultural products (public and private channels). This development is also characterized by a desire to offer the African public versions of "Africanized" shows already proposed to the French public (e.g., + D'Afrique inspired by Le grand journal of Canal + or Africa Island talent inspired by the music program Star Academy of TF1). With particular emphasis on the situation of the Canal + Afrique group in Ivorian media world, our analysis draws on the results of a qualitative survey, which included 30 participants (selected by using a purposive sampling method) from the city of Abidjan (the economic capital of Cote d'Ivoire). The focus of this analysis is to understand Ivorian public perception of cultural issues of the evolution of the expansion strategy of the African media landscape by the French media.