Media coverage of intellectuals in public African debates

The assertion that the medias have become the "fourth power" seems to be part of the self-evident facts that the professionals of the medias as well some intellectuals need not always question. A truth that is all the more obvious because the medias regularly prove it through their capacity to mobilize people around an event or even a televised series. In order not to turn such an assertion into a "soft concept", it has been worth putting it to the practical test within the context of Senegal during the period (1960-2000) by chiefly applying it to the particular group of the intellectuals. The advantage of such a group lies on its competences (knowledge and know-how) that have given it a symbolic "power". Thus, in the Senegalese context the intellectuals have consolidated, in the long run, their "strength" through various means of publications (journals, novels, essays, etc.), as well as through public debates and important intellectual gatherings (congresses, symposiums, festivals etc.). Those various ways of official recognition and consecration, that have proven their level of commitment, have confronted the medias which, by growing in large numbers in the 80s, have developed influential strategies based on visibility and the increased use of the national languages. The consequent emerging effects have not only made new social legitimacies rise up, but have also caused new sociocultural, political, intellectual and public configurations come out, especially an intellectual figure that has been more attentive to the cultural creations.