Abstract
Between 1994 and 2008, few African conflicts were transformed into major media events by French newsrooms. Only a small minority of conflicts such as the Rwandan events of 1994, the first Congo war (1996-1997), the civil war in Darfur (in 2004 then in 2006-2007) or the Ivorian conflict (in 2002-2003 then in November 2004) attracts lasting attention from the French media. The intensification of coverage of these few conflicts is the result of a set of complex factors relating both to the internal functioning of the media and also to the interrelations that exist between them and other actors. We must relativize the weight of the media law of the coefficient deaths / kilometer. In fact, easy access to images, the possibility of offering a national perspective on the event or the existence of actors likely to impose an interpretative framing favorable to coverage are determining factors. The transformation of these facts into media events therefore depends less on their own characteristics than on the interpretative frameworks constructed by certain influential actors such as humanitarians, belligerents or the French authorities.