Immigration became a major topical issue in France during the 90s, in a context of floating public policy frameworks and fragility of social links between immigrants and French society. Whether by implied delegation or calculated strategy, the media have found themselves, in addition to their fact-finding mission, in a regulatory position in bringing immigration into public debate. They have become the target of many criticisms. Instead of repeating these criticisms of ‘misconduct on the media’, sociologist Alain Battegay and journalist Ahmed Boubeker chose to look at the media, taking media sequences and processes as their objects. How have different events been publicised and broke up? What new public visibility schemes have been put in place for the Maghreb and Muslim populations of France, estimated at over 3,5 million people? How have the roles of interlocutors built up in these media processes, and how have the challenges involved in public action been defined? All these elements for an analysis of the modulation work carried out by the media, captured here as places of action, and not as display surfaces, screens where images of immigration are projected.