Despite more than two weeks of rioting and a state of emergency in Paris, LSA senior Kathleen King says she still goes jogging in the city every night.

While media coverage has portrayed Paris as a city under siege, King said the city has changed very little.

"The perception outside of Paris is totally exaggerated," she said in an e-mail.

The riots, which are in their third week, were sparked by the deaths of two teenagers in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois on Oct. 27.

The boys were electrocuted while trying to climb a fence at an electrical power station in an attempt to escape police local residents have said. Parisian authorities say the boys were not fleeing police.

Since that night, disgruntled French residents, mostly youths of North African and Arab descent, have burned cars, destroyed buildings and clashed with police in a series of violent protests that have spread to neighborhoods on the outskirts of Paris and suburbs of more than 20 other cities across France.

Although the violence appears to be subsiding, the French cabinet approved a bill yesterday to extend last week's declared state of emergency for another two to three months.

But despite the widespread media coverage of the events, University students studying abroad in Paris say the riots have not been as severe as they have been portrayed in the U.S. news.

"The U.S. media coverage of the events has been ridiculous," King said. "The riots truly haven't affected Paris the way the U.S. media is projecting."

Parisians are still going about their daily business, and the riots are not an urgent concern for them, she said.

Even though she lives in central Paris, King said the first place she heard about the riots was on The New York Times website.

Margaret McCarthy, an LSA junior who is also living in central Paris, about eight miles from the suburb where the riots began, said she also feels safe in the city.

"The suburbs are truly a world away from Paris," McCarthy said in an e-mail, adding that most Parisians do not travel to the areas affected by the riots.

Carol Dickerman, director of the Office of International Programs, said the University has been in touch with all of its students studying in France - two in Paris and 11 in Aix-en-Provence - and has passed on the State Department warning about train travel through areas affected by riots, including routes to Charles de Gaulle Airport.

But McCarthy said the University has not contacted her. She said she was surprised that the University had not suggested any precautions but added that she felt perfectly safe.

King, who is studying on a program through Columbia University, said Columbia sent an e-mail to study-abroad participants in Paris after receiving numerous calls from concerned parents.

Doriana Kostic, a Rackham alum from Paris who has returned to the city, said she has received many calls from friends in the United States worried about her safety, some even offering her a place to stay if she needs to leave France.

"I was really astonished by their reaction," Kostic said in an e-mail. "Apparently, it is depicted as a civil war or something."

French officials have been widely criticized in the media for neglecting the residents of Parisian suburbs and other economically disadvantaged areas of the country. The suburbs are largely populated by poor ethnic minorities, many from North African and Arab countries, and have some of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

Taoufik el Khazzani, a Moroccan who studied in France for five years before coming to the University to complete his master's degree, said though he did not experience discrimination while in France, it is widely known that it is more difficult for individuals with Arab or African last names or addresses in immigrant neighborhoods to get jobs.

He added that immigrant youths often feel isolated in French society because they tend to live in segregated neighborhoods due to high housing costs in the cities. Riots occur every year, el Khazzani said, but this year's riots are unprecedented in their scope and duration.

Kostic said the riots were bound to happen because of the move toward a more segregated, "Americanized" social order in France. The French ideal of an egalitarian society is becoming weaker, and with that comes less money for social programs, especially education, for the poor and immigrants, she said.

"We believed in social integration, and now, we're facing reality," Kostic said. "I think it's a dream that's falling, or failing."