French Journalism, Media and French Society



This course aims to identify the characteristics and evolutions of French journalism, and to consider how it deals with French societal issues. Our goal will be to try to answer the following questions: in what ways is French journalism different from Anglo-American journalism? What does it mean to be a journalist in France today? To be powerful? To be liberal? Is French-language journalism affected by the so-called “end” or “decline” of journalism?



To make the subject more connected to French and francophone social realities, this course will be based on newspaper articles, websites, books, and what we could call New Journalism, among other materials.

We will discuss the challenge of covering politics, public trust in media, storytelling, fake news, fact checking, post-truth, and more.



Required text:

- Florence AUBENAS, En France, Points 2015, ISBN-13: 978-2757855744