Media and International Society
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2009 conflicts in Guadeloupe and Martinique. A complex crisis ignored or misunderstood in the media
AFRI 2010, Volume XI
par - 26 September 2010Persistent and violent social movements have paralyzed the two French Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe for a long period during the first months of 2009. They have provoked a debate on their constitutional status. The article focuses first on the context: the ethnical, social and political patchwork that composes the Caribbean, then the timing of the two social movements. Finally it describes their impact on the Internet and their media treatment.
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International stakes of audiovisual images’ regulation
AFRI 2010, Volume XI
par - 26 September 2010Regulating the media in general and television images in particular must be considered more in a supranational framework. As national borders let all sorts of externally conceived and broadcast programs come through to viewers, isolated regulators find themselves at a loss when exercising some of their core missions. Only joint regulation – and a regional framework is the most appropriate in this perspective – could allow to solve certain problems and to meet common (economical, cultural, social and political) challenges related to the accelerated and increasingly less controllable circulation of television images. Multiplying the established regulators’ networks, as well as their awareness of the necessity of regulation and regulatory practices harmonization, may forecast the mid-term or long-term birth of an international regulation type.
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Multiple remembrances in the media. Stakes for international memory
AFRI 2010, VOLUME XI
par - 26 September 2010A supposedly universal present is built by the media. Reminders of the past, a fortiori in an international perspective, cannot exist without symbolical representations, notably those that are crafted by States, for themselves or the rest of the world, depending on their desire to communicate and their ability to master their own image. 2009 was a year of great memorial displays with some ties to international current events. Whether it be the Woodstock Festival in 1969, the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, the end of the Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, or the « Romanian Revolution » in 1999, etc. the « duty of memory » was far from being equally shared on every subject, most particularly for commemorations with an extremely vast coverage. This is no surprise, given that general information media primarily address their national audience, whether their editorial choices are deliberate or imposed by their political and/or economic context. What is at stake here, however, is still a better understanding among the peoples, within the context of current and future globalization. Therefore, it is interesting to consider for the coverage of current events a multiple perspective based on the « duty of memory ».
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Introduction - OUVERTURE ET APPRONFONDISSEMENT DE L’ACTUALITE INTERNATIONALE DANS LES MEDIAS ?
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 29 July 2010Les observateurs des moyens d’information de masse peuvent toujours rêver par rapport à la construction de l’actualité internationale. Qu’elle augmente de plus en plus dans l’offre publique d’information, même modestement par rapport aux actualités nationales qui, dans l’ensemble, demeurent toujours prioritaires dans les choix éditoriaux des médias généralistes, et qu’elle relève de dispositifs de compétition économique, voire politique, portés sur la plus grande captation de l’attention des publics visés, (...) -
France’s international news network. But where has France 24 gone ?
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 30 January 2010For France 24, 2008 should have been the year of living dangerously. It was made part of a new adventure, that of France Monde. The political operation of reorganizing foreign broadcasting is not without danger. Not only does it question the usefulness of a French international news network, it also make one consider its strategy from another perspective. The outcome is not reassuring for its future.
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The demise of Conrad Black, press tycoon in the Anglosphere. A collateral damage of financial globalisation
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 30 January 2010In July 2007, the British (ex-Canadian) financer Conrad Black was condemned by an American court to 6 years and a half of prison, which he is presently serving in Florida. This essay attempts to consider this sentence as a collateral damage of the battle to inject ethics in the financial business, which originated in the United States at the turn of the century in the aftermath of important scandals (notably Enron and Worldcom) where shareholders were despoiled by managers. It depicts Conrad Black as a typical example of a certain business mentality grown out of the British colony of Canada, born out of the adventurers’ greed, their strong belief in their own superiority and their burning desire to succeed in the colony, so as to be honoured and made peers in London. That culture collided, in the United States, in the context of the growing crisis of the financial activities’ governance – the judiciary saga of Conrad Black began in 2003 –, with another business culture, equally ferocious, but that has learned to manage more deftly and even to use the moral consequences of the idea of democratic equality.
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The sombre state of journalists in Sub-Saharian Africa. Practices and training evolving for the better
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 30 January 2010What lasting training can be given to African journalists ? What method can be adopted ? In situ training seems promising, though it is expensive. This training strategy makes trainers settle within an editorial staff service and be the everyday companions, on the field, of their. trainees. Two experiments financed by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) were undertaken in Africa, one with some radio operators in Burkina Faso, the other with several newspapers in both Congo lands (Kinshasa and Brazzaville). A professional way to act and think for journalism schools !
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Covering peace operations and enforcing humanitarian international law ?
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 30 January 2010The growing media coverage of conflicts and peace operations has had important consequences in international humanitarian law. Thus, the nature and the shape of this media coverage have deeply changed: they are expressed through images rather than written words. We can also point out that the gap between media management of operations and operational information policy is narrowing and that, eventually, the military are increasingly active and responsible for their own media coverage through blogs. NGOs are experiencing an ambiguous status, intensified by insider journalists, since they are both beneficiaries and tributaries to this coverage: this accounts for new challenges for the quality of information, the freedom of the press, or for the insider journalist’s status regarding international humanitarian law. Despite the Geneva Convention and its protocols, international humanitarian law should adjust to these transformations and increase awareness on these issues among the various protagonists of these conflicts.
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Introduction - Médias et société internationale : Vers une plus grande expression médiatique des peuples du monde
AFRI 2008, volume IX
par - 1 December 2009 -
Introduction. Médias et société internationale : entre spectacularisation, bruits et silences.
AFRI 2007, volume VIII
par - 31 July 2008L’actualité de 2006, telle que présentée par les médias dominants au sein de la plupart des pays du monde, ainsi que par les chaînes internationales qui la construise à leur façon, n’a pas failli dans ses effets sur les relations internationales. Si les réalités observées se ressemblent d’une année à l’autre, comme nous le constatons au sein de cette rubrique, relevons l’emballement médiatique, fondé sur une dynamique de la spectacularisation qui, depuis longtemps décrite par les spécialistes des médias, alterne entre bruits et silences. L’affaire dite des «caricatures de Mahomet», partie d’une modeste publication au Danemark, a pris la dimension d’une conflictualisation exceptionnelle des rapports culturels Orient-Occident, lesquels, évidemment, ont pris une dimension de politique internationale. Et en parfaite méconnaissance de cause. Ignorances culturelles réciproques, incompréhension des religions, dont les significations de l’Islam au quotidien pour les croyants, idées stéréotypées de part et d’autre, volonté des Etats occidentaux et de leurs médias de donner des leçons de démocratie et de liberté d’expression en particulier, sans comprendre en quoi cette même liberté peut mettre en cause la dignité des personnes et de communautés… Les conséquences de cette «affaire» sont loin d’être épuisées en matière de dialogue des civilisations et des cultures, notamment dans leurs dimensions symboliques. Si, au Proche et Moyen-Orient, elle a aussi été exploitée par des acteurs politiques nationaux et des responsables religieux musulmans pour des motifs de politique intérieure, on peut en regretter les «dégâts collatéraux» en vies humaines.