FR264-15 French Presidents and the Media
Introductory description
N/A
Module aims
The overall aim of the module is to allow students to explore the use of the media by French presidents since the beginning of the Fifth Republic. The office of president is a distinctive feature of the contemporary French polity, and the module will trace important ways in which its exercise and attributes have changed over sixty years. Likewise new media technologies have worked not as more efficient conduits for identical messages, but have instead created new political ecosystems privileging the selection of different messages and performers. For each president, the module will explore questions of media performance and policy, as well as sources and principles of contestation. Students will also be introduced as appropriate to theories of communication and political power (notably aspects of mediology and hegemony theory).
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
The module will, with some variations due to the subject-matter, spend around one week on each president. Each week we will focus on the key dimensions of media performance and policy, as well as the sources and principles of contestation.
-
De Gaulle, the Founding of the Fifth Republic and the Media (1958-1962)
-
De Gaulle and Television Performance (1962-69)
-
Pompidou and Giscard d’Estaing (1969-1981)
-
Mitterrand (1981-1995)
-
Chirac-Sarkozy I (1995-2007)
-
Reading week
-
Chirac-Sarkozy II(1995-2007)
-
Hollande (2012-2017)
-
Emmanuel Macron I (2017-)
-
Emmanuel Macron II; General Recapitulation and Conclusion
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Understand the history of the office of president under the Fifth Republic, and account for shifts and mutations in its exercise as these are manifested in media performance and policy.
- Understand changes in French mediaspheres since 1958 and the impact of these upon the exercise of and challenges to presidential power.
- Deploy this understanding to analyse and compare particular presidential media strategies and performances.
- Conduct independent research in the relevant areas, developing notably the capacity to locate and collate a range of appropriate sources (radio and television archives, transcripts of political speeches, public policy documents, public media debates, academic analyses).
- Deploy appropriate reading strategies and theoretical tools for situating, understanding and critically assessing these sources, most of which will be in the target language.
Indicative reading list
Ahearne, Jeremy. 2010. Intellectuals, Culture and Public Policy in France: Approaches from the Left. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Ahearne, Jeremy. 2014. Government through Culture and the Contemporary French Right. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bell, David S., and John Gaffney, eds. 2013. The Presidents of the Fifth Republic. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1996. Sur la télévision. Paris: Liber.
Bourdon, Jérôme. 1990. Histoire de la télévision sous de Gaulle. Paris: Economica.
Bourdon, Jérôme. 1994. Haute fidélité. Pouvoir et télévision, 1935-1994. Paris: Seuil.
Debray, Régis. 1991. Cours de médiologie générale. Paris: Gallimard.
Debray, Régis. 1993. L'État séducteur. Les révolutions médiologiques du pouvoir. Paris: Gallimard.
Gaffney, John. 2012. Political leadership in France : from Charles de Gaulle to Nicolas Sarkozy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jost, François, and Denis Muzet. 2011. Le Téléprésident. Essai sur un pouvoir médiatique. La Tour-d'Aigues: Éditions de l'Aube.
Kuhn, Raymond. 1995. The Media in France. London: Routledge.
Kuhn, Raymond. 2011. The Media in Contemporary France. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Kuhn, Raymond. 2013. ""Mirror, mirror...": Performance and presidential politics in contemporary France." 24 (3):293-305.
Kuhn, Raymond. 2017. "The mediatization of presidential leadership in France: The contrasting cases of Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande." French Politics 15 (1):57-74.
Murray, Rainbow. 2012. “Progress but still no Présidente: Women and the French Presidential Elections.” French Politics, Culture and Society 30 (3): 45-60.
Murray, Rainbow. 2013. “Ségolène Royal and Gendered Leadership in France”, in Bell and Gaffney (eds), The Presidents of the French Fifth Republic, Houndmills, Palgrave, pp. 58-77.
Musso, Pierre. 2009. Télépolitique. Le sarkoberlusconisme à l'écran. La Tour-d'Aigues: Éditions de l'Aube.
Musso, Pierre. 2011. Sarkoberlusconisme: la crise finale? La Tour-d'Aigues: Éditions de l'Aube.
Neveu, Erik. 2005. "Politicians without politics, a polity without citizens: the politics of the chat show in contemporary France." Modern and Contemporary France 13 (3):323-335.
View reading list on Talis Aspire
International
All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.
Subject specific skills
This module will develop students’ linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in the target language. It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of French culture through analysis of this primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of French Presidents and the Media will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage in scholarship in the field.
Transferable skills
Template here.
Study time
| Type | Required |
|---|---|
| Lectures | 11 sessions of 1 hour (18%) |
| Seminars | 11 sessions of 1 hour (18%) |
| Private study | 40 hours (65%) |
| Total | 62 hours |
Private study description
No private study requirements defined for this module.
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group C3
| Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment component |
|||
| Written Assignment | 50% | 50 hours | Yes (extension) |
Reassessment component is the same |
|||
Assessment component |
|||
| Online Examination | 50% | 38 hours | No |
|
~Platforms - AEP
|
|||
Reassessment component is the same |
|||
Feedback on assessment
Feedback will be provided in the course of the module in a number of ways. Feedback should be understood to be both formal and informal and is not restricted to feedback on formal written work.
Oral feedback will be provided by the module tutor in the course of seminar discussion. This may include feedback on points raised in small group work or in the course of individual presentations or larger group discussion.
Written feedback will be provided on formal assessment using the standard SMLC Assessed Work feedback form appropriate to the assessment. Feedback is intended to enable continuous improvement throughout the module and written feedback is generally the final stage of this feedback process. Feedback will always demonstrate areas of success and areas for future development, which can be applied to future assessment. Feedback will be both discipline-specific and focussed on key transferrable skills, enabling students to apply this feedback to their future professional lives. Feedback will be fair and reasonable and will be linked to the SMLC marking scheme appropriate to the module.
Pre-requisites
N/A
Courses
This module is Option list B for:
-
UPOA-M163 Undergraduate Politics, International Studies and French
- Year 2 of M163 Politics, International Studies and French
- Year 3 of M163 Politics, International Studies and French