Political Comm
There is a noticeable difference –in the quality of journalism in France compared to journalism in places like the United States and Great Britain. France is well known for having a different media tactic then in the US where reporters’ tear apart celebrities and public figures largely on the basis of their personal affairs. In France, journalists are usually more cautious about what they print because in France there are severe laws against violating of personal privacy.
In the ArticleThe French Media: In Bed with Power. , author, Simon Kuper, emphasizes the fact that journalist in France are well educated which shows in their writing. French Journalism has “become upper middle-class,” and the journalists are well informed. The way Kuper describes it, “today’s ministers and senior journalists often studied together at Sciences-Po, lived in the same parts of Paris, ate together and sometimes sleep together.” In my opinion, that is descriptively well stated.
Being from America I can easily see the difference between the way the media operates in France versus back home. Gossip about politians is often communicated via word of mouth in France through being an insider; this type of gossip is for the elite as it is rarely published. If anything scandalous is discovered about an American politian it would be on the front page of every newspaper in the U.S. with in 24 hours of the story leaking. Journalist in the U.S. feed off of gossip they can publish. American media appears to have no scruples, where as “French media respect private life.”
The other difference between French media, as a whole, as presented in this article, is that the billionaires of France own or are shareholders of most of the French print media—not as a business enterprise, but as a way to support and protect their main business ventures. Due to this the media is coupled with politics on a more personal level. As one example shows in the article, “Vincent Bolloré, another billionaire in media, lent (President) Sarkozy his yacht.”
The article goes on to compare French politian’s to Putin in Russia. “On the average day, less than 2 per cent of French people buy a national newspaper.”
The article, of course, is based on some sort of truth but I’m not sure how valid all the points are. For me the main difference is based on the fact the U.S.’s media isn’t owned by the government and are privately owned by big corporations.
In the Article The Private life of Politicians, author, Dennis F. Thompson, gives two main example to show the difference between the media in the U.S. and in France. President Bill Clinton had one of the biggest news stories when he was caught having an affair, which people still talk about today as compared to the affairs of Jacques Chirac and François Mitterrand which barley got any attention. According to this article this is slowly changing and the line between media and private lives in France is being crossed. This is of no surprise to me, as we are living in a very global society.
Thompson states his concern for this, as he believes these news stories gain more legitimacy than they deserve. He hopes the trend stops to protect the integrity of the democratic process.
Another interesting point is brought up that the media has a huge influence on who decides to be in politics and who decides to stay away. “The question is not whether some decide not to seek office because of the possibility of public exposure, but which kinds of people decide not to seek office because of it.” The publicity around the private lives of public officials often times distracts people from the actually policy of the government.
Sabrina Justine 