Contenu du sommaire : Télévision et politique

Proprieties of Political Exchange. Birth of a TV Political Forum. Eric Darras [9-24]. The aims and failures of the first political show (Face a face, 1966-1969) on French television are far from the actual routines of interview news programs (the reverent tone, the design of the settings...). The uncertainties of these beginnings can be seen as the mutual learning — between the main political leaders, journalists and members of the government — of the politically feasible (or speakable) on television. Against the «mediacracy paradigm», this study shows the (nowadays denied) unequal interaction between political guests and journalists «putted in their place», structurally subordinated to the political field. The history of political shows appears like the history of the crystallization of a new political strategic interaction.

«Unhearded Questions». Crisis and Renewals of TV Political Journalism. Erik Neveu [25-56]. This paper develops an analysis of the television coverage of the French presidential election of 1995. As Blumler and Gurevitch have recently suggested in for the USA, its conclusions emphasises a crisis of television political journalism. The choice made by the leading private network TFl has been to «compact» the interactions between journalists and politicians in short programs at the beginning of the prime-time, to focus the discussion on «horse-race politics». If such a strategy seems to guarantee good ratings, it contribues also to the building of a journalist ghetto, framing politics according to the schemes of the insiders, concentrating the coverage of politics to election-time. The choice of the public network France 2 was quite different, using a genre linking the talk-show and the more classical frames of political programs on television. If the rating were lower than those of TFl, this innovation allowed laymen and experts participating to the debates to contribute to a substantial shift in the nature of the questions and issues during the interactions with politicians. The experiences of both channels suggest the opportunity and maybe the need for the invention of a new «new journalism», more able to connect «ordinary» citizens and politicians, to link politics and issues considered by voters as more concrete, closer to ordinary lives.

The 7 d'or's Two Publics. Principles of Celebration and Consecration of TV Journalism. Pierre Leroux [57-80]. The substantiation of the celebrating and consecrating aspects of the highly visible tenants of TV journalism (news anchors or political, cultural or debate hosts) as presented herewith highlights the inherents contradictions in the valuation principles of those positions. Exposed to the cross-stare of the different sections of the public and the peer group, such positions materialise the specific tensions in the world of TV journalism. Holding such positions foretells of - and in the long term, validates - an ability to totally fulfill them : in regards to all the professional practices and the conception of products that meet the demands of TV ratings, but also in regards to the requirements of the star system, and the alluring of a heterogeneous lay «public». The valuation principles of such positions are analysed herewith in the light of one form of professional consecration (the 7 d'or, the major French TV Awards) which bears the significant strains of the profession's stakes, and then compared to other celebration criteria of these positions and their tenants.

Persuasion of TV News. Jacques Gerstlé [81-96]. The knowledge of TV news in France shows a shortage of studies which is even more striking for political rather than semiological or ecological approaches. Structural transformations and changes of practices observed in the audience allow to give TV news a growing influence whereas politics is on the decline in both political and electoral broadcoasts. News persuasive mechanics which are at work through agenda, framing and priming effects are based on accessibility bias. By guiding public attention, TV news works on the way the public thinks about politics, forms considerations and enforces some criteria of political assessment. Thus, Edouard Balladur presidentiality in 1995 broke up whereas Francois Mitterrand presidentiality strengthened in 1988 under priming and discriminating framing effects. Moreover, Jean-Marie Le Pen electoral performances rest on the priming effect in 1988 which is misssing in 1995 : the candidate campaign thus making the only communication resource contributing to his score.

The Illusion of Ronald Reagan's Popularity. Michael Schudson with Elliot King [97-116]. The evidence suggests that at no time in Reagan's first years was the general public as charmed by Ronald Reagan as the news media were. The picture that reporters presented of Reagan as a Great Communicator did not arise from Reagan's ability to communicate to the masses. It can be explained, however, by five other factors : (1) Reagan's skills and the skills of his staff in communicating personally to the press corps and the Congress ; (2) a changed political balance of power in Washington after the election of 1980 and a concerted effort to take advantage of this ; (3) Reagan's ability to mobilize a key right-wing constituency ; (4) the tendancy of the press to defer to legislative successs and to read it as popularity ; and (5) the exaggerated importance that the mass media and Washington insiders attribute to the role of television in shaping pubblic opinion - and to «public opinion» itself.

What Poils do to Public Opinion. Loïc Blondiaux [117-136]. This article aims to revisit the recurrent controversy over polls and public opinion in social sciences, especially among political scientists. It first makes an inventory of the main critiques adressed to public opinion polls in French and Anglo-Saxon sociology and political science. Then it attempts to write a short history of public opinion as a scholarly concept. The conclusion of this double investigation is unambiguous : polls don't measure public opinion, at least in the way social sciences and learned political discourse usually understand it. The third and last part of the article deals with several hypotheses to explain the extraordinary success of this strange measure of public.

A Resigned Vote without any Political Significance ? Peasants' Electoral Behaviours during the First Half of the XIXth Century. Christine Guionnet [137-154]. The topic of a resigned and obedient popular electorate, without any political significance is an inheritance of a major historical tradition, attested as early as the XIXth century, then widely revived by the scientific community. Then, the analysis of the peasants's electoral behaviours during the first half of the XIXth century leads to a necessary reservation about this standard scheme. The topic of a resigned vote facing an obidient dependence does not apply to the majority of constituents. These have usualy the feeling that they freely expressed their own choices, in harmony with their idea of social structure. One can, besides, empiricaly verify that the socio-economic relations of dependence do not involve generally a political dependence of the electorate.