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Uses and Users of ICT in the 20th Century
What can be said about users of information and communication technologies (ICT) that would hold true both for the various domestic technologies and for the past one hundred years? The 20th century was a period of constant innovation, with a surge in the number of tools, continuous transformations and ever-faster dissemination throughout the population. Beginning with a review of research about technology in France, this paper endeavours to understand how the individual and his/her social network are redefined through the use of technology. After presenting a few specific characteristics of users, the paper focuses on two parallel tensions that create controversy in the literature: between pioneering users and mainstream users, on the one hand, and between users on an individual or collective basis.

The Perfect Wikipedia User. Rules of Writing and Engagement of Neo-Contributors in Knowledge Commons (2000-2018)Social scientists have reached a consensus that there is no common good except for consensual rules among participants. This article aims to understand how participants in Wikipedia, a “knowledge common”, have made it possible to apply the rules by monitoring the contributions of others. We hypothesise that a supervisor is legitimate if he or she preserves the possibility of engaging new members, while also maintaining the wiki's regulations in a state considered consensual. Three periods are divided using indicators on the evolution of the French-language Wikipedia. The period from 2000 to 2004 corresponds to the beginnings, when the first contributors wrote the constitutive rules. Between 2004 and 2008, a huge flow of newcomers forced supervisors to adapt by clarifying rules and developing bots to manage the workload. From 2008 until today, new real-time monitoring devices have been introduced. Under pressure from experienced supervisors, the rules are transformed into instructions for use. Because helping to become a good contributor is like prescribing legitimate behaviour, enhanced regulation becomes compatible with supervision. During these three periods, the “dialectic of commitment and regulation” makes it possible to understand the legitimacy of surveillance within a common knowledge base.

Digital Democracy Facing the Challenge of Social Criticism in France
This article argues that the “yellow vest” movement and the “Great National Debate” are a good laboratory for analysing the capacity of digital technology to provide tools for social criticism. It endeavours to capture changes in citizens' critical expression in the digital context by placing the movement in a broader trend, that of the development of “digital democracy” in France, where the influence of technologies challenges the functioning of French democracy and the place occupied by citizens. In this context, we will see that the new forms of civic expression made possible by digital technology place pressure on democracy, whether representative or participatory, with a form of public democracy, where public opinion claims to establish a direct relationship between governments and the governed. What does this renewed weight of opinion do to the expression of social criticism? How can more institutional forms of participation succeed in offering a political outlet for critical expression when it finds alternative visibility spaces on the web?

1981: A Reshaping of the Labour Movement in Broadcasting and Cinema1981 was the year of a “serious conflict” between the leadership of France's CGT labour union in broadcasting/cinema (SNTPCT-CGT) and some union members. This crisis resulted in a schism into two separate union organisations. The first organisation remained a member of the Fédération du spectacle (a group of unions in the cultural performance sector), whereas the second organisation left the federation. This reshaping of labour organisations had a long-lasting impact on collective bargaining in these sectors. Research about this period generally emphasises the “corporatism” of the union's leadership, without clarifying the specific causes and consequences of the conflict. By using union archives – including previously-unpublished materials – from the Fédération nationale du spectacle, as well as interviews with union leaders and people who participated in or were witnesses to the conflict, we see the emergence, alongside filmmaking teams, of new teams of broadcasting technicians whose jobs were very similar in terms of working techniques and discontinuous working schedules. The advent of these teams therefore raised the question of whether the standard legal provisions for filmmaking teams should be extended to broadcasting, which offered less advantageous pay conditions. This question reflects a typical issue of redefining occupational boundaries, challenging the very concept of professional qualifications. By revisiting this episode from a socio-historical perspective, we aim to better understand the reshaping of the filmmaking and broadcasting sector in France in the period that followed the domination of the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF).

Professional Struggles and Collective Action in Digital Media in Moscow (2012-2019)In Russia in the 2010s, employees of independent media outlets have shown renewed interest in unionism. This trend remains a mystery given the extent to which labour unions were sidelined after the collapse of the USSR and in light of the political pressures on alternative movements that are seemingly unfavourable to the emergence of labour organisations. How can workers take collective action in such circumstances? The example of the independent trade union of journalists, created in 2016, allows us to examine the political and professional struggles that have rekindled interest in collective action. In Russia, the journalists working for liberal media outlets – notably digital media – face difficulties involving political pressures and low wages. Conflicts on editorial boards generally lead to journalists being fired, resigning or rehired. In these circumstances, unionism has attracted fresh interest in order to cope with the challenges of a career affected by political pressure.

The Protestant Voice of Europe. American Evangelicals Conquering the Airwaves of Europe (1945-1965)In the two decades after the Second World War, conservative American radio evangelists devised several large-scale projects to preach the gospel in Europe, which they viewed as the crowning piece of their plans for a global missionary project over the airwaves. Launching a Protestant “Voice of Europe” via medium-wave radio raised a series of unique challenges that they had not faced in North America or in southern countries. Success finally came from an unexpected source: the Youth for Christ evangelisation movement and beginning radio evangelist Paul Freed, a Baptist. By broadcasting from a series of commercial sites on the outskirts of Continental Europe (in Tangiers, Monaco and the Dutch West Indies), Freed developed a powerful formula that combined the syndicated broadcasting of American religious shows on both long and short-wave frequencies, and partnerships with local evangelicals. By looking at post-war European radio broadcasting from an atypical perspective, this paper gives a nuanced view of radio broadcasting being defined by national territorial boundaries, public service and state-owned broadcasters. It places the two-decade period back into the broader continuum of the history of radio broadcasting in Europe and the more general context of global radio activities.

Music and Television in France, Past and Present
The extension of music (both classical and contemporary) from concert halls, records and the radio to television raised questions about programming, musical competencies, orchestras, technical resources and production, as well as questions about ties with different musical milieus (including composers and musicians) and with audiences. A marriage of reason gradually took shape. Moreover, this was also the case for other musical genres. Little by little, certain individuals stood out due to their ability to plead the cause of music within television channels and to audiences. Then, as audience figures became more important, concert performances and new musical creative works were relegated to late time slots on most channels, whereas the markets for cassettes, videos and DVDs grew. However, this music has recovered some of its previous standing on television thanks to streaming and online channels. Lastly, by comparing France with other countries, we will examine television's place in musical culture and the changing cultural responsibilities that the French government ascribes to television channels.

Writing History when it Becomes Digital
As empirical research is still lacking, historians' discussions of the changes affecting the field of history due to digital transformations are strongly shaped by the specific context in which such discussions take place. Therefore, after reviewing the main features of the path of an historian working on digital history, the author focusses on what he considers to be the key challenges today, especially training for future historians, the new conditions for thinking about the mode of production of historical knowledge, and the regime of sources for history in the digital era.