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Twenty years of contrast: the French and British press during the inter-war period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

Jean K. Chalaby
Jean K. Chalaby
Affiliation:
The London School of Economics and Political Science (London)
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explain the causes of the contrast between the evolution of the French and British press presse franaise et britannique pendant l'entre-deux-guerres. during the inter-war period. The most visible sign of this difference was the commercial success of the British press and the stagnation of the French press. From a historical perspective, the most general factor was that market mechanism has a much more determining influence on the British rather than on the French press. While these decades were marked in Great Britain by a circulation war, competition was neutralised in France by the anti-competitive agreement reached among the leading Parisian newspapers. Market mechanisms also influenced the development of different patterns of newspaper ownership in the two nations. Stiff competition and a rational mode of newspaper ownership forced British journalists to develop journalistic practices and discursive strategies more commercially oriented than those of their French counterparts. These strategies, which constitute the primary cause of the commercial success of the British press, are illustrated by the phenomenon of depoliticisation.

Le propos est d'expliquer les causes du contrastc entre la commercial de la presse britannique et la stagnation de la presse franaise. Le facteur principal rside dans les mcanismes du march qui ont cu une influence bien plus dterminante sur la presse britannique que franaise. La comptition conomique a t intense parmi le monde journalistique britannique, alors qu'elle tait neutralise en France par l'accord de non-agression entre les principaux journaux parisiens. Le monde journalistique britannique a dvelopp des conglomrats de presse puissants l'chelle nationale, alors qu'en France on ne note pas d'equivalent. Une vive comptition et une conduite conomique rationelle de la part des propritaires ont forc les journalistes britanniques a developper des pratiques et des stratgies de prsentation beaucoup plus commerciales que celles des Franais. La dpolitisation de la presse britannique en est une manifestation frappante.

Le signe le plus visible de cette diffrence a t le succs Ziel dieser Abhandlung ist es, den Unterschied zwischen der Entwicklung des franzsischen und des englischen Pressewesens in der Zwischenkriegszeit aufzuzeigen. Das deutlichste Zeichen ihrer Verschiedenheit war der wirtschaftliche Erfolg der britischen und die Stagnation der franzsischen Presse. Aus historischer Sicht unterlag das englische Pressewesen viel strker den Zwngen der Wirtschaft als das franzsische. Whrend in Grobritannien jene Jahrzehnte unter dem Zeichen eines Auflagenkrieges standen, wurde in Frankreich der Wettkampf durch einen Anti-Konkurrenz-Pakt zwischen den fhrenden Pariscr Zeitungen neutralisiert. Aufgrund der Wirtschaftsstrukturen entstanden in beiden Lndern verschiedene Formen von Pressebesitz. Der harte Wettkampf und die rationelle Form des Pressebesitzes zwang britische Journalisten verstrkt dazu, ihre journalistische Arbeit wirtschaftlichen Gegebenheiten anzupassen, im Gegenzatz zu ihren franzsischen Kollengen. Eine Entpolitisierung der englischen Presse scheint die Folge zu sein.

Type
Actualité Européenne
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , May 1996 , pp. 143 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1996

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