juin 2008

Here is a short review of a conference entitled “The Media Under Control” that took place at Sciences Po last thursday. The first speaker was Hervé Bourges, former director of the public TV network (France Television) among many other things. He gave an interesting account of the way French politicians, ever since De Gaulle’s presidency in the 1950’s, have exerted a strong control over the media (all State-owned) until the complete deregulation in 1986. Then came Alain Finkielkraut, a rather conservative philosopher, who spoke not about the control of politicians… Lire la suite »The Media Under Control ?

The battle that right-holders have been waging against P2P users has proved largely unsuccessful so far. In the US, the methods used by the recording industry’s lobby (RIAA) to track down “pirates” are put into question; in France, the penal sanctions provided by a 2006 Act on author’s rights have had no effect in stopping illegal downloading, and the digital music market is still developing extremely slowly (8% of total music sales). This year in France, Sarkozy’s government claimed to have found the solution to this endemic problem with the… Lire la suite »Policing the Net: Copyright vs. Civil Liberties

I just read this interesting article by Henry Jenkins, the well-known media scholar. Even though this piece dates back to three years ago, it is still very relevant to the debate on the democratic impact that new media might have on the functioning of our democracies. Jenkins responds to some authors who bemoan the fragmentation of audiences across a wide variety of sources, arguing that the marginalization of mainstream broadcasters will undermine social cohesion and democratic participation. First, Jenkins says, new media won’t replace traditional media. The two will coexist… Lire la suite »Will New Media Dissolve the Political Community?