The Independence of the News Media

This book explores the different ways Francophone research on news media has faced the challenges of dependence and independence from three complementary perspectives. The first is economics - how can sustainable business models be developed and to what extent can crowdfunding help to maintain the financial and editorial independence of newsrooms? Secondly, in a time where the role of journalism in the public sphere is more questioned than ever, the authors evaluate to what extent news media can embody the needs of their readers. Thirdly, the authors consider the historical and political context of publication in the light of the 'Arab Spring'. This book deals with major, contemporary evolutions of news media, bringing together research that considers the media in France, Canada, and the Arab region (notably Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt). Using numerous case studies, this book helps to define how complex the question of independence is today.

Auteur

Loïc Ballarini is Associate Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Lorraine, France. Ballarini is also a former journalist and has co-edited three French language books. His research focuses on the place and the role of journalism in the public spheres.

Contenu

1. Introduction.- 2. The Funding of Press and Online News in France: Developments and Challenges.- 3. French Media: can crowdfunding serve pluralism?.- 4. Crowdfunding: does it make a significant contribution to community and independent media in Quebec?.- 5. Audiences and readership of revolutionary leftist media: The media leader hypothesis.- 6. Occupation: Net Cleaner. The socio-economic issues of comment moderation on French news websites.- 7. The Local Press as a Medium to Create Diversion.- 8. Media coverage of the coalbed methane (CBM) controversy in Lorraine, northeast France. How the regional daily press boosted the social acceptability of an unpopular project.- 9. The Transnationalisation of Information and Journalism: The Case of Arab Media.- 10. A conditional offer. The strategies employed in the field of power in Morocco to control the press space.- 11. The Algerian press: deregulation under pressure The new forms of control or the "invisible hand" of the state.- 12. Tunisian Post-2011 Private Presses: Economic and Political Mutations.- 13. Fortune and misfortune of the Egyptian private press. Sociohistorical study of a place of production of information.