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The French Media: From Ink to Link (FREN30025)
Undergraduate level 3Points: 12.5Not available in 2025
About this subject
Overview
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This subject will consider the French news media landscape from a historical point of view where the French nation-state played a central role as a regulatory body, to new forms of ownership and deregulation in global contexts of news production and consumption. Students will examine the historical development of the French press in light of changing technological, political and economic factors. The relationship between political satire, caricature, scandals and censorship will be considered and the central role of the French printed press in shaping public opinion and sustaining national identity problematised. Students will also be introduced to a range of discourse analysis techniques to examine critically media discourse as it unfolds in French/French speaking contexts. This subject will be taught and assessed in French. Prior experience in Journalistic Studies is neither assumed nor required.
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- Have gained a comprehensive understanding of the wider literary or linguistic methods used in the specialist fields of French Studies as well as of general research and analytical skills
- Be able to reflect on their identity as a bi/multi lingual person and as a global citizen
- Have learned to do self-directed small research projects in the field of French Studies and to locate and critically analyse pertinent research literature in both French and English
- Have proficiently employed learning and research technologies in French and English
- Be able to interpret and give a critical analysis of French journalistic texts including satire, caricature or cartoons and other multimodal texts
- Have gained a solid understanding of the development of French journalism from the Revolution period to the present time, the printed press in particular
- Have gained in depth appreciation of the various genre of French journalistic texts in relation to socio-political contexts, purpose and audience
- Have mastered the skills to work responsibly and autonomously in a team through effective collaboration with others.
Generic skills
On completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- Show critical thinking and analysis through required and recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion, and by assessing the strength of an argument
- Be able to time manage and plan - through managing and organizing workloads for essay and assignment completion
- Demonstrate research skills through competent use of the library and other information sources
- Demonstrate in depth understanding of social, ethical and cultural contexts
- Demonstrate international awareness and openness to the world
- Show awareness of new aspects of French and Francophone culture
- Demonstrate skills in public speaking and confidence in self-expression through seminar participation and class presentations
- Pay attention to detail: through close reading and textual analysis, essay preparation and writing.
Last updated: 1 May 2025