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------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: Self <LORCA/NGEH2> To: "LE BOHEC" <[log in to unmask]> Subject: (Fwd) News Media and International Political Crisis Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 18:22:42 GMT0BST CALL FOR PAPERS TO SESSION IN 4th PAN-EUROPEAN CONFERENCE IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Canterbury, U.K., 8 - 10 September 2001 NEWS MEDIA AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL CRISIS: Conference in French and English Talking about the media, we are often between two extreme positions. The first is in accordance with a journalistic occupational myth: that the media are simply outside observers of events. The second is close to the propagandist paradigm: the news media influence "international public opinion"; sometimes this strange "public opinion" is even reduced to texts published by opinion makers in prestigious newspapers, namely the news media themselves... From these assumptions, it results (1) that news media are frequently seen as a reliable source for scholars or (2) that news media only participe in the social construction of reality which more or less imprints citizens minds. But these points of view have a great disadvantage: they exclude another hypothesis: that it is necessary to enlarge the list of relevant actors in international relations studies to news media and journalistic activity. Thus we can avoid the institutional illusion of the decision-making process in foreign affairs. This is notably essential when talking about political crises. Further, we shall be obliged to clarify what is meant by a political crisis sociologically speaking. We suggest empirical surveys and case studies should be privileged in order to promote mid-term concepts. That means it is essential to get data about daily journalistic activity, to pay attention to the national news media market, to take into account transnational news agencies, to examine the political cause eventually promoted by each newspaper or TV channel, the history of press-politics relationships in the countries, etc. Thus news media will not be considered as simples "pipes" but as an (even problematic) occupational community with external constraints, collective beliefs, relative autonomy interests, more or less powerful actors, etc. It is particularly interesting to know why, how and if governmental decision-making integrates daily reactions of the news media, the strategic uses of information, the role of communication advisers, etc. Finally, it would be very useful to study interactions between political and journalistic actors during these periods of international political crisis. With possibly others actors such as Non-Governmental Organisations: as between Greenpeace and the French Army during the 1995 crisis created by Nuclear Testing in the Pacific Ocean, for example. The conference will probably be organized around these five panels : 1 : What happens during a political crisis ? 2 : Mediatic structures: how are news created and spread ? 3 : How must we take media into account during international political crisis ? 4 and 5 : Case studies. Please contact: [log in to unmask] Jacques Le Bohec, Maitre de Conferences Universite de Technologie de Belfort-Montbeliard Departement Humanites - Site Sevenans 90010 Belfort Cedex - France [log in to unmask] **************************************************** Dr Geoff Hare, French Dept, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, GB Tel. (44) (191) 222 7486. See Northern Media Research Group site : http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sml/NMRG/ and the Web Journal of French Media Studies : http://wjfms.ncl.ac.uk/ and list of French html links: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sml/links/french.htm My (academic) home page: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sml/staff/hare.htm