Global Media: France & Europe

The first key question is always "what we will study?" Media are simply tools of communication and include everything from the printed word to contemporary technology formats.

"The Media" refers to the organized industry of mass media channels and formats.

National frames determine news content, by both language and national values. The map below indicates that The New York Times privileges information in countries in orange to red, mainly itself and those countries with which it trades.

Because media is in national frames, it can generate true and false perceptions about other countries. The photos below suggest stereotypes presented in media about French and European culture.

Some suggest media is reaching a place of meta-language. This is a phase when though English dominates, technology formats create global networks with image driven instant information. We know what the news looks like, or online media, because there is a visual language of forms. The video below is by BBC.

New media is reaching a place of collective consciousness in which the national frames and values are being replaced by global ones.

A primary question is if social media connects us toward genuine collective consciousness or distraction.

Semester Preview

Historically, the key thinkers in media theory are not American.

Below Marx, McLuhan, Derrida, Barthes and Baudrillard.

By considering France in the EU context, the field of media formats expands and grows globally.

Above Sarkozy & Bruni's media portrayal is just one form of media and politics. Below the economic viability of traditional print media and print ads is a question for the major economic forces in French media.

The question of culture and media is one of equal representation and the Americanized culture industry.

Above the Tour de France and Formula One command huge television audiences, exceeded however by the music television show Eurovision.