Mapping intermedia news flows : topical discussions in the Australian and French political blogospheres

The growth of technologies and tools branded as =new media‘ or =Web 2.0‘ has sparked much discussion about the internet and its place in all facets of social life. Such debate includes the potential for blogs and citizen journalism projects to replace or alter journalism and mainstream media practices. However, while the journalism-blog dynamic has attracted the most attention, the actual work of political bloggers, the roles they play in the mediasphere and the resources they use, has been comparatively ignored. This project will look at political blogging in Australia and France - sites commenting on or promoting political events and ideas, and run by citizens, politicians, and journalists alike. In doing so, the structure of networks formed by bloggers and the nature of communication within political blogospheres will be examined. Previous studies of political blogging around the world have focussed on individual nations, finding that in some cases the networks are divided between different political ideologies. By comparing two countries with different political representation (two-party dominated system vs. a wider political spectrum), this study will determine the structure of these political blogospheres, and correlate these structures with the political environment in which they are situated. The thesis adapts concepts from communication and media theories, including framing, agenda setting, and opinion leaders, to examine the work of political bloggers and their place within the mediasphere. As well as developing a hybrid theoretical base for research into blogs and other online communication, the project outlines new methodologies for carrying out studies of online activity through the analysis of several topical networks within the wider activity collected for this project. The project draws on hyperlink and textual data collected from a sample of Australian and French blogs between January and August 2009. From this data, the thesis provides an overview of =everyday‘ political blogging, showing posting patterns over several months of activity, away from national elections and their associated campaigns. However, while other work in this field has looked solely at cumulative networks, treating collected data as a static network, this project will also look at specific cases to see how the blogospheres change with time and topics of discussion. Three case studies are used within the thesis to examine how blogs cover politics, featuring an international political event (the Obama inauguration), and local political topics (the opposition to the =Création et Internet‘, or HADOPI, law in France, the =Utegate‘ scandal in Australia). By using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, the study analyses data collected from a population of sites from both countries, looking at their linking patterns, relationship with mainstream media, and topics of interest. This project will subsequently help to further develop methodologies in this field and provide new and detailed information on both online networks and internet-based political communication in Australia and France.

The French Second Empire: an anatomy of political power

Price, Roger, The French Second Empire: an anatomy of political power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp.x+507 RAE2008

The French Revolution : a political history, 1789-1804 /

v. 1. The Revolution under the monarchy, 1789-1792 -- v. 2. The democratic republic, 1792-1795 -- v. 3. The revolutionary government, 1793-1797 -- v. 4. The bourgeois republic and the Consulate, 1797-1804.

Symbol and satire in the French Revolution,

Mode of access: Internet.

The revolutionary Plutarch; exhibiting the most distinguished characters, literary, military and political, in the recent annals of the French Republic.

Also attributed to Lewis Goldsmith.

A new and accurate history of South-America : containing a particular account of some accidents leading to the discovery of the New World, of the discovery made by Columbus, and other adventures ... : with a full description of the spanish provinces of Chili, Paraguay, and Terra Firma : of Guiana, particularly of Surinam ..., and of Cayenne belonging to the french : of Brazil, subject to the Crown of Portugal : of that part of Paraguay possessed by the Jesuits, where they have established a new monarchy ... : including the geographical, natural, political, and commercial history of every province, with the religion, manners, and customs of the inhabitants : with Dissertations on the british, spanish, portuguese, french, dutch, and indian settlements /

Sabin,

The life of Gouverneur Morris : with selections from his correspondence and miscellaneous papers ; detailing events in the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and in the political history of the United States /

"Index of letters" vol. III, p. [501]-506.

The bloody buoy, thrown out as a warning to the political pilots of America; or, A faithful relation of a multitude of acts of horrid barbarity, such as the eye never witnessed, the tongue never expressed, or the imagination conceived, until the commencement of the French revolution.

Mode of access: Internet.

Notes of the war in Spain; detailing occurences military and political, in Galicia, and at Gibraltar and Cadiz, from the fall of Corunna to the occupation of Cadiz by the French.

Mode of access: Internet.

A succint history of the geographical and political revolutions of the empire of Germany, or the principal states which composed the empire of Charlemagne, from his coronation in 814, to its dissolution in 1806; with some account of the genealogies of the imperial house of Hapsburgh, and of the six secular electors of Germany; and of Roman, German, French and English nobility.

First published under title: A connected series of notes on the chief revolutions of the principal states which composed the empire of Charlemagne, London, 1807.

The French Revolution : a political history, 1789-1804 /

Translation of: Histoire politique de la révolution française.

Dictionary of philosophy and psychology : including many of the principal conceptions of ethics, logic, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, mental pathology, anthropology, biology, neurology, physiology, economics, political and social philosophy, philology, physical science, and education, and giving a terminology in English, French, German, and Italian /

Mode of access: Internet.

The pro-reform movement led by Avenir de la Francaise:a point of leverage in the French political process?

The study examines factors influencing language planning decisions in contemporary France. It focuses upon the period 1992-1994, which witnessed the introduction of two major language policy measures, the first an amendment to the French Constitution, in 1992, proclaiming the language of the Republic as French, the second, in 1994, legislation to extend the ambit of the loi Bas-Lauriol, governing the use of the French language in France. The thesis posits a significant role for the pro-reform movement led by the French language association Avenir de la Langue Francaise (ALF) in the introduction and formulation of the policy measures concerned. The movement is depicted as continuing the traditional pattern of intellectual involvement in language planning, whilst also marking the beginning of a highly proactive, and increasingly political approach. Detailed examination of the movement's activities reveals that contextual factors and strategic strength combined to facilitate access to the levers of power, and enabled those involved to exert an impact on policy initiation, formulation, and ultimately implementation. However, ALF's decision to pursue the legislative route led to the expansion of the network of actors involved in language policymaking, and the development of counter-pressure from sectoral groups. It is suggested that this more interventionist approach destabilised the traditionally consensual language policy community, and called into question the quasi-monopoly of the intelligentsia in respect of language policymaking. It raised broader questions relating to freedom of expression and the permissible limits of language regulation in a democracy such as France. It also exposed ongoing ambiguities and inconsistencies in the interpretation of the tenets of language planning.

Arlette Laguiller:does the mainstay of the French political far-left enjoy linguistic parity with her male counterparts?

While language use has been argued to reflect gender asymmetry, increasing parity has been evidenced in official settings (Holmes, 2000; Dister and Moreau, 2006). Our hypothesis is that the French national press has developed a norm of equal linguistic treatment of men and women. In a corpus of articles from Libération, Le Monde, and Le Figaro, we examine the treatment of Arlette Laguiller, the female leader of the French extreme-left 'Worker's Struggle' Party (Lutte Ouvrière), during the run-up to the 2007 presidential elections. How Laguiller is referred to and described in comparison with her male counterparts evidences no asymmetry. Breaches to parity are only found in the right-wing Figaro newspaper. The ideological distance between the newspaper and the candidate suggests that power struggles are a primary source of asymmetrical treatments. The discursive functions of such treatments can be understood through an investigation based on a portable corpus linguistics methodology for the measure of discrimination. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.