Political History of Journalism

Muhlmann, Géraldine

Humor & Entertainment

Polity

In this new important book, Geraldine Muhlmann provides a comparative history of the rise of modern journalism, from the revolution of the late nineteenth century, with its new concern for facts, through to the present day. Her account is structured around the tension between what she calls the unifying and decentring tendencies in modern journalism - that is, the concern to give readers a truth that is acceptable to all, on the one hand, and the concern to resist dominant representations and give voice to alternative views, on the other. She illustrates her account with a wide range of case studies, from Sverine, who covered the trial of Dreyfus in late nineteenth-century France, to the great Vietnam War reporters, Seymour M. Hersh and Michael Herr. In between are fascinating new readings of famous figures like George Orwell and Norman Mailer as well as some less well-known writers, such as the great American muckraker, Lincoln Steffens, and the French crusading journalist, Albert Londres. This historical and comparative account of the rise of modern journalism will be an ideal text for courses in journalism, political communication and media history. Written by an author who believes that journalism is crucial to our modern democracies and that it deserves to be studied with knowledge and care, the book raises serious questions about the role of the reporter and about the sorts of journalism that are possible in the twenty-first century.

Journalism for Democracy

Journalists are commonly denounced from all sides – a shameful, deceitful trade, a profession sold out to the powerful which gives a biased and misleading picture of the world. Behind the condemnation one can often detect a desire for reform, a feeling that good journalism is too important for the health of democracy to be left to languish among the tabloids. Yet the discussion rarely gets beyond the well-worn formulas of free speech and the Fourth Estate. The question of the political significance of journalism is never seriously addressed, and the question of what journalism should be is rarely posed. This important new book by Géraldine Muhlmann addresses these gaps in our understanding and goes a long way to filling them. Putting aside the hasty diatribes against journalism, Muhlmann asks the fundamental questions: what should journalism be? What ideals should it serve? What do seeing and showing the world mean today? What direction should journalism take in order to emerge from its current crisis? Drawing on a rich tradition of philosophical thought, Muhlmann breathes new life into the old debate about journalism and its role today. Avoiding the twin pitfalls of destructive criticism and naive celebration, she sees a double task for a reinvigorated journalism: to allow space for conflict but also to foster unity within the political community. In the practice of journalism we see the enigma of democracy itself: the coexistence of two stages, one of action and one of representations, the latter offering a symbolic resolution to the conflicts that animate the former.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Histoire des idées politiques

Duhamel, Olivier

Châtelet, François

Politics & Government

Le theologico-politique, c'est l'idee selon laquelle au fond des choses politiques, il y a toujours quelque chose de religieux : quelque chose ayant a voir avec notre rapport au sacre. Meme a l'heure ou la politique moderne s'est secularisee (separee des pouvoirs religieux) et ou les references religieuses, parfois presentes en elle, ont infiniment moins de poids que par le passe, la pensee theologico-politique est formelle : le fond de l'affaire serait encore et toujours religieux. Depuis une trentaine d'annees, le theologico-politique est en plein triomphe dans la philosophie contemporaine. Tres au-dela de la mode Carl Schmitt, c'est une vague qui passe par Giorgio Agamben, Charles Taylor, le dernier Jurgen Habermas, le dernier Richard Rorty... et qui fait revivre, aussi, certaines oeuvres du passe : celles de Jacob Taubes et d'Eric Voegelin, ou certains ecrits de Karl Jaspers. Toute une myriade d'auteurs contemporains la nourrit (Gianni Vattimo, Marcel Gauchet, Luc Ferry...), non sans echos a un air du temps general (dont temoigne, par exemple, le succes des theses de Rene Girard). Alors que l'histoire politique moderne avait fini par accomplir le desir de Spinoza d'une rupture avec le theologique - desir formule dans son Traite theologico-politique de 1670 -, voila que le theologique est a nouveau presente comme le secret cache du politique. Et c'est d'autant plus troublant que les annees 1960 et 1970 avaient energiquement combattu la tentation d'affirmer, dans les choses politiques, une determination en dernier ressort, de quelque nature que ce soit. Le theologico-politique, aussi renouvele soit-il aujourd'hui, est une imposture. Une demesure de la pensee, qui force les realites politiques pour imposer sa these. Et ce triomphe parle non des choses politiques, mais de la philosophie. De ses desirs a elle, rarement tout a fait eteints, d'atteindre une toute-puissance theorique, c'est-a-dire un savoir total sur l'histoire : sur sa direction, sur sa veritable ressource, sur son pretendu fond. Voila ce que montre ce livre. Mais il propose aussi une enquete : pourquoi cette quete de toute-puissance theorique a-t-elle resurgi, a ce moment-la de notre histoire philosophique et de notre histoire tout court?

L'imposture du theologico-politique (French Edition)

Philosophy

Les Belles Lettres

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Books by Muhlmann, Géraldine