Le cliché d’une « barquette de frites nappées de chocolat », un « coucher de soleil » aux couleurs saturées près de Puerto Natales au Chili… Cette thèse a pour objectif d’étudier la représentation des photographies exposées par l’Agence France-Presse sur les « réseaux sociaux » – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter et Tumblr en têtes –, à l’aune d’une réflexion sur les transformations et les mutations des pratiques photojournalistiques en régime « numérique ». L’étude se divise en deux axes : une approche sémiotique d’abord, qui permet de comprendre de quelle manière le discours photojournalistique déploie les conditions formelles et médiatiques qui président à la fixation de la croyance, et articulent des normes et des attentes sur le statut de vérité du monde présenté par ces images ; une approche généalogique ensuite, qui étudie les conditions selon lesquelles les photographies de presse sont exposées. En réinterrogeant le concept de banalité, en lui redonnant son sens premier, ce deuxième axe développe une réflexion sur la complexité de la médiation « numérique », entre le pouvoir de réquisition des « industries du passage » d’un côté, et l’adaptation du discours informationnel de l’AFP de l’autre. À partir d’un point de vue nettement interdisciplinaire, la thèse prouve ici qu’il est possible de comprendre la médiation « numérique » comme la corrélation expressive entre l’économie d’un dispositif et le développement de formes de vies iconiques singulières. / A picture of « French fries coated with chocolate », a « sunset » picturing saturated colours near Puerto Natales, Chili… This PhD thesis studies the representation of pictures posted on « Social Networks » by the Agence France-Presse – mainly Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr – and examines the transformations and mutations of photojournalism through “digitization”. This work is structured around two axes. A semiotics approach allows first to understand how photojournalistic contents play on faith and belief in the media; these contents and pictures play on the norms and expectations linked to the representations of truth. We then studied the representation of press photography through a genealogical approach; interrogating the notion of banalité, this approach underlines the complexity of “digital” mediations. These mediations are caught between the requisitioning power of “industries du passage” and the adaptation of AFP’s informative speech. The interdisciplinary and integrative approach offered in this PhD allows to prove that digital mediations are only understandable as the correlation between an economy of devices and the development of unusual iconic lives.

Thèse (Ph. D.)--Université Laval, 2007. / Thèse présentée en cotutelle: Faculté des études supérieures, Université Laval et Université de Paris VIII Vincennes - Saint-Denis. Bibliogr.: f. 248-277. Publié aussi en version électronique dans la Collection Mémoires et thèses électroniques.

L'environnement médiatique, l'entreprise de presse et les pratiques journalistiques ont connu un changement de configuration entre 1945 et 2005. La configuration formée par l'environnement médiatique mondial et le jeu des acteurs est passé d'une régulation politique à une régulation commerciale. Cela entraîne des transformations de la dépêche : éventail élargi des contenus, fragmentation des textes, multiplication des analyses. Les acteurs entretiennent des rapports d'interdépendance, les pratiques journalistiques sont marquées par une forte réflexivité. Les défis du journaliste : conquête permanente de sa clientèle, distinction et dépassement de ses concurrents, diversité du traitement de l'événement et recherche perpétuelle de l'approbation de sa hiérarchie. La conception de l'information évolue, passant de bien public à bien marchand ; si les anciens journalistes affichaient une position de magistère, la génération actuelle adopte un comportement plus individualiste. / The media environment, the news firm and the journalism practice underwent a change of configuration between 1945 and 2005. The configuration formed by the world media environment and the play of its participants changed from a political to a commercial regulation which involved transformations of the journalistic text : widened range of the contents, fragmented texts and enhanced analyses. The participants maintain interdependent relationships, and journalistic practices are characterized by a strong reflexivity. A journalist faces such challenges as permanent conquest of customers, distinction and overtaking of its competitors, diversity in the treatment of the events, going from public service to commodity. While former journalists exercised authoritative towards their public, the present generation has adopted a more individualistic behavior.

The thesis titled "French News Agency AFP - the Agency with Special Statutes" deals with the world agency AFP and its public statutes. The news agency is defined on the most general base and there is described the history of the first news agency Havas which is followed by AFP. The author is also interested in foundation of AFP and its transformation into the public institution. The thesis deals with reporting tasks, financial sources, composition and competence of the inspecting authority and statutory authority of Agence France-Presse and Czech News Agency. The content of the work is comparison of agencies above. In the final chapter the author reminds the attempt to change the special statutes of AFP.

This study critically explores the relationships amongst the global, national, continental and alternative news agencies in South Africa and in a changing global context of news. It revisits previous studies’ findings on imbalances in global flows with a view to extending and updating these case studies. An extended-case study approach employing in-depth, open-ended interviews with news agency participants based primarily in South Africa and with the Pan African News Agency in Senegal is undertaken. The study postulates that news agencies do not operate independently of the broader external social environment. News agencies are influenced by changes in the global news environment and impacted upon by socio-economic, political and cultural processes and relations amongst nations. The main findings include firstly, that “intermediary changes” described as “adaptive strategies” at news agencies result from internal and external pressures on their operations of news production, selection and distribution. Internal pressures are identified as changes in ownership, and the gate-keeping function in the selection and exchange of news. External pressures are associated with the processes and relations of market-based global capitalism, which, it is theorized, gives rise to changing conditions described as a new phase of neo-liberal globalisation. Another finding related to the first, describes the adaptive strategies at news agencies as signifying a crisis in the global capitalist order and a transition to a post-industrial society. This post-industrial society presents the space for further investigation of the phenomenon of global consciousness, which is a further finding of the study. The prevalence of an alternative form of news production, citizens’ journalism, is seen as an example of an emerging public realm of opinion making, or, the public sphere. The study concludes that explanations for the persistence of imbalances in global news flows in the relationships among news agencies needs revision and updating, and that a global phenomenon, “global consciousness”, presents a challenge to the extreme market forces and the statist government control over media systems worldwide.