Si le paparazzi est le parent pauvre de l’histoire de la photographie, il est une source précieuse d’inspiration pour la fiction cinématographique et télévisuelle. Personnage avant même d’apparaître à l’écran, le paparazzi instaure une tension à la fois narrative et visuelle qui autorise un questionnement sur ses modalités de représentations. À l’aide d’un corpus defilms et de séries télévisées occidental allant de 1940 à 2008, notre étude entend repérer et analyser les récurrences des représentations du paparazzi dans une approche socio-historique et culturelle. Séducteur, sauveur... chasseur, voleur ? Revenir sur l’imaginaire de l’appareil photographique et sur le caractère hybride de sa pratique permet de comprendre comment se construit l’image d’un « mauvais » photographe. Masse impersonnelle ou personnage principal du récit, mi-animal, mi-machine, les différentes formes que prend le paparazzi à l’écran révèlent et menacent l’humanité de la star. À l’heure où les chances d’accéder au statut de célébrité sont aussi fortes que les probabilités de « faire le paparazzi », la fiction révèle une lutte à mort dans laquelle chaque partie se bat pour une valeur devenue absolue : la visibilité. / Although the paparazzi is the poor relation in the history of photography, it is a precious source of inspiration for cinematographic and televisual fictions. Already a character before appearing on screen, the paparazzi establishes a tension, both narrative and visual, that encourages an exploration of its forms of representation. Supported by a collection of films and western television series, from 1940 to 2008, this work will identify and analyze the reoccuring ways in which the paparazzi is represented, from a socio-historical and cultural perspective. Seducer, savior… hunter, thief ? Returning to the imaginary world which surrounds the camera and the hybrid quality of its use allows one to understand how theimage of a « bad » photographer is built. Anonymous croud or main character in the story, half-animal, half-machine, the different faces of the paparazzi on screen both enlighten and threaten the star’s humanity. At a time when the chance of reaching celebrity status are as high as the odds of « acting like a paparazzi », works of fiction reveal a struggle to the deathin which each party fights for a new absolute value : visibility.

The primary aim of this Master thesis entitled "Freedom of the Media versus Public Figures' Right to Privacy" is to investigate and analyse the conflict between freedom of the media and right to privacy of public persons. The thesis is formally structured into eight thematical chapters and two parts- theoretical and analytical. The theoretical part of the thesis provides legal, philosophical and media background for further analysis in the special part of the thesis. The analytical part deals with selected case studies of media photography conflicting with right to privacy of public figures. First chapter focuses on the freedom of speech and freedom of the media in historical, legal and philosophical perspective, deals also with the problem of censorship and technological challenges in the postmodern electronic age of the internet. Second chapter critically examines the concept of watchdog journalism in democratic system with special interest in the debate on the current affairs of the British media system. Third chapter deals with right to privacy and reflects also on the fluid concept of privacy in the era of social networking. Fourth chapter analyzes so-called public figure doctrine, celebritization and mediatization of politics and also discusses the collision between free speech and privacy....