1. médialab Sciences Po
  2. News
  3. Giving the Far Right a Voice. A CSS Investigation of French Media's Representations of the Political Sphere

Giving the Far Right a Voice. A CSS Investigation of French Media's Representations of the Political Sphere

This seminar session will welcome Emma Bonutti D’Agostini, a PhD student at médialab. She will talk about her work on the role of the french media in mainstreaming far-right discourse.

Event, Research Seminar

Salle K.011, 1 place Saint Thomas d'Aquin 75007 Paris

Abstract

Following the rise of far-right parties, scholars have increasingly investigated the role of the media in mainstreaming far-right discourse. This presentation addresses this question from a specific angle, examining under what conditions, and in what ways, French news media have given a voice to far-right politicians by quoting their statements in news coverage. Drawing on the initial findings from my PhD research, I present a twofold analysis. First, I assess the amount of space allocated to far-right versus other political voices in French news media over the past three decades. By connecting trends in quote volume to the electoral trajectories of French parties, I examine whether the journalistic norm of representativeness is applied evenly across political groups, interrogating the influence of newsrooms’ editorial lines and paying attention to changes over time. Second, I analyze how political voices are framed by journalists, focusing on the verbs used to introduce quoted statements. This allows me not only to quantify the visibility given to different political factions in the French media, but also to qualify how these voices are portrayed in journalistic discourse. Together, these analyses offer insights into the dynamics of media mainstreaming of far-right discourse, situated within the broader context of how French news media construct representations of the political sphere.

Biography

Emma Bonutti D’Agostini is a second-year PhD candidate at the médialab (Sciences Po) and CREST (Institut Polytechnique de Paris). In her dissertation, she studies how the news media in France and Italy contribute to the dissemination of far-right discourse, ideology and political agendas. Her research combines computational methods and NLP with qualitative methodologies.

Practical information

The session will take place on Thursday, June 24, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, in person and in English at Sciences Po, Room K.011, 1 Place Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin, Paris 75007.

Registration is mandatory via this link.