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The Politics of Newswriting. Three Essays on How Journalists Cover Politics

Rubing Shen, a PhD candidate at the médialab, will defend on the 18th of November his thesis on how journalists cover politics.

Notice, PhD Defense

On Monday, November 18, 2024, Rubing Shen will present his thesis titled "The Politics of Newswriting. Three Essays on How Journalists Cover Politics".

Abstract

"This dissertation revisits classic questions regarding the ambiguous relationship between journalists and politics. How do journalists talk about politics, and what don’t they talk about? How political can journalists be in the age of news objectivity? I argue that these long-standing questions can be addressed anew by combining established sociological approaches with recently developed computational textual analysis techniques, which helps to augment the manual content analysis carried out by social scientists. The first paper conducts an experiment demonstrating this approach’s effectiveness to meet the needs of sociological research. The methodology is then applied to two empirical case studies of political news coverage: the use of anonymous sources and the expression of partisan bias. Both studies thoroughly document long-term transformations in political newswriting in France, and question the modes through which external constraints can more or less exert influence on the latter. The second paper suggests that the increase in the use of unattributed quotes in political journalism is more likely the result of generational renewal than adaptation to contemporary production conditions. The third paper shows that ideological biases can only be introduced in newswriting in euphemized, refracted ways. Beyond journalism, this dissertation aims to contribute to the lively debates in cultural sociology in relation with practice theories."

Composition of the jury

Gilles BASTIN, Professeur des universités, Sciences Po Grenoble (reviewer)
Julia CAGÉ, Associate Professor, Sciences Po Paris
Jean-Philippe COINTET, Associate Professor, Sciences Po Paris (co-supervisor)
Annik DUBIED, Professeure ordinaire, Université de Neuchâtel (reviewer)
Nicolas KACIAF, Maître de conférences, Sciences Po Lille
Étienne OLLION, Directeur de recherche, CNRS/CREST (co-supervisor)

Practical information

The thesis presentation will take place on Monday, November 18, 2024, at 2:30 PM in the science labs, 1st floor, Sciences Po Paris, 1 Place Saint-Thomas d'Aquin, 55007.