Digital Communication Networks and the Journalistic Field: The 2005 French Riots

Abstract

Coverage of the 2005 riots in France underlined the multimedia and transnational nature of contemporary news. The controversies that spun out of the coverage even as it was being produced extended larger debate about emerging journalism practices and products. This case study, centered on the meta-discourse of the riots and the relationships among the diverse media covering the riots, underlines the relevance of Pierre Bourdieu's influential field theory to studies of new media and suggests a critical update to Bourdieu's conception of the field. Bourdieu placed the norms and values of the participants of a field at the center of his analysis, but his theory, as it has been applied to journalism, rests on a stark division between journalists and their audiences. The news story of the French riots was very much a new-media product in that it was created by professionals and non-professionals. In Bourdieu's vocabulary, the amateurs at the middle of the riots and in nations around the world contributing news product constituted new “agents” whose influence on the field has yet to be fully considered. The rise of the audience-participant poses compelling new challenges to field study. This article points out some of the areas scholars across disciplines and methodological approaches might take up for research.