Newspaper Debate Research Articles

The Logic of Masculinist Protection: Reflections on the Current Security State

Dans cet article, l'A s'interesse a l'ideologie de genre concernant la securite de l'Etat. En se basant sur les ecrits de Thomas Hobbes a propos de l'autorite, l'A revient sur le concept patriarcal de protection de la femme et de l'enfant, les subordonnant ainsi a des citoyens de seconde zone. L'A met en relation le comportement masulin traditionnel avec l'engouement pour les conflits armes internationaux, et les appels et mouvements feministes pour la paix, en s'intorrgeant sur l'avenir de la democratie aux Etats-Unis depuis les evenements du 11 septembre 2001

Within their sphere? Women Correspondents to Aberdeen Daily Newspapers 1900-1914

This research provides an insight into the motivations and agenda of women correspondents to Aberdeen local newspapers during the period 1900-18. This was achieved by undertaking a content analysis of all printed letters to the editor identified as being by women correspondents to the Aberdeen Daily Journal and Aberdeen Free Press. Women correspondents were identified by their signatures, feminine noms de plume or the content of their letters. Whilst it is accepted that this method must of necessity have excluded some women correspondents who did not wish to reveal their gender, this research focused exclusively on correspondents who were willing to be identified as female in their correspondence to the newspapers. In this way, it was hoped to identify the issues which impelled women out of their domestic and private sphere and into the more public sphere of newspaper debate. The two Aberdeen newspapers were also well suited for this research because of their lack of editorial gatekeeping, with little censorship of letters discerned, even in wartime. However, a lack of editorial censorship did not mean that women correspondents faced no barriers to the publication of their opinions in the newspapers. Women correspondents had to overcome social conventions, including possibly the disapproval of friends and family, in order to enter the world of public debate. The research identified particular issues about which it was acceptable for women to correspond to the newspapers and particular women who were allowed to debate these issues. Middle-class women engaged in philanthropic and charitable work, especially that related to women and children or, during the First World War, the war effort, felt justified in writing to the newspapers in order to publicise such activities. Women also justified correspondence to the newspapers on certain matters by claiming that they came under woman's jurisdiction in the domestic sphere. Many women further justified their correspondence on such matters by using pen names which emphasised their domestic and maternal role, such as `Mother' or `Wife'. Such correspondence tended to be proactive rather than reactive to other material in the newspapers, which is in direct contrast to the findings of previous researchers into the motivation of newspaper correspondents. Interestingly, the research discovered that women correspondents' use of noms de plume increased from 1900 until the outbreak of the First World War. While some women used pen names to emphasise their familial role, others used them in a much more straightforward way - in order to protect their identity while writing on contentious subjects. Such subjects included controversial issues such as woman suffrage and the sexual double standards of early 2e century Britain. However, even the most militant suffragette justified her demand for a vote by emphasising woman's difference from man. Such correspondents preferred to enlarge the woman's sphere to include social commentary and electoral privilege rather than step outside it altogether. The research also investigated differences between the two newspapers and between pre-war and wartime correspondence. It is suggested that the Daily Journal attracted more letters from `domestic' women on issues related to a more narrowly defined `woman's sphere' while the Free Press's correspondents included more New Women. In addition, the Journal received more letters from women based in England or further afield, for example the colonies, while the Free Press tended to receive letters from women within Scotland. Women's wartime correspondence was dominated by the war effort, which swept most other topics of correspondence off the letters pages, although the later years of the war saw an increase in letters of complaint, usually aimed at increasing bureaucracy and again making use of familial pen names. Such findings contribute to the broader history of the media and women's studies in the northeast of Scotland, and indicate a broadening and nationalising of interest throughout the early 20th century, and the beginning of an accompanying weakening of local, regional links.

The Eclipse of Desire: L'Affaire Houellebecq

The Affaire. Paris, October 1998. The routine of la rentree litteraire breaks. Instead of the usual quarrels limited to a small circle of literati, there erupts a serious and sustained public debate in literary reviews, newspapers, radio and television. After a pause of many years, perhaps dating back to the publication of Voyage au bout de la nuit and LEtranger, Michel Houellebecq's Les Particules delmentaires becomes the focal point of a national public debate.2 On this point Le Monde's Van Renterghem is categorical: Rarement un roman aura fait couler autant d'encre, suscitd tant de passions, d'emballements ou de detestations, de gonflements incontroles en ddbats et en poldmiques.: At its heart, l'Affaire Houellebecq has little to do with literary value per se; it concerns, rather, the desecration of the regime of desire, our last idol.

Drug Control as a National Project: The Case of Sweden

During the 1980s, the slogan a “drug-free society” became the catchword of the official narcotics policy in Sweden. An analysis based on platforms of the political parties, parliamentary bills, and the debate in national newspapers and journals tries to explain why the reactions against drugs have become so strong despite data showing that the problem is limited and not increasing. The interpretation is made that one reason why reactions against drugs have become so strong and so widespread in Sweden is that they serve the function of strengthening a threatened national identity in a situation where the traditional “Swedish Model” has come under increasingly hard attack from both inside and outside the country.