Intensive Erasmus Seminar “News making and journalistic practices in Europe”, Camaret-sur-Mer (France), 26 August 2014

1. Programme intensif Erasmus
Production de l’information et pratiques journalistiques en Europe
Camaret-sur-Mer, 25 août – 5 septembre 2014
Local Media
and The Public Sphere
Loïc Ballarini
Université de Lorraine, CREM
loic.ballarini@univ-lorraine.fr | ballarini.fr/loic

2. 2
Circulation of french national dailies in 2013
(source: OJD)
Newspaper
Average paid
circulation per
day in 2013
2013/2012
1 Le Figaro 324 154 -2,1%
2 Le Monde 299 472 -4,7%
3 L'Équipe (sports daily) 248 815 -11,6%
4 International New York Times 179 982 -1,6%
5 Aujourd'hui en France 163 590 -10,3%
6 Éditions PlayBac (dailies for kids: Le Petit
Quotidien, Mon Quotidien, L’Actu) ~150 000
7 Les Échos 125 492 0,6%
8 Libération 104 329 -15,2%
9 La Croix 95 735 0,8%
10 L'Humanité 40 666 -6,8%
11 L’Opinion 35 000 ?
12 Présent <5 000 ?

3. 3
Circulation of french regional dailies in 2013
(source: OJD)
Newspaper 2013 2013/2012
1 Ouest France 733 078 -2.16%
2 Sud Ouest 265 777 -5.23%
3 Le Parisien 250 647 -8.82%
4 La Voix du Nord 238 564 -5.20%
5 Le Dauphiné Libéré 216 949 -3.05%
6 Le Télégramme 201 986 -0.65%
7 Le Progrès - La Tribune/Le Progrès 192 749 -2.81%
8 La Montagne 175 432 -1.77%
9 La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest 174 173 -3.33%
10 La Dépêche du Midi 163 897 -4.39%
11 Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace 157 799 -3.66%
12 L'Est Républicain 130 600 -7.09%
13 Midi Libre Semaine 118 672 -8.76%
14 La Provence 117 057 -5.99%
15 Le Républicain Lorrain 113 907 -4.50%
50 Le Petit Bleu du Lot et Garonne 8 038 -7.30%
51 L'Eclair des Pyrénées - Pays de l'Adour 7 293 -5.76%
52 La Dordogne Libre 5 895 0.26%
53 Libération Champagne 4 778 -5.12%

4. 1. A content analysis of the regional press in Brittany
4
● Source of this seminar: my PhD thesis in Information Sciences (2010)
The Public Sphere Beyond the Theory of Communicative Action. Four
Perspective Reversals to Get Out from Habermas’ Dead Ends (download)
→ results of the content analysis
→ comparing the world the local
press talks about and the
world lived by its readers
(People reading a newspaper think they
learn what's happening in the world.
In reality, they only learn what's
happening in the newspaper.)
Philippe Geluck, Le Retour du Chat (1988)

5. 1. A content analysis of the regional press in Brittany
1.1. Corpus
5
● Regional press: Newspapers of general interest, both dailies and
weeklies, published and distributed at the town or regional level.
● Region chosen: Brittany
● Method: Analysis of all articles relating to four towns
● Towns chosen:
● Rennes: 208,000 inhabitants in 2011, regional capital. Diversified
economy. Home to the daily Ouest-France.
● Brest: 140,000 inhabitants, Finistère's sous-préfecture, military
arsenal. Historical stronghold of Le Télégramme + Ouest-France +
weekly Le Progrès de Cornouailles / Courrier du Léon
● Saint-Brieuc: 46,000 inhabitants, Côtes-d'Armor's préfecture. Strong
industrial history, struggling to redevelop. Ouest-France + Le
Télégramme + weekly Le Penthièvre
● Quintin: 2,800 inhabitants, small, relatively independent county town.
in towns this size). Ouest-France + Le Télégramme + weekly Le
Penthièvre

6. 6

7. 1. A content analysis of the regional press in Brittany
1.1. Corpus
7
● Papers:
● Ouest-France. Daily founded in 1944 (successor to Ouest-Eclair,
1899), 733,000 copies per day (2013), Ouest-France has been France's
largest daily paper since 1976. Flagship of the Sipa group (Ouest-France
Multimédia, Publihebdos (75 weeklies including Le Penthièvre),
Sofiouest, 50% of 20 Minutes. Particularity: non-profit making
association!
● Le Télégramme. Daily founded in 1944 (successor to La Dépêche de
Brest, 1886). It has belonged to the same family practically since its
beginnings. 201,000 copies. Le Télégramme owns several weekly
papers, a publishing house, a webTV and an advertising sales division.
● Le Progrès de Cornouailles / Courrier du Léon. Weekly founded
in 1895 by the bishopric of Brest, transferred to a non-religious
management after World War 2, acquired by Publihedbos in 2010.
Approximately 6,500 copies (30,000 in 1926).
● Le Penthièvre. Weekly founded in 2000 by Publihebdos. 5,300 copies

8. 8
2. Seemingly diversified information
2.1. Article types
2.2. The authors
2.3. Entertain, inform, integrate...
2.4. … With a smile!

9. 9

10. 10

11. 11
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
18
38
64
617
421
345
66
82
Breakdown of articles by tone

12. 12
3. The permanency of hierarchies
Breakdown of quotations and photographs
quotations photographs
nb % nb %
Sportsmen/women 205 20,6 196 18,1
Members of clubs and organizations 194 19,5 167 15,4
Politicians 151 15,2 86 8,0
Professionals 109 11,0 73 6,8
Artists (profesionnal or not) 79 8,0 180 16,7
Administrations and institutions 74 7,5 34 3,1
Private individuals 52 5,2 132 12,2
Entreprises 45 4,5 45 4,2
Documents 31 3,1 9 0,8
Miscellaneous 24 2,4 82 7,6
Students 17 1,7 57 5,3
Experts and VIP's 10 1,0 17 1,6
The newspaper itself 2 0,2 3 0,3
Total 993 100 1081 100

13. 13
4. The local: complexity and dynamics
References:
● Réseau d'études sur le journalisme
● Ringlet, Gabriel (1981). Le Mythe au milieu du village, comprendre et
analyser la presse locale. Bruxelles: Vie ouvrière
Layers of French administration:
● commune (town)
● canton
● metropolitan
● district
● “pays”
● département
● region
● state
● (Europe)