The revelations of investigative journalism in France

Abstract

Since the 1970s and 1980s, national newspapers in France, both general and political, have regularly praised ‘investigative journalism’ and its role in unveiling ‘scandals’. To gain an understanding of how this new model of professional excellence arose, even though it concerns only a small number of journalists, we need to show the extent to which it is first of all largely symptomatic of a series of changes that have occurred outside the field of journalism, especially in the political and legal worlds, and in the relationships these spaces maintain with one another. In particular it is important to show that the media space has become highly strategic, notwithstanding its relative lack of autonomy. What is covered by the media is largely the outcome of power relations within different social spaces that are then translated in accordance with media processes. Thus ‘investigative journalism’ is often based less on journalists’ own investigations than on state-sponsored studies: reports, inquests, etc. The present article endeavours to show how and why these ‘scandals’ have been exposed only where such external changes have also found an echo in the field of general and political media nationally, in particular among a group of politicized journalists who constitute a new specialist field within the profession. The rise of ‘investigative journalism’ and its successful profile in the discourse of the profession both result from and reveal transformations affecting the whole space of journalism.