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What is the best response strategy to use an uncivil negative campaigning attack in your political advantage and does this chosen strategy differ between male and female responders?

Negative campaigning (NC) – that is any criticism leveled by one candidate against another during a campaign – has gained considerably in importance in recent years. However, the causes and effects of NC have rarely been analyzed outside the United States. This project examines the determinants of the use of NC in German federal and state election campaigns. The aim is to test an integrated model of negative campaign communication that includes a wide range of factors at the micro level (i.e., politicians who use NC) and the context of the campaign (i.e., general conditions of election campaigning, behavior of the political opponent). For this purpose, candidate surveys will be conducted. In addition, to also measure NC in a setting without any bias stemming from candidates’ self-reports, the entire Facebook, Twitter and Instagram communication of candidates will be collected and classified with the help of machine learning.

This research project investigates the effects of politicians’ Facebook communication on users’ political attitudes. For that, we create an online survey experiment, where we test the effects of different types of politicians’ Facebook posts. We investigate how privatized and negative communication affect people’s political cynicism, political trust and the respective political actors’ likability.

L'importance du nombre d'étudiantes portant un voile islamique à l’Université relance la demande d’extension de la Loi du 15 mars 2004 encadrant, en application du principe de laïcité, le port de signes ou de tenues manifestant une appartenance religieuse dans les écoles, collèges et lycées publics à l’ensemble du système éducatif. L’Observatoire de la laïcité s’y oppose et justifie l’autorisation des signes religieux ostentatoires à l’Université par l’âge des étudiants, les franchises universitaires et la polysémie du voile islamique. L’article vise à analyser l’écart entre le droit, les connaissances scientifiques et ces arguments. Il met aussi en lumière la différence entre le discours institutionnel et l’expérience vécue dans un établissement universitaire. En s’éloignant du cadre constitutionnel commun, qui associe démocratie, laïcité et indivisibilité de la République française, la communication institutionnelle de l’Observatoire de la laïcité devient une acommunication et provoque un profond malaise à l’Université. Elle permet la diffusion d’idéaux peu compatibles avec la démocratie auprès d’un public en formation. The multiplication of female students wearing an Islamic veil at the university is relaunching the request for extension of the law of March 15, 2004 “framing, in application of the principle of secularism, the wearing of signs or outfits showing religious affiliation in schools, public colleges and high schools” to the entire education system. The Secularism Observatory opposes it and justifies the authorization of ostentatious religious signs at the university by the age of the students, the university franchises and the polysemy of the Islamic veil. This article aims to analyze the gap between the law, scientific knowledge, and these arguments. It also highlights the difference between institutional discourse and lived experience in a university establishment. By moving away from the common constitutional code, which associates democracy, secularism and indivisibility of the French Republic, the institutional communication of the Secularism Observatory becomes an acommunication and causes a deep uneasiness at the university. It allows the dissemination of ideals that are hardly compatible with democracy to a learning public.

Election campaigns in hybrid media systems are characterised by the integration of newer and older media. With the rise of social media platforms, newer tools of political communication emerge, such as online campaign posters, complementing older tools, such as traditional campaign posters. This raises the question whether the newer medium online campaign posters replicates strategies of professionalised political communication (i.e. personalisation, de-ideologisation and negative campaigning), and whether major and minor parties differ in their use of these strategies in online campaign posters. Against this background, we conducted a quantitative content analysis of visual and textual elements of online campaign posters and traditional campaign posters ( N = 1,069) for the 2013 and 2017 German Bundestag elections. The results indicate that online campaign posters are significantly more negative than traditional campaign posters. Moreover, the use of online campaign posters tends to moderate the inter-party competition in the social media environment.

This article provides an examination of the extent to which the use of negative campaigning is determined by the proximity to power of a political party. Specifically, this article measures...

L'article réagit à celui de Wolf Feuerhahn (2020) intitulé « Le chercheur et le discours de ses objets » et publié dans cette même revue. Il reprend la proposition faite par l’auteur, qui prône une démarche historiciste en sciences humaines et sociale, en la requalifiant comme historicisme « radical ». Il discute ensuite deux points. D’abord, il tente de distinguer le présentisme de l’anachronisme, qui pourrait être maîtrisé et productif. Ensuite, il questionne les limites d’un nominalisme méthodologique strict, que l’auteur décrit plutôt comme « littéralité ». This paper is a reaction to an article by Wolf Feuerhahn, which has been published in the same journal with the title “The researcher and the discourse of his objects”. It takes up Feuerhahn’s proposal, who advocates for a historicist approach in the social sciences and humanities, and requalifies it as “radical historicism”. It then discusses two points. First, it distinguishes presentism from anachronism, suggesting that the latter could be controlled and productive. Second, it investigates the limits of strict nominalism conceived of as a method—a textual approach that the author describes rather as “literal reading”.

L’article propose un dialogue avec les réflexions de Wolf Feurhahn sur le chercheur et le discours de ses objets, autour des temporalités, des points de vue, des étiquettes et des instruments conceptuels. Mais c’est la question de l’historicisme qui est au cœur de ce texte et de l’une des nombreuses manières possibles de l’appréhender : celle des effets de la temporalité sur la façon dont les historiens pensent leurs objets. Une double historicisation du chercheur et des objets émerge donc qui, au-delà du débat sur le problème du « relativisme », pose la question de l’accumulation des significations qui s’interposent entre l’observateur et ses objets d’étude. Ces regards successifs, à l’extrémité desquels se trouve le chercheur et à l’autre l’acteur, peuvent-ils être utilement étudiés dans leurs oscillations sur la base des étiquettes qui recouvrent et rendent intelligibles les objets ? D’autres questions s’ouvrent ici sur la base des possibilités presque illimités du langage : celles de ses usages et de sa traductibilité. The article proposes a dialogue with Wolf Feurhahn’s reflections on the researcher and the discourse of its objects. Dialogue around temporalities, points of view, labels and conceptual instruments. However, it is the question of historicism that is at the heart of this text and of one of the many possible ways of understanding it: that of the effects of temporality on the way historians think about their objects. A double historicization thus emerges, of the researcher and the objects, which, beyond the debate on the problem of “relativism”, raises the question of the accumulation of meanings that intermediate between the observer and his or her objects of study. Can these successive views, at one end of which is the researcher and at the other the actor, be usefully studied in their oscillations on the basis of the labels that cover and make the objects intelligible? Other questions open up here on the basis of the almost unlimited possibilities of language: that of its uses and its translatability.

L'article propose de revenir sur la question du flou de la frontière entre communication et information en prenant le point de vue moins documenté des agences de publicité et de communication. On reviendra dans un premier temps sur les routines de travail de cet espace et sur comment la modification de ces routines amènent les communicants à investir les « codes légitimes de l’information ». La seconde partie de l’article reviendra sur l’organisation du travail informationnel au sein de ces agences se présentant dans certains cas en tant que rédactions. On proposera le concept de « façade médiatique » pour caractériser ces cas limites d’effacement de la frontière entre information et communication. This paper proposes to reconsider the question of the blurring of the boundary between communication and information by taking the less documented point of view of advertising and communication agencies. We will first come back to the work routines of this space and how the modification of these routines leads communicants to invest the “legitimate codes of information”. The second part of the article will come back to the organization of this informational work within these agencies, in some cases presenting themselves as redaction. The concept of “mediatic facade” will be proposed to characterize these borderline cases of obliteration of the boundary between information and communication.

Consacrer une part de sa communication de campagne électorale à attaquer un adversaire est une pratique avérée des candidats. Mais le constituer comme objet d’analyse dans les recherches sur la communication politique ne s’est pas développé partout de manière équivalente. Travaux et concepts sont précoces et abondants aux États-Unis, plus tardifs et avec des questionnements renouvelés en Europe, et quasiment inexistant en France même si les attaques contre les adversaires peuvent clairement y être identifiées comme un phénomène récurrent et parfois intense, notamment selon une logique partisane et idéologique. Les éventuelles spécificités de la communication électorale négative en France sont examinées tant du point de vue des travaux qui commencent à s’y consacrer que de l’étude de la campagne présidentielle de 2017 dans le cadre du dossier thématique dont cet article est l’introduction. Devoting a share of one’s campaign communication to the attack against an opponent is a proven practice of candidates. Yet research about this practice in the field of political communication studies has not developed everywhere in an equivalent manner. Empirical studies and concept have been heavily worked out in the United States first, then later with renewed hypothesis in Europe, but almost not in France despite the attacks against opponents are clearly identified there as a recurring and sometimes intensive phenomenon, in particular in connection with partisan and ideological motives. The possible specificity of negative campaigning in France is discussed regarding how scholars begin to address this research field as well as how the 2017 presidential election is studied as such in the QdC special issue introduced by this article.

Désignée « mot de l’année 2017 » par le dictionnaire Collins, la formule fake news, notamment en raison des usages qui en sont faits par le président Trump, n’en finit pas d’alimenter les débats au sein des sciences sociales. S’agit-il d’un fait nouveau ou d’un simple mot-valise à la mode recouvrant d’autres phénomènes mieux connus et étudiés tels que les rumeurs, les théories du complot, la propagande ou la désinformation ? En d’autres termes, l’expression fake news est-elle un concept opératoire pour les sciences sociales ? Partant de cette interrogation, cet article entend procéder à un effort de cadrage autour de cette formule afin d’en faire une catégorie et un outil analytiques d’un fait social relativement autonome dans la mesure où, outre sa dimension profondément info-communicationnelle, elle se situe au carrefour des différentes notions citées précédemment, sans toutefois les recouper pleinement. Named “Word of the year 2017” by the Collins dictionary, fake news, mostly for Donald Trump’s uses, becomes a huge topic for social sciences and leads to many debates amongst scholars and academics. Is it something new or just a mere portmanteau, or a “buzz word” for well-known and widely studied phenomena such as rumors, conspiracy theories, propaganda or disinformation? Put another way, is fake news a social science concept? Hence, this paper aims to overhaul fake news as an analytical tool and category for a relatively autonomous social fact because, in addition to its info communication aspects, it is located in-between the pre-cited notions.

Le candidat Alain Juppé était donné favori de la primaire de la droite et du centre en 2016, voire de l’élection présidentielle de 2017. Mais son aventure électorale s’est arrêtée au deuxième tour de la primaire et s’est soldée par la victoire surprise de François Fillon. Certains de ses partisans ont souligné que son échec était en partie dû à une campagne négative intense sur les réseaux sociaux, visant à le décrédibiliser auprès de l’électorat traditionnel de droite. Le sobriquet « Ali Juppé » – censé incarner les liens étroits d’A. Juppé avec l’islam radical – a en effet circulé massivement en novembre 2016 sur Twitter et Facebook. La structure des réseaux sociaux, et plus particulièrement celle de Facebook, change-t-elle la donne dans la circulation et la propagation de messages négatifs en campagne électorale ? Quelles sont les stratégies de lutte mises en place par les équipes de campagne pour démentir ces rumeurs ? Quels sont les effets de ces campagnes négatives en ligne sur le vote ? Pour répondre à ces questions, nous avons investi trois méthodes de recherche : une ethnographie en ligne sur Facebook, des entretiens avec les militants et membres de l’équipe de campagne d’A. Juppé et une enquête quantitative sur les électeurs de la primaire. The candidate Alain Juppé was given favorite of the primary of the right and the center in 2016, even of the presidential election of 2017. But his electoral adventure stopped in the second round of the primary and ended in the surprise victory of François Fillon. Some of his supporters pointed out that his failure was due in part to an intense negative campaign on social media, aimed at discrediting him with the traditional right-wing electorate. The nickname “Ali Juppé” – supposed to embody A. Juppé’s close ties to radical Islam – indeed circulated massively in November 2016 on Twitter and Facebook. Does the structure of social networks, and more particularly Facebook, change the game in the circulation and propagation of negative messages during an election campaign? What are the fight strategies put in place by campaign teams to refute these rumors? What are the effects of these negative online campaigns on voting? To answer these questions, we used three research methods: an online ethnography on Facebook, interviews with activists and members of A. Juppé’s campaign team, and a quantitative survey of primary voters.

Depuis 2011, les nombreuses interdictions de déplacement de supporters de football jalonnent l’actualité sportive française. La presse, au départ distante, s’est peu à peu mise à traiter l’actualité autour de ce phénomène, allant même jusqu’à basculer de registre rédactionnel. Pour répondre aux questions du pourquoi et du comment, cette étude a cherché à analyser les articles existants sur les interdictions de déplacement et le registre choisi pour les écrire, premier indicateur du positionnement de la presse vis-à-vis de ces décisions. Le caractère éminemment polémique du sujet entre ses différents acteurs a effectivement rapidement interpellé la presse française, qui est devenu involontairement un acteur à part entière du débat. Travel bans against football fans make the headlines of French sport news since 2011. At first, the cautious and distant news started to report on the phenomenon, newspapers even started to change their editorial terminology. In order to answer the questions about how and why this changes appeared, the aim of this paper is to analyse the press articles written about travel bans and the terminology used to write them, which in fact, is the first indicator of the position the press chose to take on the matter. The way this subject is controversial for its several protagonists, aroused the French Press curiosity, thus leading it to unintentionally become a member of the debate.

Les campagnes politiques aux États-Unis sont considérées comme particulièrement négatives, surtout au niveau présidentiel. Cette recherche analyse la négativité de la campagne présidentielle de 2016 dans ce pays en se concentrant sur les publicités payantes, à la fois à la télévision et en ligne. Les résultats pointent globalement des niveaux de négativité très élevés, mais avec un degré de négativité variant considérablement selon la phase de la campagne (élection générale versus primaires), le calendrier (la proximité du jour du scrutin), le type d’annonceur (candidat lui-même versus groupe qui le soutient) et le média (télévision versus internet). Des recherches ultérieures devraient s’efforcer d’établir davantage de comparaisons internationales. Political campaigns in the United States are thought to be particularly negative, especially at the presidential level. This research examines negativity in the 2016 US presidential campaign, with a focus on paid television and paid online advertising. I find very high levels of negativity, but the amount of negativity varies considerably depending on the phase of campaign (general election v. nomination), the timing (the closeness to Election Day), the type of sponsor (candidate v. group) and medium (television v. online). Further research should strive to make more cross-national comparisons.

Wolf Feuerhahn (CNRS, EHESS) a présenté dans la 37e livraison de Questions de communication une réflexion sur « Le chercheur et le discours de ses objets ». Il y a développé un propos sur la nomination des savoirs par les acteurs, sur l’historiographie que ceux-ci sont susceptibles d’élaborer, sur l’acte d’historicisation en tant que tel. Quatre chercheur·ses reviennent sur ses propositions. Fernando J. Devoto (Université de Buenos Aires) le fait notamment à l’aune de l’influence de Benedetto Croce sur la sphère culturelle argentine et sur sa propre pratique. Jérôme Lamy (CNRS, Université de Toulouse) insiste sur l’expérience, sur l’impact des gestes et corps. Stéphane Zékian (CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2) montre comment, à la différence d’autres secteurs, le discours des objets est une source de premier plan pour l’histoire de la littérature. Quant à Catherine König-Pralong (EHESS, CNRS), elle requalifie l’historicisme défendu par W. Feuerhahn en un « historicisme radical », ce qui conduit à des interrogations sur les positionnements temporels. L’ensemble constitue un capital d’expériences critiques applicable à des enquêtes sur les différentes disciplines des sciences humaines et sociales, dont les sciences de l’information et de la communication. In the 37th issue of Questions de communication, Wolf Feuerhahn (CNRS, EHESS) presented a reflection on “The Researcher and the Discourse of its Objects”. He developed a statement about the knowledge designation by the actors, about the historiography they can elaborate, about the act of historicisation as such. Four researchers discuss his propositions. Fernando J. Devoto (University of Buenos Aires) does it notably on the basis of the influence of Bendetto Croce on the Argentinean cultural sphere and on his own practice. Jérôme Lamy (CNRS, University of Toulouse) insists on experience, on the impact of the gestures and bodies. Stéphane Zékian (CNRS, Université Lyon 2) shows how, unlike other sectors, the discourse of objects is a major source for the history of literature. As for Catherin König-Pralong (EHESS, CNRS), she requalifies the historicism defended by W. Feuerhahn into a “radical historicism”, which leads to questions about temporal positioning. The whole constitutes a capital of critical experience applicable to investigations in the various disciplines of the human and social sciences, including information and communication sciences.

Hate speech in user comments is a serious challenge for media actors, platforms, legal authorities, and the general public alike. This form of communication can impair the quality of online discussions, but also poison public discourse and civic life. This explains the plethora of studies from different disciplines addressing this topic. However, the diversity of disciplines and approaches complicate a common understanding of hate speech. Frequently, definitions are too broad, as they include factors such as the intention of the commenter or the consequences for stigmatized groups. Additionally, binary categorizations (hate/no hate) applied in some disciplines fail to consider that hate speech varies gradually and ignore qualitative differences of hate speech dimensions. The present research suggests a feature-based approach to analyze hate speech in user comments focusing on manifest features (group-related labels, swear words, trait and action attributions as well as treatment recommendations), and demonstrates its use in a pilot study. Les discours haineux dans les commentaires des utilisateurs en ligne constituent un défi pour les médias, les plateformes, les autorités juridiques et le grand public. Cette forme de communication peut nuire à la qualité des discussions en ligne, mais aussi empoisonner le discours public et la vie civique. Ceci explique la pléthore d’études venant de différentes disciplines traitant ce sujet. Cependant, la diversité des disciplines et des approches complique une compréhension commune du discours haineux. Souvent, les définitions sont trop larges car elles incluent des facteurs tels que l’intention du commentateur ou les conséquences pour les groupes stigmatisés. En outre, les catégorisations binaires (haine/sans haine) appliquées dans certaines disciplines, ne tiennent pas compte du fait que les discours haineux oscillent en intensité, et ignorent les différences qualitatives des dimensions de ce dernier. La présente recherche propose une approche pour analyser les discours de haine dans les commentaires en ligne en se concentrant sur quelques aspects manifestes de celui-ci (labélisation de groupes, jurons, imputation de traits et d’actions, recommandations de traitement). Son utilisation est démontrée dans une étude pilote.

L’objectif de cette étude est de donner un aperçu des pratiques de citation des chercheurs publiant dans neuf revues françaises en sciences de la communication. Notre analyse comprend un total de 77 566 citations tirées à partir de 3 195 articles publiés de 1992 à 2016. Nous discutons dans cet article des supports utilisés et nous montrons que les monographies et les articles de périodiques constituent le principal mode de diffusion des connaissances en sciences de la communication. Nos résultats mettent en évidence que la liste des revues françaises et étrangères les plus citées est sensiblement différente de celle utilisée par les instances françaises des sciences de l’information et de la communication. Nous avons également constaté que les pratiques de citation ne varient pas considérablement entre les neuf revues. The aim of this study is to review the characteristics of French research published in communication journals. To this end, we examine citations found in articles published from 1992 to 2016 in the top nine French disciplinary journals. We analyze a total of 77 566 citations drawn from 3 195 articles. Results demonstrate that monographs and journal articles constitute the main pathway for knowledge dissemination in communication sciences. They likewise reveal that the list of the most cited French and foreign journals is significantly different from the one used by the French authorities of Information and Communication Sciences. We also show that citation practices do not vary significantly among the nine journals.

Prenant appui sur le texte de Wolf Feuerhahn (2020), l'article en déplace les enjeux sur le terrain propre de l’histoire littéraire. Contrairement à ce qu’on observe dans d’autres champs, le discours des objets, loin d’être toujours considéré comme un obstacle épistémologique, y apparaît souvent comme une source privilégiée de l’historien. Cette difficulté à fonder un point de vue extérieur révèle une dépendance sans doute excessive à l’égard d’un petit nombre de sources très prestigieuses. La promotion de certains objets en sources privilégiées de leur propre histoire produit des effets de ventriloquie préjudiciables à une histoire historique du littéraire. Prendre au sérieux le discours des acteurs, c’est-à-dire de tous les acteurs, permettrait au contraire de restituer, avec la pluralité discordante des voix passées, la logique des rapports de force ayant tranché l’issue de leurs controverses. Tout en restant consciente de sa propre historicité, cette mise en perspective apporterait un éclairage utile sur la constitution même de l’objet « littérature », mais aussi de la discipline portant ce nom. Inspired by W. Feuerhahn’s text, this article seeks to place the questions on the terrain proper to literary history. Unlike in other fields, literary history treats the discourse of objects as a privileged source, rather than an epistemological obstacle. This difficulty in establishing an external point of view reveals an excessive dependence on a small number of high-prestige sources. Privileging certain objects as sources for their own history produces ventriloquistic effects that inhibit developing a historical account of the literary. On the contrary, taking the discourse of the agents – of all the agents – seriously would make it possible to restore, through the discordant plurality of past voices, the logic of the relations of power that decided the outcome of their controversies. This perspective would shed useful light on the very concept of “literature”, and also on the academic discipline by that name, while remaining conscious of its own historicity.

Youtube est devenue l’une des plateformes préférées des internautes, notamment des jeunes. Prenant en compte la concurrence exacerbée pour la visibilité sur cette plateforme, les locuteurs mettent en place différentes stratégies pour attirer leur public. Notre étude propose une typologie des stratégies exposées dans 44 vidéos de Youtube (22 françaises et 22 mexicaines) qui abordent la problématique environnementale, alors que la protection de l’environnement est devenue un des sujets prioritaires pour l’humanité. À des fins purement académiques, ou même pour essayer de sensibiliser la société sur certains sujets environnementaux, l’étude de discours environnementaux nous aidera à mieux comprendre la perception sociale dans ce domaine. Par ailleurs, cette typologie pourra contribuer à faciliter l’analyse et l’étude du discours environnemental adressé spécifiquement aux jeunes. Youtube has become one of the favorite internet platforms, particularly for young people. Taking into account the intense competition for visibility among youtubers, they apply different strategies to attract their public. Our study proposes a typology of the discursive strategies found in 44 Youtube videos (22 French ones et 22 Mexican ones) that address environmental problems, given that environmental protection has become one of the most important matters for humanity. This typology could facilitate the analysis and study of environmental discourse addressed to young people, a matter that can be interesting for purely academic purposes or in order to increase awareness of society regarding particular environmental topics.

L’article examine les différents usages de la négativité dans le contexte de la Russie post-soviétique marqué par un mouvement d’ouverture puis de fermeture du jeu politique. Il analyse comment la trajectoire du pays et les successives configurations au pouvoir ont permis l’émergence de « technologies noires » pour discréditer les adversaires avant que le rejet de la décennie 1990, des conditions de transition à la démocratie et au capitalisme ainsi que les acteurs qui ont porté ce changement, devienne le discours de légitimation central depuis l’arrivée de Vladimir Poutine au pouvoir. Il montre enfin la façon dont, depuis quelques années, la mouvance d’opposition démocrate s’est réappropriée un certain nombre de stratégies négatives pour remettre en cause le régime dans son ensemble. The article deals with the different uses of negativity in the context of post-soviet Russia, characterized by processes of opening and closing of the political game. It analyzes how its specific trajectory and the successive power configurations led to the apparition of “black technologies” to discredit adversaries before the rejection of the nineties, of the abrupt transition to democracy and capitalism and of the leaders of that time became the main legitimation strategy since Vladimir Putin came to power. Finally, it shows how the democratic opposition appropriated for the last years, some of the negative strategy in order to challenge the current political regime.

L’historicisation des catégories du monde savant que revendique Wolf Feuerhahn (2020) peut être étendue au-delà des seules discursivités. La réflexion sur les méta-concepts – ces concepts organisateurs des pratiques scientifiques – permet d’interroger l’évolution des configurations épistémiques dans le temps. La raison et l’objectivité sont deux exemples de ces points d’appuis rarement explicitement requis dans la démarche savante ; pour autant, les généalogies de leur formation renseignent sur les écarts de sens progressivement construits. De même, la matérialité somatique informe l’histoire des distances prises entre des catégories d’analyse absentes d’une époque (par exemple la domination masculine) et ses manifestations pourtant évidentes (c’est-à-dire l’invisibilisation des femmes par la valorisation du corps héroïque). La reconstitution des expériences donne à voir au xixe siècle, les transformations du geste artisanal vers la standardisation industrielle. L’article plaide pour une pragmatique des écarts, un incessant aller-retour entre le présent et le passé, qui donne à l’historicité la pleine mesure de ses potentialités analytiques. Wolf Feuerhahn’s historicisation of the categories of the scholarly world can be extended beyond discursivity alone. Reflection on meta-concepts – the organizing concepts of scientific practice – allows us to question the evolution of epistemic configurations over time. Reason and objectivity are two examples of these points of support that are rarely explicitly required in the scientific process; for all that, the genealogies of their formation provide information on the progressively constructed gaps in meaning. Similarly, somatic materiality informs history of the distances taken between categories of analysis absent from an era (e.g. male domination) and its yet obvious manifestations (i.e. the invisibilisation of women through the valorisation of the heroic body). The reconstruction of experiences shows the transformations in the 19th century from the gesture of craftsmanship to industrial standardisation. The article argues for a pragmatism of gaps, an incessant back and forth between the present and the past, which gives historicity the full measure of its analytical potential.

Cet article prolonge le débat ouvert dans la 34e livraison de Questions de communication (2018) concernant la visibilité des anonymes et les images conversationnelles qui colonisent l’espace public. Avec la crise des Gilets jaunes, la question des violences policières s’est imposée comme un exemple majeur de contre-récit, appuyé pour l’essentiel sur la diffusion en ligne d’images virales. Cet article analyse les conditions d’émergence dans le débat public d’un récit minoritaire grâce aux médias numériques. À l’écart de la communication militante, confronté à de puissants mécanismes de déni, un processus d’alerte autonome s’est constitué à partir de la crédibilité du format documentaire, de la dynamique argumentative de la conversation en ligne et de la mobilisation d’une esthétique de la pitié. With the Gilet jaunes crisis, the issue of police violence has been established as a major example of a counter-narrative, mainly relying on the online circulation of viral images. This article analyzes the conditions for the emergence in public debate of a minority narrative thanks to digital media. Apart from activist communication, faced with powerful denial mechanisms, an autonomous alert process has been established based on the credibility of the documentary format, the argumentative dynamic of the online conversation, and the mobilization of an aesthetic of mercy.

Se déroulant dans un climat de tensions, la présidentielle française de 2017 a marqué les esprits pour sa tonalité négative. Certains candidats ont vu l’opportunité de se montrer particulièrement offensifs en dénigrant un ou plusieurs concurrents ; d’autres, au contraire, ont cherché à déconstruire tout effet de négativité, non sans mobiliser parfois les mêmes codes de l’effervescence négative. À partir d’une observation de terrain dans les meetings des principaux candidats et l’exploitation de sources complémentaires (archives des comptes de campagnes, comptes rendus de presse), cet article étudie la négativité en tant que stratégie située dans le dispositif du meeting. Il s’agit de ne pas dissocier la dimension discursive de la négativité, par le repérage des certains procédés argumentatifs, de sa dimension ethnographique, pour comprendre comment fonctionnent la production et la circulation de ces procédés dans un milieu social donné. Taking place in a climate of tension, the 2017 French presidential election has been marked by its negative tone. Some candidates saw the opportunity to be particularly offensive by denigrating one or more competitors ; others, on the contrary, sought to (re)shape negative effects, as they nonetheless mobilize the same codes of negative effervescence. Based on a field observation of the main candidates’ rallies and the analysis of complementary sources (archives of campaign accounts, press reports), this article studies negativity as a strategy within the rallies’ mechanism. The aim is to combine the discursive dimension of negativity, through the identification of certain argumentative processes, and its ethnographic dimension, in order to understand how the production and diffusion of these processes works in a given social environment.

Durant la campagne présidentielle française de 2017, le dispositif « Ridicule TV » se présente comme un projet d’humour sur l’actualité politique sur les réseaux sociaux numériques (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube) et diffuse une soixantaine de courtes vidéos. En réalité, il s’agit d’une action dissimulée de communication politique négative contre Emmanuel Macron élaborée et gérée par des membres de la campagne de l’un de ses adversaires, François Fillon. Nous discutons comment le dispositif, puisqu'il ne se donne pas à connaître pour ce qu’il est, limite sa réussite en matière de gain électoral, tout en s’ajustant à des contraintes contextuelles. Pour élucider l’apparent paradoxe entre la fin et les moyens de cette action de négativité, l’article en étudie théoriquement et empiriquement la pertinence avec une double perspective de sociologie de la communication politique et d’analyse stratégique de la communication. Puis, l’analyse de contenu des vidéos en termes de mise en récit et de procédés discursifs, en opérant notamment la distinction entre moquerie et dénonciation, permet d’évaluer à quel degré les discours sont conformes au projet stratégique. L’analyse révèle un important travail de recherche des contenus et de mise en récit politique, ainsi que la primauté d’un objectif stratégique – dénigrer l’adversaire – sur un autre, la dissimulation. In the 2017 French presidential campaign, the “Ridicule TV” device appears as a humoristic project about politics on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube) and publishes 60 short videos. Yet it is a hidden tool of negative campaigning against the centre free-market candidate Emmanuel Macron designed and managed by members of the rightwing François Fillon campaign. We discuss why such a cover up limits its ability to improve electoral results as well as it adapts to contextual constraints. In order to explain the apparent paradox between the end and the means of this negativity, our article studies theoretically and empirically its use through an approach combining the sociology of political communication and the strategic analysis of communication. Then, we conduct a content analysis of the videos in terms of narrative analysis and discursive processes with special regard to the differences between mockery and criticism in order to assess to what extent the discourse is consistent with the project. We show the staff of Ridicule TV achieved a high degree of political sourcing and politicization of the narrative, and prioritized the strategic goal of criticizing the opponent over the strategic goal of hiding the purpose of the device.

One of the most crucial decisions political candidates make ahead of an election is whether they want to focus on their image or that of their their political opponents in their advertisement (Lau and Rovner , 2009). During electoral campaigns, candidates need to decide whether they use political advertisement to display a positive image of themselves or whether they try to make the opponent look bad. The first strategy is referred to as Acclaim or Positive Ads. The second approach, according to Surlin and Gordon is called Negative Campaigning and is applied by a political candidate when (s)he “attacks the other candidate personally, the issues for which the other candidate stands, or the party of the other candidate” (1977, p. 93). However, measuring negative campaigning poses a challenge to academic research since content analyses often fail to address the grey areas of this concept. To begin with, many political ads compare positive characteristics of a candidate against opponents’ more negative ones. (Lau & Rovner, 2009). Ads that contain both strategies, shedding positive light on the candidate while also highlighting negative aspects about the opponent’s character or policies are called Comparison or Comparative Ads. These comparisons are difficult to code with straightforward approaches. For example, analyzing campaigns along a positive/negative dichotomy by discounting attacks to the opponent from positive self-presentations may equate strongly positively and negatively charged political advertising to neutral campaigns. Also, negativity in political campaigning is studied in different contexts and has been extended as a number of studies on negative campaigning look in particular at Attacks and Rebuttals/Defense from opponents after an attack (Benoit, 2000; Benoit & Airne, 2009; Erigha & Charles, 2012; Lee & Benoit, 2004; Torres, Hyman, & Hamilton, 2012). This distinction raises other important methodological and theoretical implications. Sweeping measures of negativity based on common scholarly definitions do not consider voters’ tolerance towards the use of certain forms of negativity by candidates (for example, rebutting an attack from an opponent) that may be perceived as legitimate. Not accounting for such nuances is what makes many negativity measures unable to accurately gauge the effects of negative campaigning among the electorate (Sigelman & Kugler, 2003). Field of application/theoretical foundation: Negative campaigning and its related constructs (such as attacks or rebuttals) have been often associated with current trends in political communication of modernization and professionalization of election campaigns (Voltmer, 2004). Negative campaigning is indeed a development that can be observed across many different political contexts (Kaid & Holtz-Bacha, 2006). Campaign strategies using negative messages about a political opponent have been studied relying on theories from social and cognitive psychology (Kahn & Kenney, 1999; Lau, 1985) and mostly in regard to their potential consequences for a healthy democracy (Lau & Rovner, 2009). Their operationalization follows a simple schema by coding whether a certain construct is present in a given advertising piece or not. Alternatively, it is coded which kind of category best reflects on the content of a given political advertisement. References/combination with other methods of data collection: Negative campaigning and related constructs have been studied through content analysis both of paid advertisement (Benoit, 2000) and news coverage by the mass media (Lau & Pomper, 2004); The features and effects of negative campaigning have also been analyzed through voter surveys (Brader, 2005, 2006) and interviews with campaign managers (Kahn & Kenney, 1999). Its effects were furthermore more precisely measured through numerous experimental studies (Ansolabehere, Iyengar, Simon, & Valentino, 1994; overview see: Lau et al., 2007). Example studies: Table 1: Overview exemplary studies measuring of negative campaigning and related constructs Authors Sample Unit of analysis Constructs Values Reliability Benoit (2000), Benoit & Airne (2009), Lee & Benoit (2004) Television ads, direct mail, newspaper ads, and candidate web pages Acclaim Acclaims portray the sponsored candidate in a favorable light, both his/her character and/or policy (Benoit, 2000, 281, 295) 0 = not present 1 = present Cohen’s kappa average = .96 Erigha & Charles (2012) Television and web advertisements Non-negative/ advocacy A non-negative/advocacy ad favors a party’s candidate, focusing solely on that individual. 1 = non-negative / advocacy 2 = comparison 3= attack ads (exclusive options) Cohen’s kappa average = .96 Torres et al. (2012) Presidential candidate–sponsored TV ads Non-comparative ad If the ad simply mentions positive attributes of a particular candidate without mentioning an opponent, the ad is coded as a non-comparison (positive) ad (p. 196) 1 = comparative ad 2 = negative ad 3= non-comparative ad (exclusive options) Cohen’s kappa average = .98 Steffan & Venema (2019) Campaign posters Textual negative campaigning Visual negative campaigning Based on Lau and Pomper’s (2002), textual/visual negative campaiging indicates whether the image / text on the campaign posters referred to other political parties or candidates. (p. 273) 0 = not present 1 = present Visual negative campaigning: Krippendorff’s α = .82 Textual negative campaigning: Krippendorff’s α = .84 Torres et al. (2012) Presidential candidate–sponsored TV ads Negative ad If the ad criticizes the opposing party and/or candidate but offers no alternative (in essence, the ad presents negative information about an opponent but no information about the candidate on whose behalf it is run), then the ad is coded as a negative ad. 1 = comparative ad 2 = negative ad 3= non-comparative ad (exclusive options) Cohen’s kappa average = .98 Ceccobelli (2018) Facebook posts Negative rhetorical strategy The posts taken into consideration are those in which leaders employ a purely negative campaigning strategy. Cases in which a hypothetic leader A attacks one or more political opponents by comparing his/her own figure or policy proposal with the one(s) of her/his competitor(s) are not coded, since they denote a comparative rhetorical strategy (p. 129) 0 = not present 1 = present Krippendorff’s α average = .85 Benoit (2000), Benoit & Airne (2009), Lee & Benoit (2004) Television spots, direct mail pieces, newspaper ads, and candidate web pages Attack Portrays the opposing candidate in an unfavorable light, both his/her character and/or policy (Benoit, 2000, 281, 295) 0 = not present 1 = present Cohen’s kappa average = .96 Erigha & Charles (2012) Television and web advertisements Attack ads Attack ads criticize the opposing candidate without referencing the sponsoring party’s candidate (p. 443) 1 = non-negative / advocacy 2 = comparison 3= attack ads (exclusive options) Cohen's kappa average = .96 Benoit (2000), Benoit & Airne (2009), Lee & Benoit (2004) Television spots, direct mail pieces, newspaper ads, and candidate web pages Defense Defense responds to (refutes) an attack on the candidate, both on his/her character and/or policy (Benoit, 2000, 281, 295) 0 = not present 1 = present Cohen’s kappa average = .96 Erigha & Charles (2012) Television and web advertisements Comparison A comparison ad weighs two credentials, characteristics, or policystances (p. 443) 1 = non-negative / advocacy 2 = comparison 3= attack ads (exclusive options) Cohen's kappa average = .956 Torres et al. (2012) Presidential candidate–sponsored TV ads Comparative ad If the ad criticizes the opposing party and/or candidate and recommends alternative courses of action by comparing two candidates on specific points so as to present one in a more positive and the other in a more negative light, then the ad is coded as a comparative ad (p. 195) 1 = comparative ad 2 = negative ad 3= non-comparative ad (exclusive options) Cohen’s kappa average = .98 References Ansolabehere, S., Iyengar, S., Simon, A., & Valentino, N. (1994). Does Attack Advertising Demobilize the Electorate? American Political Science Review, 88(4), 829–838. https://doi.org/10.2307/2082710 Benoit, W. L. (2000). A Functional Analysis of Political Advertising across Media, 1998. Communication Studies, 51(3), 274–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510970009388524 Benoit, W. L., & Airne, D. (2009). Non-Presidential Political Advertising in Campaign 2004. Human Communication, 12(1), 91–117. Brader, T. (2005). 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Abstract. We investigate whether Schadenfreude – finding pleasure in others’ misfortune – moderates the perception and effects of negative political messages (“negative campaigning”). We present the results of three experiments, two conducted in the United States with samples of 1,722 and 1,408 respondents surveyed via MTurk, and the other conducted in The Netherlands with a sample of 143 undergraduate students. In all studies respondents were exposed to a positive or negative message on a given issue and asked afterward to evaluate the message (message perception) and the target of the message (effect of the message). Studies 1 and 2 tested for the moderating effect of “trait” Schadenfreude – that is, to what extent respondents are likely to experience Schadenfreude in their everyday life, whereas Study 3 tested for the effects of “state” Schadenfreude via a stimulus intended to elicit it as a reaction. Results show that (1) Schadenfreude moderates the perception of the negative messages; people with low trait Schadenfreude react strongly (and negatively) to attacks; (2) state Schadenfreude does not have as strong an effect as trait Schadenfreude; (3) Schadenfreude only marginally moderates the direct effect of the negative message on the evaluation of the target politician.