# Perverted uses of digital networks: when journalists and communicators get entangled! An analysis of the paradoxical process of re-feudalization related to the evolution of contemporary capitalism worldwide

Bertrand Cabedoche

► To cite this version:

Bertrand Cabedoche. Perverted uses of digital networks: when journalists and communicators get entangled! An analysis of the paradoxical process of re-feudalization related to the evolution of contemporary capitalism worldwide. Izmir, İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University, London, Macro World Publishing. Ugar Bakan and Lara Martin Lengel (eds.), Social Media Archaeology from Theory to Practice, p. 195-224, 2021, Communication series. hal-04538738

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# Perverted uses of digital networks: when journalists and communicators get entangled! An analysis of the paradoxical process of re-feudalization related to the evolution of contemporary capitalism worldwide

Bertrand Cabedoche

► To cite this version:

Bertrand Cabedoche. Perverted uses of digital networks: when journalists and communicators get entangled! An analysis of the paradoxical process of re-feudalization related to the evolution of contemporary capitalism worldwide. Izmir, İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University, London, Macro World Publishing. Ugar Bakan and Lara Martin Lengel (eds.), Social Media Archaeology from Theory to Practice, p. 195-224, 2021, Communication series. hal-04538738

HAL Id: hal-04538738

https://hal.science/hal-04538738v1

Submitted on 9 Apr 2024

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
**Social Media Archaeology from Theory to Practice**

area : *Empirical studies of user behavior on social media*

*Chapter*

Perverted uses of digital networks: when journalists and communicators get entangled! An analysis of the paradoxical process of re-feudalization related to the evolution of contemporary capitalism worldwide

Pr Bertrand Cabedoche

Université Grenoble Alpes France

Abstract

The increasing commercialization of media had led Jürgen Habermas to speak in terms of a "re-feudalisation" of the public sphere and a substitution of the principle of integration by the principle of publicity from increasingly powerful interest groups. Since then, the author corrected his analysis: a communicative power can also influence the administrative power and oppose mainstream media manipulation.

However, recent analyzes now take up the concept of "re-feudalization", in another way. It could be used to signify the social transformation underway, leading to the establishment of "neo-feudal" privileges for the wealthy classes, while the lower social categories are confronted with exclusion and return to forced labor. These paradoxical situations also explain why, for certain other social actors in the intermediate categories, the fear of declassification - felt or real - justified the development of perverse strategies to eliminate competitors, for example women, in the labour market work.

In this chapter, the analysis is applied to the recent cases in France of tweeting harassment, carried out by journalists and communicators, some of them consecrated as VIP, and all of them organized in packs around *The ligue du Lol (Laughing Out Loud League)*. For several years since 2009, their favorite targets have been confreres and especially sisters. Some of them were already fragile. But others were considered as potential stronger competitors likely to uptage them, either to the entry into the profession, either for promotions to team responsibilities, or even to editorial direction. Significantly, the explanatory perspective proved to be absent in the mainstream media reconstitutions of the event by the corporation, suddendly plunged unwillingly into the position of the "sprayed sprinkler".

Moreover, the vicious dynamic particularly worked for the members of the pack, thanks to their own feeling of impunity that *Twitter*, like other GAFAM (*Google*, *Amazon*, *Facebook*, *Apple*, *Microsoft*), protected against the injunctions from public authorities to declassify the secrecy of correspondence. In the name of freedom of expression and respect of privacy for the first, as actors of digital journalism! In the name of liberalism, for the second, as hyperpuishing groups of the information technology sector, taking advantage of more and more profitable and competitive investments, as contents providers.

KEYWORDS: troll - harassment – re-feudalization - cultural industries
**Social Media Archaeology from Theory to Practice**

area : Empirical studies of user behavior on social media

Chapter

Perverted uses of digital networks: when journalists and communicators get entangled! An analysis of the paradoxical process of re-feudalization related to the evolution of contemporary capitalism worldwide

Pr Bertrand Cabedoche

Université Grenoble Alpes France

Abstract

The increasing commercialization of media had led Jürgen Habermas to speak in terms of a "re-feudalisation" of the public sphere and a substitution of the principle of integration by the principle of publicity from increasingly powerful interest groups. Since then, the author corrected his analysis: a communicative power can also influence the administrative power and oppose mainstream media manipulation.

However, recent analyzes now take up the concept of "re-feudalization", in another way. It could be used to signify the social transformation underway, leading to the establishment of "neo-feudal" privileges for the wealthy classes, while the lower social categories are confronted with exclusion and return to forced labor. These paradoxical situations also explain why, for certain other social actors in the intermediate categories, the fear of declassification - felt or real - justified the development of perverse strategies to eliminate competitors, for example women, in the labour market work.

In this chapter, the analysis is applied to the recent cases in France of tweeting harassment, carried out by journalists and communicators, some of them consecrated as VIP, and all of them organized in packs around *The ligue du Lol (Laughing Out Loud League)*. For several years since 2009, their favorite targets have been confreres and especially sisters. Some of them were already fragile. But others were considered as potential stronger competitors likely to uptage them, either to the entry into the profession, either for promotions to team responsibilities, or even to editorial direction. Significantly, the explanatory perspective proved to be absent in the mainstream media reconstitutions of the event by the corporation, suddendly plunged unwillingly into the position of the "sprayed sprinkler".

Moreover, the vicious dynamic particularly worked for the members of the pack, thanks to their own feeling of impunity that *Twitter*, like other GAFAM (*Google*, *Amazon*, *Facebook*, *Apple*, *Microsoft*), protected against the injunctions from public authorities to declassify the secrecy of correspondence. In the name of freedom of expression and respect of privacy for the first, as actors of digital journalism! In the name of liberalism, for the second, as hyperpuishing groups of the information technology sector, taking advantage of more and more profitable and competitive investments, as contents providers.

KEYWORDS: troll - harassment – re-feudalization - cultural industries
> « Information and communication technologies should not be accepted with gregarious naivety, nor be rejected in sterile opposition. They are simply there !»

Breaking news to this beginning of February 2019, with the frosty suddenness of bad news on Twitter and other digitized media of whistleblowers: famous French daily *Liberation* has just laid off two of its journalists as a safeguard measure, because they are implicated of moral harassment by victims through their own tweets. The affair could be trivialized : the denunciation of criminal acts, even simply macho against women, are, unfortunately, abundant in recent months. But in this case, the resonance is immediate in the French public sphere linked to the professional affiliation of deviants, writing in one of the leading daily newspapers in France, which moreover, was born from the protest movements of May 68 and then regarded as within the so-called "well-meaning" press. Admittedly, initially intended the measure is just an administrative one, the layoff is not a definitive sanction. It does not prejudge any kind of guilt. However, it shows that the daily management of *Liberation* took the matter "very seriously". Rightly. Because the following days, the revelations elevate the news brief to the rank of media and public affair, which journalists, usually fond of, would rather not have been involved in as defendant. Thus, soon the entire Parisian information and communication microcosm are indicted – and no longer just two of its representatives – through the criminal acts of a *Ligue du LOL* club of which they are all members. Everyone thus finds themselves in the uncomfortable situation of sprayed sprinklers.

## 1. A simple brief news significantly raised as a scandal

Immediately, the two involved journalists apologize on Twitter. But beyond the emotion aroused by the double confession, the revelation of the imagined process, as well as the medium used and the protagonists involved in the offense, in number and quality, are immediately seen as a proof of a drift of journalism. Worse: as a rout of a so-called "professional" journalism. Immediately, the whole corporation feels blamed, whatever the nature of the medium it uses – digital included at the age of a trivialization of blogs and tweets of journalists and the development of pure player media.
> « Information and communication technologies should not be accepted with gregarious naivety, nor be rejected in sterile opposition. They are simply there !»

Breaking news to this beginning of February 2019, with the frosty suddenness of bad news on Twitter and other digitized media of whistleblowers: famous French daily *Liberation* has just laid off two of its journalists as a safeguard measure, because they are implicated of moral harassment by victims through their own tweets. The affair could be trivialized : the denunciation of criminal acts, even simply macho against women, are, unfortunately, abundant in recent months. But in this case, the resonance is immediate in the French public sphere linked to the professional affiliation of deviants, writing in one of the leading daily newspapers in France, which moreover, was born from the protest movements of May 68 and then regarded as within the so-called "well-meaning" press. Admittedly, initially intended the measure is just an administrative one, the layoff is not a definitive sanction. It does not prejudge any kind of guilt. However, it shows that the daily management of *Liberation* took the matter "very seriously". Rightly. Because the following days, the revelations elevate the news brief to the rank of media and public affair, which journalists, usually fond of, would rather not have been involved in as defendant. Thus, soon the entire Parisian information and communication microcosm are indicted – and no longer just two of its representatives – through the criminal acts of a *Ligue du LOL* club of which they are all members. Everyone thus finds themselves in the uncomfortable situation of sprayed sprinklers.

## 1. A simple brief news significantly raised as a scandal

Immediately, the two involved journalists apologize on Twitter. But beyond the emotion aroused by the double confession, the revelation of the imagined process, as well as the medium used and the protagonists involved in the offense, in number and quality, are immediately seen as a proof of a drift of journalism. Worse: as a rout of a so-called "professional" journalism. Immediately, the whole corporation feels blamed, whatever the nature of the medium it uses – digital included at the age of a trivialization of blogs and tweets of journalists and the development of pure player media.
To understand, we must remember that, at the social networks start-up at the beginning of the Third Millennium, when competition between producers of mediated information had suddenly increased, some journalists of the mainstream newspaper's journalists – synonymous with professional quality – had chosen a haughty attitude toward digital usurpers, considered to be inexperienced amateur (Salles, 2010). Investigating the phenomenon, *Liberation* had titled its investigation: "Blogs, all journalists? ", But the contemptuous, then reserved attitude of the journalists of *Le Monde* newspaper was indicative of the disdain at that time, against these "web 2.0 dummies". To avoid any confusion with their own journalism practices, they had arrogated for themselves and this, in an exclusive way, the quality of" professionals ", as if the territory was indubtedly as a profession, which the sociology of professions denies, speaking in terms of "vagueness" (Ruellan, 2007 and 2011).

The aristocracy of journalism intended to remind the deontology that constituted all the peculiarity and nobility of the profession, exercised by practitioners whose rigorous techniques of collecting and disseminating information are distinguished precisely by ethics. We know whose ancestor they get them from and how to fight back: the first professional journalists is traditionally known as Théophraste Renaudot, founder and host of *La Gazette*, who had defined the basic rules of ethics.

**1.1. An ethical concern going back to the origins of "professional journalism"**

Renaudot's proposal, which enabled him to impose *La Gazette* over its competitors as a benchmark newspaper, was meant to be open ("All those who are in love like me with Truth, in whatever climate of the world they live, are welcome to boldly send me their news"). But it was very demanding too.

It stood out from others for the quality of its information with the aim of correcting rumors. Thus, quickly, La Gazette became a quality political and social newspaper with an international renown. Its founder editor-in-chief, Theophraste Renaudot is cited as the creator of the modern press, linked by definition to the life of the nation. From his qualities of social generosity, curiosity, liveliness of mind, power of work, and stubbornness, his academic reference had even justified the constitution of both a French literary prize (Renaudot price) and a global network of journalism training Theophraste network).
To understand, we must remember that, at the social networks start-up at the beginning of the Third Millennium, when competition between producers of mediated information had suddenly increased, some journalists of the mainstream newspaper's journalists – synonymous with professional quality – had chosen a haughty attitude toward digital usurpers, considered to be inexperienced amateur (Salles, 2010). Investigating the phenomenon, *Liberation* had titled its investigation: "Blogs, all journalists? ", But the contemptuous, then reserved attitude of the journalists of *Le Monde* newspaper was indicative of the disdain at that time, against these "web 2.0 dummies". To avoid any confusion with their own journalism practices, they had arrogated for themselves and this, in an exclusive way, the quality of" professionals ", as if the territory was indubtedly as a profession, which the sociology of professions denies, speaking in terms of "vagueness" (Ruellan, 2007 and 2011).

The aristocracy of journalism intended to remind the deontology that constituted all the peculiarity and nobility of the profession, exercised by practitioners whose rigorous techniques of collecting and disseminating information are distinguished precisely by ethics. We know whose ancestor they get them from and how to fight back: the first professional journalists is traditionally known as Théophraste Renaudot, founder and host of *La Gazette*, who had defined the basic rules of ethics.

**1.1. An ethical concern going back to the origins of "professional journalism"**

Renaudot's proposal, which enabled him to impose *La Gazette* over its competitors as a benchmark newspaper, was meant to be open ("All those who are in love like me with Truth, in whatever climate of the world they live, are welcome to boldly send me their news"). But it was very demanding too.

It stood out from others for the quality of its information with the aim of correcting rumors. Thus, quickly, La Gazette became a quality political and social newspaper with an international renown. Its founder editor-in-chief, Theophraste Renaudot is cited as the creator of the modern press, linked by definition to the life of the nation. From his qualities of social generosity, curiosity, liveliness of mind, power of work, and stubbornness, his academic reference had even justified the constitution of both a French literary prize (Renaudot price) and a global network of journalism training Theophraste network).
Thus, the basic principles of journalistic investigation and writing were codified. A deontological system has been added to the basic rules of journalism, as taught in journalism training schools, which goes beyond writing stricto sensu to engage the social responsibility of the journalist. Article 2 of the *Charte des droits et devoirs du journaliste* (Charter of Rights and Duties of Journalists) July 1918, revised in January 1938, stipulates that any journalist, worthy of the name, takes responsibility for all his/her writing, even anonymous. He/she consider slander, unproven accusations, tampering with documents, distortion of facts, lies as the most serious professional misconduct. He/she only accepts assignments which are compatible with professional dignity. He/she does not plot for a colleague's position, nor for the dismissal of a colleague by offering to work under inferior conditions. He considers scruple and justice to be the first rules.

However, the history of ethics rewritten by representatives of the corporation is partial and one-sided: it ignores allegiance to the king, which reduced Théophraste Renaudot's writing to an obedient "ghost writer". The control before publication of the articles was not only technical and ethical: it was primarily political as an act of very strict censorship, exercised directly by Louis XIII and Richelieu.

The professional corporation does not try to speak about *protojournalism* either. However, before Gutenberg's invention of the printing press between 1430 and 1440, regular correspondence services had been organized in Europe. The ancestors of journalists are therefore those *Menantii*: from the 13th century, they were trafficking in news, which they also traded, braving the sanction of the papal authorities (Pie V, Gregory XII, Sixte-Quint). The penalties incurred were not light: the Roman rigors wishing that their hand was cut off and their tongue torn out. It is true: any means were good to feed the gossip and other peddling of information quickly gleaned, but profitable. It had already been discovered that information could constitute a means of pressure, disqualification or even blackmail. In the middle of the 15th century The arrival of the first periodicals had not compromised the activity, whose good practices were to listen at the doors and "to be there at the right time" to reveal the Truth (Voyenne, 1959). During the Renaissance, the *gazetiers* thus extracted anecdotes and gossip.

These were practices that Renaudot proposed to reject. And by the end of the 17th century, magazines had been added to newspapers. Thus, they were intended to
Thus, the basic principles of journalistic investigation and writing were codified. A deontological system has been added to the basic rules of journalism, as taught in journalism training schools, which goes beyond writing stricto sensu to engage the social responsibility of the journalist. Article 2 of the *Charte des droits et devoirs du journaliste* (Charter of Rights and Duties of Journalists) July 1918, revised in January 1938, stipulates that any journalist, worthy of the name, takes responsibility for all his/her writing, even anonymous. He/she consider slander, unproven accusations, tampering with documents, distortion of facts, lies as the most serious professional misconduct. He/she only accepts assignments which are compatible with professional dignity. He/she does not plot for a colleague's position, nor for the dismissal of a colleague by offering to work under inferior conditions. He considers scruple and justice to be the first rules.

However, the history of ethics rewritten by representatives of the corporation is partial and one-sided: it ignores allegiance to the king, which reduced Théophraste Renaudot's writing to an obedient "ghost writer". The control before publication of the articles was not only technical and ethical: it was primarily political as an act of very strict censorship, exercised directly by Louis XIII and Richelieu.

The professional corporation does not try to speak about *protojournalism* either. However, before Gutenberg's invention of the printing press between 1430 and 1440, regular correspondence services had been organized in Europe. The ancestors of journalists are therefore those *Menantii*: from the 13th century, they were trafficking in news, which they also traded, braving the sanction of the papal authorities (Pie V, Gregory XII, Sixte-Quint). The penalties incurred were not light: the Roman rigors wishing that their hand was cut off and their tongue torn out. It is true: any means were good to feed the gossip and other peddling of information quickly gleaned, but profitable. It had already been discovered that information could constitute a means of pressure, disqualification or even blackmail. In the middle of the 15th century The arrival of the first periodicals had not compromised the activity, whose good practices were to listen at the doors and "to be there at the right time" to reveal the Truth (Voyenne, 1959). During the Renaissance, the *gazetiers* thus extracted anecdotes and gossip.

These were practices that Renaudot proposed to reject. And by the end of the 17th century, magazines had been added to newspapers. Thus, they were intended to
be didactic and were aimed primarily at the circle of educated laymen. Soon, critical
analysis soon through feature articles, in the field of scholarly truth (Habermas, 2006,
p. 35). And it was on this ground that Jürgen Habermas had identified the principle of
*Publicity* which, ethically, opened up to the control that then, the bourgeoisie opposed
to Power. The *public sphere* was born. It worked to put an end to the practice of
secrecy, peculiar against any absolute State. It worked too to submit a,y public
authority to the tribunal of rational criticism. However, we should not forget that quickly,
this shift from the 19th to the 20th century corresponded to a particular context : the
"golden age" of journalism, i.e. the transition from the craft press to a true
industrialization of the production of information with the improvement of printing
techniques (Balle, 1990, p. 89).

Thus, these "professional" rules and practices, which some people persist in
examining only from the perspective of moral virtues, must be put into perspective with
the more pragmatic requirements which impose them, this time with an economic,
financial, even ideological perspective.

## 1.2. More pragmatic requirements due to the industrialization of the press

From the very-beginning, Information and Communication sciences have been
dissatisfied with analyzes of media content just reduced to declarative literature of
journalists, even if the analysis of the discursive modalities ( genres, columns, tones,
registers, etc.) of papers can be interesting. Media information is not only a sum of
contents. It must be considered also and above all as modes of relationship, i.e. as a
pattern of productive communication between groups and social forces, and as a social
construct revealing a type of power relationship between different social actors (De la
Haye, 1985).

So, contextualizing the rule-making period (investigation and drafting
techniques), some of them turn proving not to just correspond to ethical imperatives.
For example, the inverted pyramid basic format of news stories is often presented as
a mark of scrupulous attention of a positivist journalist, attached to facilitating the
immediate readability and the understanding of the facts by his reader, by, first of all,
purging his text of any comments and judgement of intentions (Pélissier, 2005). But
these presentation rules – to be applied since the *chapô* (text entry) – were also
be didactic and were aimed primarily at the circle of educated laymen. Soon, critical
analysis soon through feature articles, in the field of scholarly truth (Habermas, 2006,
p. 35). And it was on this ground that Jürgen Habermas had identified the principle of
*Publicity* which, ethically, opened up to the control that then, the bourgeoisie opposed
to Power. The *public sphere* was born. It worked to put an end to the practice of
secrecy, peculiar against any absolute State. It worked too to submit a,y public
authority to the tribunal of rational criticism. However, we should not forget that quickly,
this shift from the 19th to the 20th century corresponded to a particular context : the
"golden age" of journalism, i.e. the transition from the craft press to a true
industrialization of the production of information with the improvement of printing
techniques (Balle, 1990, p. 89).

Thus, these "professional" rules and practices, which some people persist in
examining only from the perspective of moral virtues, must be put into perspective with
the more pragmatic requirements which impose them, this time with an economic,
financial, even ideological perspective.

## 1.2. More pragmatic requirements due to the industrialization of the press

From the very-beginning, Information and Communication sciences have been
dissatisfied with analyzes of media content just reduced to declarative literature of
journalists, even if the analysis of the discursive modalities ( genres, columns, tones,
registers, etc.) of papers can be interesting. Media information is not only a sum of
contents. It must be considered also and above all as modes of relationship, i.e. as a
pattern of productive communication between groups and social forces, and as a social
construct revealing a type of power relationship between different social actors (De la
Haye, 1985).

So, contextualizing the rule-making period (investigation and drafting
techniques), some of them turn proving not to just correspond to ethical imperatives.
For example, the inverted pyramid basic format of news stories is often presented as
a mark of scrupulous attention of a positivist journalist, attached to facilitating the
immediate readability and the understanding of the facts by his reader, by, first of all,
purging his text of any comments and judgement of intentions (Pélissier, 2005). But
these presentation rules – to be applied since the *chapô* (text entry) – were also
enacted to prevent the risk of interruption linked to telegraphic transmission, by
respecting the so-called 5 W's questions (Who? What? Where? When? Why?) as
proposed in the research program developed by Harold D. Lasswell. Thus, already,
ethics and economic interest came together opportunely: in the one hand, readers
gained ease of immediate access to information and in the other hand, press
publishers gained space savings.

In the same way, the myth of the press publisher as a gatekeeper of the
democratic values does not draw its strength only from the *journalist-vigilante* symbolic
figure. The reference was brought by the French Third Republic (Lemieux, 2001),
before being overvalued by Hollywood cinema: the investigative work of Bob
Woodward and Carl Bernstein up to the impeachment of Richard Nixon then functioned
as a symbol. Even more distantly, this journalism had captured the model of virtue that
the Republican School had attributed to the schoolmaster. A dialectical model was thus
constructed, which contemporary positivism is working to strengthen: thus, director of
studies at Oxford, researcher at Stanford and journalist, Timothy Garton Ash had
established a clear border between Literature on the one hand, History and Journalism
on the other: the one that separates *Truth* vs *Lies*, *fiction* vs *non-fiction*, *Objectivity* vs
*Subjectivity* (Cabedoche, 2004).

The proposal has already provoked a constructivism questioning which are now
appropriated by the information and communication sciences. Thus, Bernard Delforce
considers that *Truth* – that the journalist corporation is gloating over – is first a social
construct (Delforce, 1996; Delforce, Noyer, 1999; Delforce, 2004). Socio-linguist
Patrick Charaudeau considers journalistic content not as reality but as the product of
a whole series of negotiations between actors, at the crossroads of which the journalist
works (Charaudeau, 1997). We have reconstructed this reading of the co-construction
of media information, based on the author and other lessons of information and
communication sciences.
enacted to prevent the risk of interruption linked to telegraphic transmission, by
respecting the so-called 5 W's questions (Who? What? Where? When? Why?) as
proposed in the research program developed by Harold D. Lasswell. Thus, already,
ethics and economic interest came together opportunely: in the one hand, readers
gained ease of immediate access to information and in the other hand, press
publishers gained space savings.

In the same way, the myth of the press publisher as a gatekeeper of the
democratic values does not draw its strength only from the *journalist-vigilante* symbolic
figure. The reference was brought by the French Third Republic (Lemieux, 2001),
before being overvalued by Hollywood cinema: the investigative work of Bob
Woodward and Carl Bernstein up to the impeachment of Richard Nixon then functioned
as a symbol. Even more distantly, this journalism had captured the model of virtue that
the Republican School had attributed to the schoolmaster. A dialectical model was thus
constructed, which contemporary positivism is working to strengthen: thus, director of
studies at Oxford, researcher at Stanford and journalist, Timothy Garton Ash had
established a clear border between Literature on the one hand, History and Journalism
on the other: the one that separates *Truth* vs *Lies*, *fiction* vs *non-fiction*, *Objectivity* vs
*Subjectivity* (Cabedoche, 2004).

The proposal has already provoked a constructivism questioning which are now
appropriated by the information and communication sciences. Thus, Bernard Delforce
considers that *Truth* – that the journalist corporation is gloating over – is first a social
construct (Delforce, 1996; Delforce, Noyer, 1999; Delforce, 2004). Socio-linguist
Patrick Charaudeau considers journalistic content not as reality but as the product of
a whole series of negotiations between actors, at the crossroads of which the journalist
works (Charaudeau, 1997). We have reconstructed this reading of the co-construction
of media information, based on the author and other lessons of information and
communication sciences.
<table><thead><tr><th colspan="2">Producers</th><th colspan="2">Context</th><th colspan="2">Endusers</th></tr><tr><th colspan="2">Area of production conditions</th><th colspan="2">Area of traffic conditions</th><th colspan="2">Area of interpretation conditions</th></tr><tr><th>Management authority</th><th>Writing authority</th><th>Partnership area</th><th>Acculturation area</th><th>Imaginary constructs</th><th>Identity Constructs</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Competitiveness, rank and state of the market; modalities of economic, financial, socio-professional organizations; ratio between content industries and communication industries; distribution networks</td><td>Nature and format of the media; organization of editorial staff, institutional weight; management of the group's overall project; "DNA", ethics, values; editorial line, creative space; <i>habitus</i>, training, status, practices of journalists.</td><td>Socio-cultural spiritual environment of production and dissemination: societal values, dominant social actors, public / private status, advertisers' game, community management, correspondence networks, public journalism followers and coopetition games with social networks</td><td>Strategies and tactics of actors and the State in the public sphere; "invisible script", "circular circulation of mediated information"; doxa and glocalization; regulatory authority, trans-nationalization of media, strategies of telecomunication operators</td><td>Construction and circulation of imaginaries in terms of knowledge (<i>authenticity</i> effects), desire (capture effects) and practices (games of rehabilitation and (de) programming) linked to the chosen target(s),</td><td>Negotiations, pressures, practices, expectations and versatile tricks of public(s) as a consumerist and citizen authority; health of the media business model and performance of marketors and community managers</td></tr><tr><td>Imposed economic effects</td><td>Targeted incentive effects</td><td>Possible socio-cultural effects</td><td>Authorized socio-political effects</td><td>Supposed interactional effects</td><td>Co-constructed product effects</td></tr></tbody></table>

Admittedly, the discipline does not adopt with one voice the radical constructivism of Jean-Louis Lemoigne for example (Lemoigne, 2001). Gilles Gauthier even believes that the posture is unsuitable for journalism, preventing any evaluation (Gauthier, 2005). Carried to the extreme in fact, the posture can lead to two traps. Considering that knowledge does not arise from an adequacy to Reality, *cognitive anti-objectivism* dissuades from any evaluation, as the Althusserian structuralism did yesterday; calling for a definitive suspension of judgment on Reality, *ontological skepticism* leads to cynicism as an ersatz analysis or to radical cultural relativism: everything being equal in its inadequacy to Reality, *cognitive nihilism* levels barbarism or the negation of the Other.

It is this positivist prevention that the journalist sometimes avails himself of, to rise to a normative overhanging posture, without further debating the objectivity to which he/she claims to be. But this is claimed without any evaluation scientific protocols a researcher must accompany the presentation of his/her conclusions
<table><thead><tr><th colspan="2">Producers</th><th colspan="2">Context</th><th colspan="2">Endusers</th></tr><tr><th colspan="2">Area of production conditions</th><th colspan="2">Area of traffic conditions</th><th colspan="2">Area of interpretation conditions</th></tr><tr><th>Management authority</th><th>Writing authority</th><th>Partnership area</th><th>Acculturation area</th><th>Imaginary constructs</th><th>Identity Constructs</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Competitiveness, rank and state of the market; modalities of economic, financial, socio-professional organizations; ratio between content industries and communication industries; distribution networks</td><td>Nature and format of the media; organization of editorial staff, institutional weight; management of the group's overall project; "DNA", ethics, values; editorial line, creative space; <i>habitus</i>, training, status, practices of journalists.</td><td>Socio-cultural spiritual environment of production and dissemination: societal values, dominant social actors, public / private status, advertisers' game, community management, correspondence networks, public journalism followers and coopetition games with social networks</td><td>Strategies and tactics of actors and the State in the public sphere; "invisible script", "circular circulation of mediated information"; doxa and glocalization; regulatory authority, trans-nationalization of media, strategies of telecomunication operators</td><td>Construction and circulation of imaginaries in terms of knowledge (<i>authenticity</i> effects), desire (capture effects) and practices (games of rehabilitation and (de) programming) linked to the chosen target(s),</td><td>Negotiations, pressures, practices, expectations and versatile tricks of public(s) as a consumerist and citizen authority; health of the media business model and performance of marketors and community managers</td></tr><tr><td>Imposed economic effects</td><td>Targeted incentive effects</td><td>Possible socio-cultural effects</td><td>Authorized socio-political effects</td><td>Supposed interactional effects</td><td>Co-constructed product effects</td></tr></tbody></table>

Admittedly, the discipline does not adopt with one voice the radical constructivism of Jean-Louis Lemoigne for example (Lemoigne, 2001). Gilles Gauthier even believes that the posture is unsuitable for journalism, preventing any evaluation (Gauthier, 2005). Carried to the extreme in fact, the posture can lead to two traps. Considering that knowledge does not arise from an adequacy to Reality, *cognitive anti-objectivism* dissuades from any evaluation, as the Althusserian structuralism did yesterday; calling for a definitive suspension of judgment on Reality, *ontological skepticism* leads to cynicism as an ersatz analysis or to radical cultural relativism: everything being equal in its inadequacy to Reality, *cognitive nihilism* levels barbarism or the negation of the Other.

It is this positivist prevention that the journalist sometimes avails himself of, to rise to a normative overhanging posture, without further debating the objectivity to which he/she claims to be. But this is claimed without any evaluation scientific protocols a researcher must accompany the presentation of his/her conclusions
(Cabedoche, 2004). Thus, an ideatype has been established, which essence is initially
liberal.

Thus, the rule that disqualifies the "subjective" process of saying something ("énonciation" in structuralist theory) in media discourse also corresponds to the evolution of media organizations at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Because it was effectively used with the increase of the print media becoming industrial organization, and therefore of competition, that this rule of a journalism without any bias has been imposed and, therefore, the conception of a journalist as a gatekeeper of democracy and as a mass educator (Pélissier, 2005 and 2009). Thus, by ethics raised the economic imperative to work to broaden its audience by observing the majority opinion and the "Truth of facts". At the same time, scientific objectivity requires the researcher not to reduce knowledge to a simple addition of facts (Husserl, 1936): to assume a theoretical posture aims to gain access to the understanding of the mechanisms and process beyond the media "froth" in a short time (Bauthier, 2006). A century later, with the development of digital technology which is accelerating the breathlessness of an troubled economic model for press organizations, "professional" journalists have community management responsibilities added to their job descriptions, as if they were employees of a simple merchant business (Galibert, 2014; Shimmin, 2017), still with the same concern for the optimal audience, therefore for economic profitability (Cabedoche, 2016a). The development was all the more significant for a journalistic corporation that it is traditionally rebellious to this type of approach (Deslandes, 2008).

However, this growing commodification of media had ever been perceived:
Jürgen Habermas spoke in terms of a "re-feudalisation" of the public sphere from the
observation of the substitution of the principle of integration to the principle of public
space (Öffentlichkeit), by increasingly powerful interest groups. (Habermas, 1962).
Thus, behind the Manipulated Publicness (Publicity), the drive was no longer a public
opinion, but a fabricated consensus, ready to be acclaimed.

We know that, later, clarifying his assessment on the basis of his recognition of
the critical capacities of publics and conceding the possibility of a public space
nevertherless, the author had corrected the radicality of the analysis which had made
him known in the sixties. Since then, the author considers having first "assessed too
pessimistically the capacity for resistance, and especially the critical potential of a
pluralist and largely undifferentiated mass public" (Habermas, 1992, p. 174). A
(Cabedoche, 2004). Thus, an ideatype has been established, which essence is initially
liberal.

Thus, the rule that disqualifies the "subjective" process of saying something ("énonciation" in structuralist theory) in media discourse also corresponds to the evolution of media organizations at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Because it was effectively used with the increase of the print media becoming industrial organization, and therefore of competition, that this rule of a journalism without any bias has been imposed and, therefore, the conception of a journalist as a gatekeeper of democracy and as a mass educator (Pélissier, 2005 and 2009). Thus, by ethics raised the economic imperative to work to broaden its audience by observing the majority opinion and the "Truth of facts". At the same time, scientific objectivity requires the researcher not to reduce knowledge to a simple addition of facts (Husserl, 1936): to assume a theoretical posture aims to gain access to the understanding of the mechanisms and process beyond the media "froth" in a short time (Bauthier, 2006). A century later, with the development of digital technology which is accelerating the breathlessness of an troubled economic model for press organizations, "professional" journalists have community management responsibilities added to their job descriptions, as if they were employees of a simple merchant business (Galibert, 2014; Shimmin, 2017), still with the same concern for the optimal audience, therefore for economic profitability (Cabedoche, 2016a). The development was all the more significant for a journalistic corporation that it is traditionally rebellious to this type of approach (Deslandes, 2008).

However, this growing commodification of media had ever been perceived:
Jürgen Habermas spoke in terms of a "re-feudalisation" of the public sphere from the
observation of the substitution of the principle of integration to the principle of public
space (Öffentlichkeit), by increasingly powerful interest groups. (Habermas, 1962).
Thus, behind the Manipulated Publicness (Publicity), the drive was no longer a public
opinion, but a fabricated consensus, ready to be acclaimed.

We know that, later, clarifying his assessment on the basis of his recognition of
the critical capacities of publics and conceding the possibility of a public space
nevertherless, the author had corrected the radicality of the analysis which had made
him known in the sixties. Since then, the author considers having first "assessed too
pessimistically the capacity for resistance, and especially the critical potential of a
pluralist and largely undifferentiated mass public" (Habermas, 1992, p. 174). A
communicational power can indeed also influence the administrative power and
oppose manipulation by the mainstream media. Effectively, actually, the public sphere
is now considered as a fragmented one, extended to all social classes and categories,
even if they do not take part in it in an identical and egalitarian way (Habermas, 1992,
p. 175). Analysis is now classic for authors of information and communication sciences
(Dalhgren, 2000; Miège, 2011; Cabedoche, 2016b).

However, warnings remain relevant, when with the sixties, the *theories of the
State* had endorsed a fragmented vision of a cultural apparatus, considered as
confined in its functioning, to the ideological-political sphere. This conception made
possible to "*ignore the industrial, even commercial, dimension of mass cultural
production*". Without, however, accepting the equally partial shift of reflection and
foresight into the sphere of the economy, some precursors had already taken note of
the growing commodification of the cultural sector and of its interweaving in the
development of information technologies, to the point of projecting culture at the very
heart of the industrial and political system (Mattelart, Mattelart and Delmas, 1984, p.
51-52).

The concept of re-feudalisation returns to relevance today, this time signifying the
ongoing social transformation: on the one hand, "neo-feudal" privileges for the wealthy
classes against a background of modernization; on the other, the lower strata, faced
with exclusion and a return to forced labor (Neckel, 2017); between the two, the fear
of being downgraded in the intermediate categories, whether it is felt (Goux, Maurin,
2012) or real (Chauvel, 2006). This discomfort would justify the development of
strategies to eliminate competition. Thus, the harassment of candidates for the
exercise, even for the direction of an economically weakened journalism today, could
shed light on the digital excesses of certain journalists in a new way: those of a socially
economically hard-pressed microcosm, at the same time imbued with the feeling of
impunity attached to the status of justice that he attributed to himself, without any
imperative mandate.

But a researcher who would like to test the hypothesis by using the disapproving
metadiscours of the media corporation could be disappointed by the emptiness of the
method.
communicational power can indeed also influence the administrative power and
oppose manipulation by the mainstream media. Effectively, actually, the public sphere
is now considered as a fragmented one, extended to all social classes and categories,
even if they do not take part in it in an identical and egalitarian way (Habermas, 1992,
p. 175). Analysis is now classic for authors of information and communication sciences
(Dalhgren, 2000; Miège, 2011; Cabedoche, 2016b).

However, warnings remain relevant, when with the sixties, the *theories of the
State* had endorsed a fragmented vision of a cultural apparatus, considered as
confined in its functioning, to the ideological-political sphere. This conception made
possible to "*ignore the industrial, even commercial, dimension of mass cultural
production*". Without, however, accepting the equally partial shift of reflection and
foresight into the sphere of the economy, some precursors had already taken note of
the growing commodification of the cultural sector and of its interweaving in the
development of information technologies, to the point of projecting culture at the very
heart of the industrial and political system (Mattelart, Mattelart and Delmas, 1984, p.
51-52).

The concept of re-feudalisation returns to relevance today, this time signifying the
ongoing social transformation: on the one hand, "neo-feudal" privileges for the wealthy
classes against a background of modernization; on the other, the lower strata, faced
with exclusion and a return to forced labor (Neckel, 2017); between the two, the fear
of being downgraded in the intermediate categories, whether it is felt (Goux, Maurin,
2012) or real (Chauvel, 2006). This discomfort would justify the development of
strategies to eliminate competition. Thus, the harassment of candidates for the
exercise, even for the direction of an economically weakened journalism today, could
shed light on the digital excesses of certain journalists in a new way: those of a socially
economically hard-pressed microcosm, at the same time imbued with the feeling of
impunity attached to the status of justice that he attributed to himself, without any
imperative mandate.

But a researcher who would like to test the hypothesis by using the disapproving
metadiscours of the media corporation could be disappointed by the emptiness of the
method.
## 2. A posture of media information producers between outraged indignation and corporate protection

It was very easy to Constructivists showing that even when it looks like a kind of self-criticism, the reflective work of journalists most part of time just come for shifting the wheat from the chaff. The essential is rarely questioned, i.e. the sufficiency of "genuine" journalism. Patrick Charaudeau had already made this observation: whatever is a journalistic drift, the reflex of the corporation is to limit itself to distinguishing the good practices from the bad and to dissociate itself from the deviations, leading to a "non-pensé" (unthought) which dissuades to question media activity more fundamentally (Charaudeau, 1997).

Indeed, our own press review (general media) in the weeks following the scandal breaking revealed by the dismissal of the two journalists, one as an editor and the other as a freelance writer at *Liberation* (French reference newspaper), confirms this measured contrition, even as the storm was keeping growing to the entire corporation of Parisian information and communication professionals.

### 2.1. The horrified observation of a collective drift within the Parisian microcosm of information and communication

They grouped together behind the name La Ligue du LOL (acronym for Laughing Out Loud), a Facebook group created ten years ago by the two accused journalists. Their tweeting activity had gradually turned into recurring practices of moral harassment, against named victims. Identical in all media, the historical reconstruction of the crime revealed a list of journalists that seemed to be unfixed. Definitely, most of the facts alleged to the members of La Ligue du LOL could no longer be prosecuted before the courts, even if the statute of limitations had been postponed to six years since March 2017, most having been committed before 2013. But legally, the severity of the penalties provided for by law indicated the gravity of the offense: two years' imprisonment and 30,000 euros penalty (three years in prison and a 45,000 euros penalty if the victim was minor or vulnerable or when the damage caused gives rise to a total incapacity for work of more than 8 days), from the recognition of cyber-harassment by the French courts before the limitation period.
## 2. A posture of media information producers between outraged indignation and corporate protection

It was very easy to Constructivists showing that even when it looks like a kind of self-criticism, the reflective work of journalists most part of time just come for shifting the wheat from the chaff. The essential is rarely questioned, i.e. the sufficiency of "genuine" journalism. Patrick Charaudeau had already made this observation: whatever is a journalistic drift, the reflex of the corporation is to limit itself to distinguishing the good practices from the bad and to dissociate itself from the deviations, leading to a "non-pensé" (unthought) which dissuades to question media activity more fundamentally (Charaudeau, 1997).

Indeed, our own press review (general media) in the weeks following the scandal breaking revealed by the dismissal of the two journalists, one as an editor and the other as a freelance writer at *Liberation* (French reference newspaper), confirms this measured contrition, even as the storm was keeping growing to the entire corporation of Parisian information and communication professionals.

### 2.1. The horrified observation of a collective drift within the Parisian microcosm of information and communication

They grouped together behind the name La Ligue du LOL (acronym for Laughing Out Loud), a Facebook group created ten years ago by the two accused journalists. Their tweeting activity had gradually turned into recurring practices of moral harassment, against named victims. Identical in all media, the historical reconstruction of the crime revealed a list of journalists that seemed to be unfixed. Definitely, most of the facts alleged to the members of La Ligue du LOL could no longer be prosecuted before the courts, even if the statute of limitations had been postponed to six years since March 2017, most having been committed before 2013. But legally, the severity of the penalties provided for by law indicated the gravity of the offense: two years' imprisonment and 30,000 euros penalty (three years in prison and a 45,000 euros penalty if the victim was minor or vulnerable or when the damage caused gives rise to a total incapacity for work of more than 8 days), from the recognition of cyber-harassment by the French courts before the limitation period.
The traumatic wave had been certain for the Parisian information and communication microcosm, first flabbergasted to have welcomed in some of their editorial offices such an enterprise of collective malicious acts.

Then, commentators in the media worked towards decoding, i.e. dissociating themselves and trying to forestall the stigma against the entire corporation. Originally, in media analyzes, we discover a joke – unhealthy – under a *troll* activity, as an intrusive action of Internet users just to disturb debates by stirring up controversy. “Just to laugh and see what's going on”, without trying to harass anyone. And then, a Facebook group has been created in 2009: “A private group like there were many at the time, in which a lot of tweeters kept a veritable observatory of funny things from Twitter [...] It was brilliant, it was stupid. We made fun of people, mainly some specific Youtoubeuses [female users of Youtube] and sisters”<fnref n="1" />. In short, this dubious pastime that Internet users refer to as "net weenies". "In this affair, there is the 'boys club' side, with the staging of a male inter-self that recalls the networks that have structured society for a long time: the brothel, the barracks, the locker rooms, the boarding school”<fnref n="2" />. Until the drift! Then, *La ligue du LOL* would have escaped its two creators to become "a monster". Because what media must have finally revealed – without having first really believed in it – was this incredible reality: beyond the schoolboy inconsistency of its two founders, the club formed now a significant number of its members, thoughtful Parisian media, who have finally to face dozens of accusations of harassment online.

The reconstruction revealed the mechanism in all its horror, the investigating journalists now choosing the investigation, as *Liberation*, after having practiced the *omerta* (code of silence). From the victims – mainly women, journalists or feminist bloggers – the systematic and coordinated denigration they suffered from the end of the 2000s to the beginning of the 2010s, could have constituted serious obstacles to their promotion of professional careers in the Parisian world of professional communicators and journalists, even disasters in their private couple. Like many

<footnote n="1">¹ Our translation from: "*Un groupe privé comme il y en avait beaucoup à l'époque, dans lequel plein de twittos tenaient un véritable observatoire des trucs drôles de Twitter [...] C'était brillant, c'était bête. On se moquait des gens, principalement de certaines youtoubeuses et consœurs*".</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Our translation from : "*Dans cette affaire, il y a le côté 'boys club', avec la mise en scène d'un entre soi masculin qui rappelle celui des réseaux qui ont structuré pendant longtemps la société : le borderline, la caserne, les vestiaires, l'internat*".</footnote>
The traumatic wave had been certain for the Parisian information and communication microcosm, first flabbergasted to have welcomed in some of their editorial offices such an enterprise of collective malicious acts.

Then, commentators in the media worked towards decoding, i.e. dissociating themselves and trying to forestall the stigma against the entire corporation. Originally, in media analyzes, we discover a joke – unhealthy – under a troll activity, as an intrusive action of Internet users just to disturb debates by stirring up controversy. “Just to laugh and see what's going on”, without trying to harass anyone. And then, a Facebook group has been created in 2009: “A private group like there were many at the time, in which a lot of tweeters kept a veritable observatory of funny things from Twitter [...] It was brilliant, it was stupid. We made fun of people, mainly some specific Youtoubeuses [female users of Youtube] and sisters”<fnref n="1" />. In short, this dubious pastime that Internet users refer to as "net weenies". "In this affair, there is the 'boys club' side, with the staging of a male inter-self that recalls the networks that have structured society for a long time: the brothel, the barracks, the locker rooms, the boarding school”<fnref n="2" />. Until the drift! Then, La ligue du LOL would have escaped its two creators to become "a monster". Because what media must have finally revealed – without having first really believed in it – was this incredible reality: beyond the schoolboy inconsistency of its two founders, the club formed now a significant number of its members, thoughtful Parisian media, who have finally to face dozens of accusations of harassment online.

The reconstruction revealed the mechanism in all its horror, the investigating journalists now choosing the investigation, as Liberation, after having practiced the omerta (code of silence). From the victims – mainly women, journalists or feminist bloggers – the systematic and coordinated denigration they suffered from the end of the 2000s to the beginning of the 2010s, could have constituted serious obstacles to their promotion of professional careers in the Parisian world of professional communicators and journalists, even disasters in their private couple. Like many

<footnote n="1">¹ Our translation from: "Un groupe privé comme il y en avait beaucoup à l'époque, dans lequel plein de twittos tenaient un véritable observatoire des trucs drôles de Twitter [...] C'était brillant, c'était bête. On se moquait des gens, principalement de certaines youtoubeuses et consœurs".</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Our translation from : "Dans cette affaire, il y a le côté 'boys club', avec la mise en scène d'un entre soi masculin qui rappelle celui des réseaux qui ont structuré pendant longtemps la société : le borderline, la caserne, les vestiaires, l'internat".</footnote>
victims, no one expected the scale of the phenomenon, and for observers, all of them
were ultimately stunned by the number of sisters thus targeted by La ligue du LOL and
by the nuisance power of their torturers: "They were people who had more than 5,000
followers on social networks and therefore, who had a nuisance power by all the people
they gathered with them"<fnref n="3" />.

At first, the attacks were limited to name-calling, insults, malicious messages. But soon, the perverse uproar could have led to the publicization of photomontages showing the victim's head on a pornographic body image; or to the visibility on the web of compromising reactions of the victims of telephone hoaxes, for example during a pseudo recruitment interview; or to the launch of real digital raids, as a lynching by the masked community of predators (punishable by law only since August 2018). Some of these journalist victims said they were "psychologically destroyed", multiplying sick leaves, sinking into burn-out and depression, to the point of choosing temporary exile in Canada in the hope of finding a return to calm for one of them: "It undermined my self-confidence at all levels<fnref n="4" />." Others said they even thought about committing a suicide: "When we are told that we do not have the right to exist virtually, we say to ourselves that we do not have the right to exist in real life"<fnref n="5" />. All recognized: "Seven, eight years later, it still hurts too much"<fnref n="6" />.

Aggravating circumstance, while prescribed, the facts also appeared to have
been accomplished in the course of employment and no longer only in private life. The
sanction could led to dismissal for serious misconduct, with the option of suing the
employee for affront to the good moral standards if the employer proved that he was
not informed at the time of the occurrence, or that he was not inactive, by blind and
permissive laxity.

Precisely, several years after the facts, the law of silence was the rule for
everyone, included victims, as one of the harassed journalists working for Slate.fr had
recognized later: "Why did not we speak for all these years ? Because these people
[members of La Ligue du LOL League] had important positions, were friends with

<footnote n="3">³ Our translation from : "C'étaient des gens qui avaient plus de 5000 followers sur les réseaux sociaux et donc, qui avaient un pouvoir de nuisance par tous les gens qu'ils rameutaient avec eux".</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Our translation from : "Ça a sapé ma confiance à tous les niveaux".</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Our translation from : "Quand on nous dit qu'on n'a pas le droit d'exister virtuellement, on se dit qu'on n'a pas le droit d'exister dans la vraie vie".</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ Our translation from : "Sept, huit ans après, ça fait toujours trop mal".</footnote>
victims, no one expected the scale of the phenomenon, and for observers, all of them
were ultimately stunned by the number of sisters thus targeted by La ligue du LOL and
by the nuisance power of their torturers: "They were people who had more than 5,000
followers on social networks and therefore, who had a nuisance power by all the people
they gathered with them"<fnref n="3" />.

At first, the attacks were limited to name-calling, insults, malicious messages. But soon, the perverse uproar could have led to the publicization of photomontages showing the victim's head on a pornographic body image; or to the visibility on the web of compromising reactions of the victims of telephone hoaxes, for example during a pseudo recruitment interview; or to the launch of real digital raids, as a lynching by the masked community of predators (punishable by law only since August 2018). Some of these journalist victims said they were "psychologically destroyed", multiplying sick leaves, sinking into burn-out and depression, to the point of choosing temporary exile in Canada in the hope of finding a return to calm for one of them: "It undermined my self-confidence at all levels<fnref n="4" />." Others said they even thought about committing a suicide: "When we are told that we do not have the right to exist virtually, we say to ourselves that we do not have the right to exist in real life"<fnref n="5" />. All recognized: "Seven, eight years later, it still hurts too much"<fnref n="6" />.

Aggravating circumstance, while prescribed, the facts also appeared to have
been accomplished in the course of employment and no longer only in private life. The
sanction could led to dismissal for serious misconduct, with the option of suing the
employee for affront to the good moral standards if the employer proved that he was
not informed at the time of the occurrence, or that he was not inactive, by blind and
permissive laxity.

Precisely, several years after the facts, the law of silence was the rule for
everyone, included victims, as one of the harassed journalists working for Slate.fr had
recognized later: "Why did not we speak for all these years ? Because these people
[members of La Ligue du LOL League] had important positions, were friends with

<footnote n="3">³ Our translation from : "C'étaient des gens qui avaient plus de 5000 followers sur les réseaux sociaux et donc, qui avaient un pouvoir de nuisance par tous les gens qu'ils rameutaient avec eux".</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Our translation from : "Ça a sapé ma confiance à tous les niveaux".</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Our translation from : "Quand on nous dit qu'on n'a pas le droit d'exister virtuellement, on se dit qu'on n'a pas le droit d'exister dans la vraie vie".</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ Our translation from : "Sept, huit ans après, ça fait toujours trop mal".</footnote>
influential editors or with people at a high level of management positions in media"<fnref n="7" />. Lawyers and police even then dissuaded from filing a complaint: "this will not work, because French culture"<fnref n="8" />, while the "lolers" [member of La Ligue du LOL] spoke in the same voice: "It is useless. Getting trolled is the rule"<fnref n="9" />. Moreover, as Clara Gonzales, member of the Force Juridique de la Fondation des Femmes (Legal Force of the Foundation of Women), observed on FranceInfo, a reversal of guilt had been able to develop from some of victims themselves: "If they attack me, it's a proof that I'm never going to pull through the media world"<fnref n="10" />. In addition, the anonymity behind which some of their tormentors managed to protect themselves in the one hand, the difficulties in gathering evidence and the lack of means given to the legal institution to deal effectively with cyberviolence in the other hand, had not encouraged the filing of complaints. The magistrates themselves recognize their own difficulty in obtaining information, even just a real moderation from the sites, despite the denials of Facebook, Twitter or Youtube, for example, or their commitment to reform. In fact, it was only after the direct feedback of information to the media management by a dozen courageous women journalists that the affair had finally exploded! Finally! "If those people hadn't been so indecent in their posture, repeating their tweets and comments, maybe I wouldn't have spoken"<fnref n="11" />. Some "youtoubeuses", victims of La ligue du LOL, saw a king of signal, more than a year after the launch of the #MeToo campaign. Therefore, they were emboldened to publicisize their misadventure, waiting for sanctions to say "That there is no longer impunity"<fnref n="12" />. La Fondation des Femmes [the Women's Foundation] had supported the process, by launching a fundraiser for all these victims of cyberbullying.

On the harassers side coming mainly from the world of journalism, the pressure had been enormous, caused within the very brotherhood by the increasing revelations of their delinquent actions. For the shocked colleagues, the disaster was total, as well

<footnote n="7">⁷ Our translation from : "Pourquoi n'avons-nous pas parlé pendant toutes ces années ? Parce que ces gens-là avaient des postes importants, étaient amis avec des rédacteurs en chef influents ou des personnes à des postes de direction".</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸ Our translation from : "Ça ne passera pas, à cause de la culture française".</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹ Our translation from : "Ça ne sert à rien. Se faire troller, c'est la règle".</footnote>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰ Our translation from : "S'ils s'en prennent à moi, c'est bien que je ne vais jamais m'en sortir dans le monde des médias".</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹ Our translation from : "Si ces gens n'avaient pas été aussi indécents, dans leur posture, la répétition de leurs tweets et commentaires, peut-être que je n'aurais pas parlé".</footnote>

<footnote n="12">¹² Our translation from : "Il n'y a plus d'impunité".</footnote>
influential editors or with people at a high level of management positions in media”<fnref n="7" />. Lawyers and police even then dissuaded from filing a complaint: "this will not work, because French culture"<fnref n="8" />, while the "lolers" [member of La Ligue du LOL] spoke in the same voice: "It is useless. Getting trolled is the rule"<fnref n="9" />. Moreover, as Clara Gonzales, member of the Force Juridique de la Fondation des Femmes (Legal Force of the Foundation of Women), observed on FranceInfo, a reversal of guilt had been able to develop from some of victims themselves: "If they attack me, it's a proof that I'm never going to pull through the media world"<fnref n="10" />. In addition, the anonymity behind which some of their tormentors managed to protect themselves in the one hand, the difficulties in gathering evidence and the lack of means given to the legal institution to deal effectively with cyberviolence in the other hand, had not encouraged the filing of complaints. The magistrates themselves recognize their own difficulty in obtaining information, even just a real moderation from the sites, despite the denials of Facebook, Twitter or Youtube, for example, or their commitment to reform. In fact, it was only after the direct feedback of information to the media management by a dozen courageous women journalists that the affair had finally exploded! Finally! "If those people hadn't been so indecent in their posture, repeating their tweets and comments, maybe I wouldn't have spoken"<fnref n="11" />. Some "youtoubeuses", victims of La ligue du LOL, saw a king of signal, more than a year after the launch of the #MeToo campaign. Therefore, they were emboldened to publicisize their misadventure, waiting for sanctions to say "That there is no longer impunity"<fnref n="12" />. La Fondation des Femmes [the Women's Foundation] had supported the process, by launching a fundraiser for all these victims of cyberbullying.

On the harassers side coming mainly from the world of journalism, the pressure had been enormous, caused within the very brotherhood by the increasing revelations of their delinquent actions. For the shocked colleagues, the disaster was total, as well

<footnote n="7">⁷ Our translation from : "Pourquoi n'avons-nous pas parlé pendant toutes ces années ? Parce que ces gens-là avaient des postes importants, étaient amis avec des rédacteurs en chef influents ou des personnes à des postes de direction".</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸ Our translation from : "Ça ne passera pas, à cause de la culture française".</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹ Our translation from : "Ça ne sert à rien. Se faire troller, c'est la règle".</footnote>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰ Our translation from : "S'ils s'en prennent à moi, c'est bien que je ne vais jamais m'en sortir dans le monde des médias".</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹ Our translation from : "Si ces gens n'avaient pas été aussi indécents, dans leur posture, la répétition de leurs tweets et commentaires, peut-être que je n'aurais pas parlé".</footnote>

<footnote n="12">¹² Our translation from : "Il n'y a plus d'impunité".</footnote>
by the number of implicated professionals (about thirty) as by the quality of the present
or past members of the disputed *Ligue*. Their signature appeared at the end of articles
published by the *Brain Magazine* site, but also in the media *Usbek & Rica*, the online
information news *20 minutes*, the daily *Liberation* and even the prestigious cultural
magazine *Télérama*. Some were occasional collaborators, for example for *Le Grand
Journal* on *Canal +*, others still students - or even temporary teachers - in one of the
best fourteen French journalism training schools. Some still collaborated in post-cast
studios, like *Nouvelles Écoutes*; others finally appeared in the executive board of
reputable publications, as an indication of the involvement of members of the editorial
staff, sometimes even the founder, for example concerning the online magazine of
pornographic culture *Le Tag parfait*, but also the magazine *Les Inrocks* or *Slate* site.

Then, media had tried to sort out by themselves before the end of the judicial
inquiries. Thus, it appeared that some of their colleagues who was involved, such as
the *Télérama* journalist, were only mistaken for negligence, even passivity, for not
having been more vigilant in joining *La ligue du LOL*. Others, for example a *Le Nouvel
Observateur* columnist, had confessed to having maintained a hundred interactions
with members of *La ligue du LOL* without having joined. They just and left [behind
them] "a trail of tweets which challenge".

In light of what has been publicized in the media at the end of this internal inquiry,
every one was so innocent, even naive. Some of the "brazen" journalists reportedly
said they were "quiet", even bragging about having erased all the evidence. Some
others admitted to being guilty of not having reacted, when they discovered the abuses
carried by the club. Others, finally, had admitted having participated directly in the
repeated operations constituting harassment, but also shirking all collective
responsibility: "My bullshit, I take it. Those of others, no thanks "<fnref n="13" />.

However, as a sociologist explained, "risk-taking, performance and attitude
towards women" could have constituted the new repertoire of values contributing to
the construction of masculinity in a weakened journalistic environment. Finally, some
had agreed to discuss this matter with their victim. Others had apologized. On the
sidelines of the *Ligue du LOL* case, only one, popular cartoonist on *Facebook*, had

<footnote n="13">¹³ Our translation from: « Mes conneries, je les assume. Celles des autres, non merci ».</footnote>
by the number of implicated professionals (about thirty) as by the quality of the present
or past members of the disputed *Ligue*. Their signature appeared at the end of articles
published by the *Brain Magazine* site, but also in the media *Usbek & Rica*, the online
information news *20 minutes*, the daily *Liberation* and even the prestigious cultural
magazine *Télérama*. Some were occasional collaborators, for example for *Le Grand
Journal* on *Canal +*, others still students - or even temporary teachers - in one of the
best fourteen French journalism training schools. Some still collaborated in post-cast
studios, like *Nouvelles Écoutes*; others finally appeared in the executive board of
reputable publications, as an indication of the involvement of members of the editorial
staff, sometimes even the founder, for example concerning the online magazine of
pornographic culture *Le Tag parfait*, but also the magazine *Les Inrocks* or *Slate* site.

Then, media had tried to sort out by themselves before the end of the judicial
inquiries. Thus, it appeared that some of their colleagues who was involved, such as
the *Télérama* journalist, were only mistaken for negligence, even passivity, for not
having been more vigilant in joining *La ligue du LOL*. Others, for example a *Le Nouvel
Observateur* columnist, had confessed to having maintained a hundred interactions
with members of *La ligue du LOL* without having joined. They just and left [behind
them] "a trail of tweets which challenge".

In light of what has been publicized in the media at the end of this internal inquiry,
every one was so innocent, even naive. Some of the "brazen" journalists reportedly
said they were "quiet", even bragging about having erased all the evidence. Some
others admitted to being guilty of not having reacted, when they discovered the abuses
carried by the club. Others, finally, had admitted having participated directly in the
repeated operations constituting harassment, but also shirking all collective
responsibility: "My bullshit, I take it. Those of others, no thanks "<fnref n="13" />.

However, as a sociologist explained, "risk-taking, performance and attitude
towards women" could have constituted the new repertoire of values contributing to
the construction of masculinity in a weakened journalistic environment. Finally, some
had agreed to discuss this matter with their victim. Others had apologized. On the
sidelines of the *Ligue du LOL* case, only one, popular cartoonist on *Facebook*, had

<footnote n="13">¹³ Our translation from: « Mes conneries, je les assume. Celles des autres, non merci ».</footnote>
taken responsibility for his actions, admitting not to regret any of his insults at the end of his conviction by the courts for calling for cyberbullying against a feminist activist.

After a first disbelief and then astonishment phase as the revelations progressed, the employers, bosses of the editorial staff, had been summoned to express themselves publicly. Their response had often been radical. *Checknews*, Liberation's fact-checking project, had published an article on February 8 on the subject. As soon as the information had been confirmed, they had "to react and quickly", as justified revolted Laurent Joffrin, director of publication of the daily, in his decision of immediate suspension - "as a precaution" - of the two editorial journalists involved in *La Ligue du LOL*. *Qualiter* (a podcast production company) announced "the final shutdown and not subjet to appeal" of its show *Studio 404*, one of the columnists of which was a member of the Evil Club. At the same time, media such as *L'Observateur* and *FranceInfo* had opened their antennas and columns to testimonies from cyberharassed victims who was journalism students or journalists holding the position.

Still, the damage was done. When *Liberation* had published its article, "we said, with friends, that in three hours, everyone would have forgotten"<fnref n="14" />. But the (expected?) respite hadn't happened. The words of the victimes of *La Ligue du LOL* had been liberated, and several victims were now telling, publicly and at length, what they had suffered. "You may have forgotten, but the people you hurt remember"<fnref n="15" />.

The repercussions were even more bitter since the affair was no longer limited to members of *La Ligue du LOL*. We learned now on the professional messaging *Slack* of the channel dedicated to the writing of *HuffPost.fr*, that sexist, racist and homophobic comments had crept in gradually and *crescendo*, even if it was not moral harassment as it was for *La Ligue du LOL*. More than fifteen male journalists has thus joined the channel, setting it up with an increasingly violent and targeted tone.

The government then seized the case: Marlène Schiappa, State Secretary for equality between men and women, had thus declared all her support and solidarity "to the bloggers and journalists who had to suffer the sexist harassment of the

<footnote n="14">¹⁴ Our translation from: "on s'est dit, avec des potes, que dans trois heures tout le monde aurait oublié".</footnote>

<footnote n="15">¹⁵ Our translation from: "Vous avez peut-être oublié, mais les personnes à qui vous avez fait du mal se souviennent".</footnote>
taken responsibility for his actions, admitting not to regret any of his insults at the end of his conviction by the courts for calling for cyberbullying against a feminist activist.

After a first disbelief and then astonishment phase as the revelations progressed, the employers, bosses of the editorial staff, had been summoned to express themselves publicly. Their response had often been radical. *Checknews*, Liberation's fact-checking project, had published an article on February 8 on the subject. As soon as the information had been confirmed, they had "to react and quickly", as justified revolted Laurent Joffrin, director of publication of the daily, in his decision of immediate suspension - "as a precaution" - of the two editorial journalists involved in *La Ligue du LOL*. *Qualiter* (a podcast production company) announced "the final shutdown and not subjet to appeal" of its show *Studio 404*, one of the columnists of which was a member of the Evil Club. At the same time, media such as *L'Observateur* and *FranceInfo* had opened their antennas and columns to testimonies from cyberharassed victims who was journalism students or journalists holding the position.

Still, the damage was done. When *Liberation* had published its article, "we said, with friends, that in three hours, everyone would have forgotten"<fnref n="14" />. But the (expected?) respite hadn't happened. The words of the victimes of *La Ligue du LOL* had been liberated, and several victims were now telling, publicly and at length, what they had suffered. "You may have forgotten, but the people you hurt remember"<fnref n="15" />.

The repercussions were even more bitter since the affair was no longer limited to members of *La Ligue du LOL*. We learned now on the professional messaging *Slack* of the channel dedicated to the writing of *HuffPost.fr*, that sexist, racist and homophobic comments had crept in gradually and *crescendo*, even if it was not moral harassment as it was for *La Ligue du LOL*. More than fifteen male journalists has thus joined the channel, setting it up with an increasingly violent and targeted tone.

The government then seized the case: Marlène Schiappa, State Secretary for equality between men and women, had thus declared all her support and solidarity "to the bloggers and journalists who had to suffer the sexist harassment of the

<footnote n="14">¹⁴ Our translation from: "on s'est dit, avec des potes, que dans trois heures tout le monde aurait oublié".</footnote>

<footnote n="15">¹⁵ Our translation from: "Vous avez peut-être oublié, mais les personnes à qui vous avez fait du mal se souviennent".</footnote>
\#LigueDuLol"<fnref n="16" />. For his part, the State Secretary for Digital, Mounir Mahjoubi, had encouraged: "These mockeries had an impact in reality. Victims of cyberstalking need to be able to speak out, and for their part, I hope they are ashamed"<fnref n="17" />.

The two ministers immediately proposed an action plan against online harassment, in order to accelerate the removal of hateful content circulating on the platforms and to make them accountable, explaining that it was also necessary to "go to the base, start through education and training, then facilitate the way to report and detect this content"<fnref n="18" />. These official protests seemed to respond directly to calls for protection, for example from an indignant collective of 600 students from 16 journalism training higher schools, also addressed to the editorial staffs<fnref n="19" />.

The scale had grown to such an extent that the whole corporation could no longer be content with limited reactions. Under now internal pressure, some journalists pointed out by the scandal had offered to resign. Others had withdrawn by themselves from their editorial responsibilities. Still others had seen their collaboration suspended; others had been laid off as a precaution. The sweep had won the front of the doors of the journalism schools. Their protest initially deemed too much timid – "so as not to lose a training agreement or a partnership with a press company"<fnref n="20" /> according to some victims –, the journalism training schools had ended up reacting in turn, like l'École de Journalisme de Grenoble which had discovered that a Facebook group of alumni, called Ultim-hate, had remained active, in the midst of the controversy over La ligue du LOL. Several targeted victim groups, preferably women, classmates, even teachers of these young delinquents, had also suffered the particularly salacious contents of their stalkers.

This particularity of the novitiate in the profession among stalkers goes back to the history of digital journalism. Indeed, the pioneers who brought social networks into

<footnote n="16">¹⁶ Our translation from: "aux blogueuses et journalistes qui ont eu à subir le harcèlement sexiste de la #LigueDuLol".</footnote>

<footnote n="17">¹⁷ Our translation from: "Ces moqueries ont eu un impact dans le réel. Les victimes de cyberharcèlement doivent pouvoir s'exprimer, et eux, j'espère qu'ils ont honte".</footnote>

<footnote n="18">¹⁸ Our translation from: "aller à la base, commencer par l'éducation et la formation, ensuite faciliter la façon de signaler et de détecter ces contenus".</footnote>

<footnote n="19">¹⁹ Celsa, CFJ, CFPJ, Cuej, EDJ Sciences Po, JCAM, JDG, JT, PJT, SJ Lille, IFP, IJBA, IPJ Paris-Dauphine, IUT de Cannes, IUT de Lannion, master de journalisme de Gennevilliers.</footnote>

<footnote n="20">²⁰ Our translation from: "pour ne pas perdre une convention de stage ou un partenariat avec une entreprise de presse".</footnote>
\#LigueDuLol"<fnref n="16" />. For his part, the State Secretary for Digital, Mounir Mahjoubi, had encouraged: "These mockeries had an impact in reality. Victims of cyberstalking need to be able to speak out, and for their part, I hope they are ashamed"<fnref n="17" />.

The two ministers immediately proposed an action plan against online harassment, in order to accelerate the removal of hateful content circulating on the platforms and to make them accountable, explaining that it was also necessary to "go to the base, start through education and training, then facilitate the way to report and detect this content"<fnref n="18" />. These official protests seemed to respond directly to calls for protection, for example from an indignant collective of 600 students from 16 journalism training higher schools, also addressed to the editorial staffs<fnref n="19" />.

The scale had grown to such an extent that the whole corporation could no longer be content with limited reactions. Under now internal pressure, some journalists pointed out by the scandal had offered to resign. Others had withdrawn by themselves from their editorial responsibilities. Still others had seen their collaboration suspended; others had been laid off as a precaution. The sweep had won the front of the doors of the journalism schools. Their protest initially deemed too much timid – "so as not to lose a training agreement or a partnership with a press company"<fnref n="20" /> according to some victims –, the journalism training schools had ended up reacting in turn, like l'École de Journalisme de Grenoble which had discovered that a Facebook group of alumni, called Ultim-hate, had remained active, in the midst of the controversy over La ligue du LOL. Several targeted victim groups, preferably women, classmates, even teachers of these young delinquents, had also suffered the particularly salacious contents of their stalkers.

This particularity of the novitiate in the profession among stalkers goes back to the history of digital journalism. Indeed, the pioneers who brought social networks into

<footnote n="16">¹⁶ Our translation from: "aux blogueuses et journalistes qui ont eu à subir le harcèlement sexiste de la #LigueDuLol".</footnote>

<footnote n="17">¹⁷ Our translation from: "Ces moqueries ont eu un impact dans le réel. Les victimes de cyberharcèlement doivent pouvoir s'exprimer, et eux, j'espère qu'ils ont honte".</footnote>

<footnote n="18">¹⁸ Our translation from: "aller à la base, commencer par l'éducation et la formation, ensuite faciliter la façon de signaler et de détecter ces contenus".</footnote>

<footnote n="19">¹⁹ Celsa, CFJ, CFPJ, Cuej, EDJ Sciences Po, JCAM, JDG, JT, PJT, SJ Lille, IFP, IJBA, IPJ Paris-Dauphine, IUT de Cannes, IUT de Lannion, master de journalisme de Gennevilliers.</footnote>

<footnote n="20">²⁰ Our translation from: "pour ne pas perdre une convention de stage ou un partenariat avec une entreprise de presse".</footnote>
newsrooms of classical media in the early 2010s coincided with this characteristic of youth, while their elders had initially just tolerated them with strong doubt, particularly in the mainstream media, like the daily *Le Monde* (Salles, 2010). Their great success in terms of followers had finally convinced the professional community, at the same time as it had propelled them, in terms of influence: "We were big boys!"<fnref n="21" />. So, they had succeeded in enforcing their own rules, as one of the founders of *La Ligue du Lol* finally recognized. It is true, their humor, sometimes brilliant, sometimes schoolboy, ironic as well as self-denigrating, could be drawn from the *Canal* spirit [*Canal +*], as well as from the tradition of the satirical monthly *Fluide Glacial*.

Until the slippage, which consisted in denouncing, compromising, disqualifying, until threatening with rape and death anyone who did not look like them, starting with bloggers and other influencers who did not fall under their club and who had the nerve to conteste their virtual territory. The clan reflex was particularly fierce against beauty *Youtoubeuses* of "Beauty sections" and feminist or anti-racist activists, a fortiori publishing from the province.

Finally convinced of the collective slippage, the corporation reacted according to the classic pattern, already identified by Patrick Charaudeau more than twenty years ago: the *Ligue du LOL* affair was not a drift of journalists but the one of social networks. The essential was saved, namely the intellectual and ethical probity of the "genuine professional journalism".

## 2.2. An entangled contrition, reduced to a reminder of ethics in a slightly open minded societal environment

"Yes, they have the right to laugh, to make fun in a private group. Nothing is illegal", as one journalist immediately analyzed. "But I will never consider them as colleagues. It strikes me as shameful that people whose vocation is to inform can be reduced to simply criticizing for the fun of it"<fnref n="22" />.

<footnote n="21">²¹ Our translation from: "*On était des caïds!*".</footnote>

<footnote n="22">²² Our translation from: "*Oui, ils ont le droit de rire, de se moquer dans un groupe privé. Rien n'est illégal, comme l'avait aussitôt analysé un journaliste. Mais jamais je ne les considérerai comme des confrères. Il me semble honteux que des personnes ayant pour vocation d'informer puissent en être réduits à simplement critiquer pour le plaisir!*".</footnote>
newsrooms of classical media in the early 2010s coincided with this characteristic of youth, while their elders had initially just tolerated them with strong doubt, particularly in the mainstream media, like the daily *Le Monde* (Salles, 2010). Their great success in terms of followers had finally convinced the professional community, at the same time as it had propelled them, in terms of influence: "We were big boys!"<fnref n="21" />. So, they had succeeded in enforcing their own rules, as one of the founders of *La Ligue du Lol* finally recognized. It is true, their humor, sometimes brilliant, sometimes schoolboy, ironic as well as self-denigrating, could be drawn from the *Canal* spirit [*Canal +*], as well as from the tradition of the satirical monthly *Fluide Glacial*.

Until the slippage, which consisted in denouncing, compromising, disqualifying, until threatening with rape and death anyone who did not look like them, starting with bloggers and other influencers who did not fall under their club and who had the nerve to conteste their virtual territory. The clan reflex was particularly fierce against beauty *Youtoubeuses* of "Beauty sections" and feminist or anti-racist activists, a fortiori publishing from the province.

Finally convinced of the collective slippage, the corporation reacted according to the classic pattern, already identified by Patrick Charaudeau more than twenty years ago: the *Ligue du LOL* affair was not a drift of journalists but the one of social networks. The essential was saved, namely the intellectual and ethical probity of the "genuine professional journalism".

## 2.2. An entangled contrition, reduced to a reminder of ethics in a slightly open minded societal environment

"Yes, they have the right to laugh, to make fun in a private group. Nothing is illegal", as one journalist immediately analyzed. "But I will never consider them as colleagues. It strikes me as shameful that people whose vocation is to inform can be reduced to simply criticizing for the fun of it"<fnref n="22" />.

<footnote n="21">²¹ Our translation from: "*On était des caïds!*".</footnote>

<footnote n="22">²² Our translation from: "*Oui, ils ont le droit de rire, de se moquer dans un groupe privé. Rien n'est illégal, comme l'avait aussitôt analysé un journaliste. Mais jamais je ne les considérerai comme des confrères. Il me semble honteux que des personnes ayant pour vocation d'informer puissent en être réduits à simplement critiquer pour le plaisir!*".</footnote>
More incisive, other dear colleagues soon denounced this journalist who, since repented, would have reconverted himself into "model journalist who plays the examples after having had a good time in packs of harassing journalists"<fnref n="23" />. Even within the members of *La Ligue du LOL*, the distinction had become a weapon of defense: "there was every kind of people: people incapable of being anti-feminist, assholes [sic], funny people and people not funny or trying to be"<fnref n="24" />. Some had spoken of "toxic individuals", from whom they dissociated themselves, having participated to nothing but one practice which they had adviced to reconsider in the thinking of the time, when " the clash was the mood of their area for online exchanges (...) It was fashionable on *Twitter* to use black humor. I loved stand-up and because I was frustrated not practicing it, I killed my desire to jokes on the networks. Without realizing that what I wrote could be sexist, obese phobic, homophobic and constitute harassment<fnref n="25" />. "As for the creator of *La Ligue du LOL*, he had tried to deflate the scandal: "We were influential people, and it is true that if we criticized someone, it could take a lot of importance. There is a part of truth there : a part of people who may have felt legitimately harassed. But there is also a big part of fantasy"<fnref n="26" />.

The corporation have had an easy time of separating the wheat from the chaff.
Delivered by the back door at the request of the Minister of Culture, Françoise Nyssen,
a *Hoog Report* advocated the creation of a press and audiovisual regulatory body
(Hoog, Clément-Cuzin, Baudet, 2019). For some journalists, the project could become
fatal to freedom. The position is historically constant, within a corporation
hypersensitive to any authoritarian and exogenous regulatory project, such as the
allusion to an Order of Journalists which would bring back to the horrors of the French
Vichy government (Pélissier, 2005, p. 78). The French *Syndicat national des
Journalistes* [National Union of Journalists], had preferred, with other associations, to

<footnote n="23">²³ Our translation from: "*journaliste modèle qui joue les exemples après s'être bien amusé au sein de meutes de journalistes harceleurs*".</footnote>

<footnote n="24">²⁴ Our translation from: "il y avait de tout: des gens incapables d'être antiféministes, des connards [sic], des gens drôles et des gens pas drôles ou qui essayaient de l'être".</footnote>

<footnote n="25">²⁵ Our translation from: "le clash était le régime en vigueur pour les échanges en ligne (...) Il était de bon ton sur Twitter de faire de l'humour noir. J'adorais le stand-up et frustré de ne pas le pratiquer, je tuais mon envie de blagues sur les réseaux. Sans réaliser que ce que j'écrivais pouvait être sexiste, grossophobe, homophobe et constituer du harcèlement"</footnote>

<footnote n="26">²⁶ Our translation from: "Nous étions influents, et c'est vrai que si on critiquait quelqu'un, ça pouvait prendre beaucoup d'ampleur. Il y a une part de vrai là-dedans, une part de gens qui ont pu se sentir légitimement harcelés. Mais il y a aussi une grosse part de fantasme".</footnote>
More incisive, other dear colleagues soon denounced this journalist who, since repented, would have reconverted himself into "model journalist who plays the examples after having had a good time in packs of harassing journalists"<fnref n="23" />. Even within the members of *La Ligue du LOL*, the distinction had become a weapon of defense: "there was every kind of people: people incapable of being anti-feminist, assholes [sic], funny people and people not funny or trying to be"<fnref n="24" />. Some had spoken of "toxic individuals", from whom they dissociated themselves, having participated to nothing but one practice which they had adviced to reconsider in the thinking of the time, when " the clash was the mood of their area for online exchanges (...) It was fashionable on *Twitter* to use black humor. I loved stand-up and because I was frustrated not practicing it, I killed my desire to jokes on the networks. Without realizing that what I wrote could be sexist, obese phobic, homophobic and constitute harassment<fnref n="25" />. "As for the creator of *La Ligue du LOL*, he had tried to deflate the scandal: "We were influential people, and it is true that if we criticized someone, it could take a lot of importance. There is a part of truth there : a part of people who may have felt legitimately harassed. But there is also a big part of fantasy"<fnref n="26" />.

The corporation have had an easy time of separating the wheat from the chaff.
Delivered by the back door at the request of the Minister of Culture, Françoise Nyssen,
a *Hoog Report* advocated the creation of a press and audiovisual regulatory body
(Hoog, Clément-Cuzin, Baudet, 2019). For some journalists, the project could become
fatal to freedom. The position is historically constant, within a corporation
hypersensitive to any authoritarian and exogenous regulatory project, such as the
allusion to an Order of Journalists which would bring back to the horrors of the French
Vichy government (Pélissier, 2005, p. 78). The French *Syndicat national des
Journalistes* [National Union of Journalists], had preferred, with other associations, to

<footnote n="23">23 Our translation from: "*journaliste modèle qui joue les exemples après s'être bien amusé au sein de meutes de journalistes harceleurs*".</footnote>

<footnote n="24">²⁴ Our translation from: "il y avait de tout: des gens incapables d'être antiféministes, des connards [sic], des gens drôles et des gens pas drôles ou qui essayaient de l'être".</footnote>

<footnote n="25">²⁵ Our translation from: "le clash était le régime en vigueur pour les échanges en ligne (...) Il était de bon ton sur Twitter de faire de l'humour noir. J'adorais le stand-up et frustré de ne pas le pratiquer, je tuais mon envie de blagues sur les réseaux. Sans réaliser que ce que j'écrivais pouvait être sexiste, grossophobe, homophobe et constituer du harcèlement"</footnote>

<footnote n="26">26 Our translation from: "Nous étions influents, et c'est vrai que si on critiquait quelqu'un, ça pouvait prendre beaucoup d'ampleur. Il y a une part de vrai là-dedans, une part de gens qui ont pu se sentir légitimement harcelés. Mais il y a aussi une grosse part de fantasme".</footnote>
call for the unity of the profession and launch on May 16, 2019 the foundations of a
national body of ethics, while mistrust against journalists had never been so strong.

Beyond that, all the media had tried to stop the fall of their image by shifting the
reproachful charge and resorting to the classic linguistic figure of naturalization
(Reboul, 1980): this was not the problem of just one professional practice. Twitter had
provoked the drift within the entire society. Social networks were thus referred to as
“spillways of hate”. In a cruel twist of irony, and proof of the societal level of the drift,
the former members of *La Ligue du LOL* now in turn suffered the same harassment as
their victims.

After the moral condemnations of delinquent Internet users, the reactions of
journalists also aimed to challenge the legislator, reviving the debate on the anonymity
of the web. The process is classic of the eruption of a public problem, according to the
trilogy defined by William Felstiner, Richard Abel and Austin Sarat, and summarized in
the formula *Naming, blaming, claiming*. Naming means clearly to define a situation as
an offense, claiming consists in transforming it into a grievance and an imputation of
responsibility, blaming leads to a process of institutional disqualification and of
complaints in the form of a demand for reforms (Felstiner, Abel, Sarat, 1980). President
Emmanuel Macron himself reacted, judging that anonymity was harmful to democracy:
"every expression is legitimate, but words are not all equal"<fnref n="27" />. Opponents pointed out
that a study by Lea Staher, Katja Rost and Bruno S. Frey of the University of Zurich
found the correlation between digital harassment and anonymity questionable (Staher,
Rost, Frey, 2016). Others felt that the problem was not anonymity (some "loleurs" acted
openly) but the inadequacy of the system of legal responses to criminal acts.

The debate was also focused on the questioning of public aid to the press,
particularly for a public journalism, faced with the risk, proven with the development of
digital expression, of sacrificing the responsiveness of the live coverage vs the
requirement of hard worked, precious, civic meticulous investigation. The burden is not
only an ethical level: the advertising resource, which formely offered funding for the
journalistic investigation, is proving more and more captured by peer-to-peer sharing
content on platforms, what are called “infomediaries” like *Facebook* and *YouTube* and
search engines like *Google*. Professor at Sciences Po Grenoble, Gilles Bastin

<footnote n="27">²⁷ Our translation from: "Toutes les expressions sont légitimes, mais les paroles ne se valent pas toutes".</footnote>
call for the unity of the profession and launch on May 16, 2019 the foundations of a
national body of ethics, while mistrust against journalists had never been so strong.

Beyond that, all the media had tried to stop the fall of their image by shifting the
reproachful charge and resorting to the classic linguistic figure of naturalization
(Reboul, 1980): this was not the problem of just one professional practice. Twitter had
provoked the drift within the entire society. Social networks were thus referred to as
“spillways of hate”. In a cruel twist of irony, and proof of the societal level of the drift,
the former members of *La Ligue du LOL* now in turn suffered the same harassment as
their victims.

After the moral condemnations of delinquent Internet users, the reactions of
journalists also aimed to challenge the legislator, reviving the debate on the anonymity
of the web. The process is classic of the eruption of a public problem, according to the
trilogy defined by William Felstiner, Richard Abel and Austin Sarat, and summarized in
the formula *Naming, blaming, claiming*. Naming means clearly to define a situation as
an offense, claiming consists in transforming it into a grievance and an imputation of
responsibility, blaming leads to a process of institutional disqualification and of
complaints in the form of a demand for reforms (Felstiner, Abel, Sarat, 1980). President
Emmanuel Macron himself reacted, judging that anonymity was harmful to democracy:
"every expression is legitimate, but words are not all equal"<fnref n="27" />. Opponents pointed out
that a study by Lea Staher, Katja Rost and Bruno S. Frey of the University of Zurich
found the correlation between digital harassment and anonymity questionable (Staher,
Rost, Frey, 2016). Others felt that the problem was not anonymity (some "loleurs" acted
openly) but the inadequacy of the system of legal responses to criminal acts.

The debate was also focused on the questioning of public aid to the press,
particularly for a public journalism, faced with the risk, proven with the development of
digital expression, of sacrificing the responsiveness of the live coverage vs the
requirement of hard worked, precious, civic meticulous investigation. The burden is not
only an ethical level: the advertising resource, which formely offered funding for the
journalistic investigation, is proving more and more captured by peer-to-peer sharing
content on platforms, what are called “infomediaries” like *Facebook* and *YouTube* and
search engines like *Google*. Professor at Sciences Po Grenoble, Gilles Bastin

<footnote n="27">²⁷ Our translation from: "Toutes les expressions sont légitimes, mais les paroles ne se valent pas toutes".</footnote>
observes the growing decrease in the number of journalists and the correlative recourse to the employment of amateurs, to forms of non-salaried employment, to the proliferation of fixed-term contracts of use, freelance contracts or outsourcing of content to companies manufacturing low-cost articles with a low information value (Bastin, 2019). In such a context, Kurt Imhof had judged the media henceforth incapable of serving the integration of different social perceptions and inclined to confuse ethical rigor with moralizing, emotional, easily consumable populism (Imhof, 2014).

At the same time, the disapproving media discourse stopped at the identity of the victims, in terms of gender. Parisian journalism now felt directly splashed beyond the blacklist of the League of Lol: similar acts of damaging acts against female colleagues had occurred within the editorial staff of the site Vice.fr., systematically disqualifying their work and private life. Testimonies on Twitter had confirmed that nothing had been spared these victims, the "obese phobic" charge can add to the ignominy of "these little Parisian guys who laughed at us (...). I was fat, so I had not right to speak"<fnref n="28" />. The cabal was thus constituted: "La Ligue du LOL located me and began its work of undermining little by little: photo montages, videos aimed at making fun of me (...), recurring criticism of my appearance. ... All this on a regular basis, free of charge, and involving a whole bunch of twittos in their unhealthy and devastating wake"<fnref n="29" />.

The snowball effect had amplified the quagmire, the harassment which could even extend beyond the Internet. The weekly *L'Express* had thus revealed that in the summer of 2017, the new director of human resources (a woman) of the offending site had been informed by employees of the development of a "discriminating and sexist culture" within the company, supporting by facts and nominative designations, attributable to seven employees who had qualified themselves *Les Darons* ("fathers, bosses"), then *Townhall* on their private messaging site. Two compulsorily redundancies immediately followed the complaint and five legal proceedings had been initiated against five employees of the site. Then, some media considered that this deplorable cyberstalking affair could constitute the expected trigger "for a deep and

<footnote n="28">²⁸ Our translation from: "ces petits mecs parisiens qui se foutaient de notre gueule (...). J'étais grosse, donc je n'avais pas droit à la parole".</footnote>

<footnote n="29">²⁹ Our translation from: "La Ligue du LOL m'a repérée et a commencé son travail de sape petit à petit : montages photos, vidéos visant à se moquer de moi (...), critiques récurrentes sur mon apparence.... Tout ça de façon régulière, gratuite, et entraînant tout un tas de twittos dans leur sillage malsain et dévastateur".</footnote>
observes the growing decrease in the number of journalists and the correlative recourse to the employment of amateurs, to forms of non-salaried employment, to the proliferation of fixed-term contracts of use, freelance contracts or outsourcing of content to companies manufacturing low-cost articles with a low information value (Bastin, 2019). In such a context, Kurt Imhof had judged the media henceforth incapable of serving the integration of different social perceptions and inclined to confuse ethical rigor with moralizing, emotional, easily consumable populism (Imhof, 2014).

At the same time, the disapproving media discourse stopped at the identity of the victims, in terms of gender. Parisian journalism now felt directly splashed beyond the blacklist of the League of Lol: similar acts of damaging acts against female colleagues had occurred within the editorial staff of the site Vice.fr., systematically disqualifying their work and private life. Testimonies on Twitter had confirmed that nothing had been spared these victims, the "obese phobic" charge can add to the ignominy of "these little Parisian guys who laughed at us (...). I was fat, so I had not right to speak"<fnref n="28" />. The cabal was thus constituted: "La Ligue du LOL located me and began its work of undermining little by little: photo montages, videos aimed at making fun of me (...), recurring criticism of my appearance. ... All this on a regular basis, free of charge, and involving a whole bunch of twittos in their unhealthy and devastating wake"<fnref n="29" />.

The snowball effect had amplified the quagmire, the harassment which could even extend beyond the Internet. The weekly *L'Express* had thus revealed that in the summer of 2017, the new director of human resources (a woman) of the offending site had been informed by employees of the development of a "discriminating and sexist culture" within the company, supporting by facts and nominative designations, attributable to seven employees who had qualified themselves *Les Darons* ("fathers, bosses"), then *Townhall* on their private messaging site. Two compulsorily redundancies immediately followed the complaint and five legal proceedings had been initiated against five employees of the site. Then, some media considered that this deplorable cyberstalking affair could constitute the expected trigger "for a deep and

<footnote n="28">²⁸ Our translation from: "ces petits mecs parisiens qui se foutaient de notre gueule (...). J'étais grosse, donc je n'avais pas droit à la parole".</footnote>

<footnote n="29">²⁹ Our translation from: "La Ligue du LOL m'a repérée et a commencé son travail de sape petit à petit : montages photos, vidéos visant à se moquer de moi (...), critiques récurrentes sur mon apparence.... Tout ça de façon régulière, gratuite, et entraînant tout un tas de twittos dans leur sillage malsain et dévastateur".</footnote>
collective questioning of the sexism and the inter-self that plague the world of journalism"<fnref n="30" />. 900 journalists had already signed a column launched in the daily *Le Monde* by the association *Prenons la Une* ("Take up the front page"] and the AJL (association of lesbian, gay, bi and trans journalists), denouncing "a profession plagued by systemic sexism"<fnref n="31" /> and enjoining editorial teams to fight against discrimination experienced by women.

But in this case, once again, the corporation as a whole had reacted by using the figure of *universalization*: sexism and harassment of sisters do not only concern journalism. In addition to a member of *La Ligue du Lol* in the communication sector (*Publicis* company) and two others whose summons by the employer had revealed that they worked at the City of Paris, similar gatherings, outside journalism, were also offered a cyber harassment platform: young doctors operated in the same way as an organized group, within a group called *La Team Air Médecine / Bienveillance* (sic). Finally, the professional identity of these derivatives could not constitute a really explanatory factor of the mechanism: "They perpetuated, under cover of a new culture, the most ancestral dominions and the most old-fashioned patriarchy"<fnref n="32" />, as one journalist explained on *France Inter* radio. Therefore, it was not a question, from the harassers, of stigmatizing one precise socio-professional category more than another, even if the French *Haut Conseil à l'égalité* ("High Council for Equality") had still observed that 71% of the chronicles in the morning radio shows of January 2019 had mobilized sexist springs, such as stereotypes attributed to women: hysterical, foolish, sensitive, fragile, emotional, etc. Some researchers had corrected in the same direction: "To make boy clubs is superfluous since society is already a boy club"!<fnref n="33" /> (Coulomb-Gully, 2012 and 2016). Likewise, the feminist idea, admittedly rapid but striking, was spreading, denouncing a "rape culture" in France which would have its source in gallant love (Rey-Robert, 2019). Jürgen Habermas himself ever recognized that the structural transformation of the public political sphere took place "without affecting the character of a society marked by patriarchy as a whole" (Habermas, 1992,

<footnote n="30">³⁰ Our translation from: "d'une remise en question profonde et collective sur le sexisme et l'entre soi qui gangrènent le milieu du journalisme".</footnote>

<footnote n="31">³¹ Our translation from: "une profession rongée par un sexisme systémique".</footnote>

<footnote n="32">³² Our translation from: "Ils perpétuaient, sous couvert d'une culture nouvelle, les dominations les plus ancestrales et le patriarcat le plus vieillot".</footnote>

<footnote n="33">³³ Our translation from: "Faire des boys clubs, c'est superfétatoire puisque la société est déjà un boys club!".</footnote>
collective questioning of the sexism and the inter-self that plague the world of journalism"<fnref n="30" />. 900 journalists had already signed a column launched in the daily *Le Monde* by the association *Prenons la Une* ("Take up the front page"] and the AJL (association of lesbian, gay, bi and trans journalists), denouncing "a profession plagued by systemic sexism"<fnref n="31" /> and enjoining editorial teams to fight against discrimination experienced by women.

But in this case, once again, the corporation as a whole had reacted by using the figure of *universalization*: sexism and harassment of sisters do not only concern journalism. In addition to a member of *La Ligue du Lol* in the communication sector (*Publicis* company) and two others whose summons by the employer had revealed that they worked at the City of Paris, similar gatherings, outside journalism, were also offered a cyber harassment platform: young doctors operated in the same way as an organized group, within a group called *La Team Air Médecine / Bienveillance* (sic). Finally, the professional identity of these derivatives could not constitute a really explanatory factor of the mechanism: "They perpetuated, under cover of a new culture, the most ancestral dominions and the most old-fashioned patriarchy"<fnref n="32" />, as one journalist explained on *France Inter* radio. Therefore, it was not a question, from the harassers, of stigmatizing one precise socio-professional category more than another, even if the French *Haut Conseil à l'égalité* ("High Council for Equality") had still observed that 71% of the chronicles in the morning radio shows of January 2019 had mobilized sexist springs, such as stereotypes attributed to women: hysterical, foolish, sensitive, fragile, emotional, etc. Some researchers had corrected in the same direction: "To make boy clubs is superfluous since society is already a boy club"!<fnref n="33" /> (Coulomb-Gully, 2012 and 2016). Likewise, the feminist idea, admittedly rapid but striking, was spreading, denouncing a "rape culture" in France which would have its source in gallant love (Rey-Robert, 2019). Jürgen Habermas himself ever recognized that the structural transformation of the public political sphere took place "without affecting the character of a society marked by patriarchy as a whole" (Habermas, 1992,

<footnote n="30">³⁰ Our translation from: "d'une remise en question profonde et collective sur le sexisme et l'entre soi qui gangrènent le milieu du journalisme".</footnote>

<footnote n="31">³¹ Our translation from: "une profession rongée par un sexisme systémique".</footnote>

<footnote n="32">³² Our translation from: "Ils perpétuaient, sous couvert d'une culture nouvelle, les dominations les plus ancestrales et le patriarcat le plus vieillot".</footnote>

<footnote n="33">³³ Our translation from: "Faire des boys clubs, c'est superfétatoire puisque la société est déjà un boys club!".</footnote>
p. 166). Specifying the evolution of his thinking, he added: “[...] the exclusion of women has been a constitutive element of the public political sphere, in the sense that it was not only dominated by men in a contingent manner, but determined, in its structure and its relation to the private sphere, according to a sexual criterion” (Habermas, 1992, p. 167).

Be that as it may, in the media, the reconstructing of the practices of *La Ligue du Lol* had tended to forget that the media "halali" was not be taken just only against a specific genre. Certainly, women – especially if they reflected feminist positions – had been the favourite targets. But the deepening of ex-post journalistic investigations had shown that in fact, the harassment practiced by members of *La Ligue du LOL* had been directed against anyone with a difference from their own condition. Those who weren't Parisians, like them. Those who were only suspected of being LGBT, even if it means distributing to underage children some of their compromising photographs, private or resulting from pornographic montages. Those who appeared on the web 2.0 black – Jews, North Africans and those who militated against racism, in particular against discrimination on air against "visible minorities" – as we ourselves analyzed (Cabedoche, 2009 and 2013) and that the request for a preliminary investigation requested from the Public Prosecutor's Office by the *SOS Racisme association* had confirmed. Finally and again, those who had the awkwardness of having presented themselves as "neuroatypical" or in a state of vulnerability, for example looking for a job, or in an intermittent professional situation. In short, *La Ligue du LOL* had gradually appeared as an *old boys network* of white males, who come from the same schools, evolve in the same circles, operate by acquaintance and by co-optation and stick together, like the *American fraternities* that journalist Emily Chang had already denounced in the Silicon Valley. In fact, these fraternities are very homogeneous, as Isabelle Collet – who works on gender issues at the University of Geneva – notes (Collet, 2019). The comparison had thus earned a few articles in the *New York Times* on the scandal of *La Ligue du LOL*.

The hypothesis of a sectarian league, working as a gatekeeper of a kind of professional *apartheid* against a specific socio-professional profile of the victims, had not resisted. Clara Gonzales explained it on *FranceInfo* radio: even if sexism is inherent in these networks, the harassment was identical, with the same symptoms on the mental health or the professional development of the victims, whatever their gender
p. 166). Specifying the evolution of his thinking, he added: “[...] the exclusion of women has been a constitutive element of the public political sphere, in the sense that it was not only dominated by men in a contingent manner, but determined, in its structure and its relation to the private sphere, according to a sexual criterion” (Habermas, 1992, p. 167).

Be that as it may, in the media, the reconstructing of the practices of *La Ligue du Lol* had tended to forget that the media "halali" was not be taken just only against a specific genre. Certainly, women – especially if they reflected feminist positions – had been the favourite targets. But the deepening of ex-post journalistic investigations had shown that in fact, the harassment practiced by members of *La Ligue du LOL* had been directed against anyone with a difference from their own condition. Those who weren't Parisians, like them. Those who were only suspected of being LGBT, even if it means distributing to underage children some of their compromising photographs, private or resulting from pornographic montages. Those who appeared on the web 2.0 *black* – Jews, North Africans and those who militated against racism, in particular against discrimination on air against "visible minorities" – as we ourselves analyzed (Cabedoche, 2009 and 2013) and that the request for a preliminary investigation requested from the Public Prosecutor's Office by the *SOS Racisme association* had confirmed. Finally and again, those who had the awkwardness of having presented themselves as "neuroatypical" or in a state of vulnerability, for example looking for a job, or in an intermittent professional situation. In short, *La Ligue du LOL* had gradually appeared as an *old boys network* of white males, who come from the same schools, evolve in the same circles, operate by acquaintance and by co-optation and stick together, like the *American fraternities* that journalist Emily Chang had already denounced in the Silicon Valley. In fact, these fraternities are very homogeneous, as Isabelle Collet – who works on gender issues at the University of Geneva – notes (Collet, 2019). The comparison had thus earned a few articles in the *New York Times* on the scandal of *La Ligue du LOL*.

The hypothesis of a sectarian league, working as a gatekeeper of a kind of professional *apartheid* against a specific socio-professional profile of the victims, had not resisted. Clara Gonzales explained it on *FranceInfo* radio: even if sexism is inherent in these networks, the harassment was identical, with the same symptoms on the mental health or the professional development of the victims, whatever their gender
and their condition. Certainly, such this woman journalist felt that she had immediately
been dropped by her former professional environment in the video game press, when
she had reported the harassment she had suffered in four different media during 13
years. The statistics of a percentage of over 90% of women finding themselves
unemployed after having denounced similar facts confirmed the extent of the damage.
But this male author for his part had had to change the name of his professional
signature and then to reject the announcement of the publication of his first work under
his real name, thus hoping to stop being reduced to a character in the "box of loleurs
game"<fnref n="34" />. These findings had forced the analysis to be shifted as to the profile of the
stalkers.

The case criminally implicated young men in a sector of activity, admittedly still
attractive from an economic point of view, if we consider the extravagant
remunerations of the few founders of the main communication groups or stars of the
TV news. But where the disappointment is often cruel for the majority of those who will
evolve only in precarious functions of hard-working assistants of journalism. For Clara
Gonzales, starting by harassing people identified as minority and fragile, members of
*La Ligue du LOL* "have, more or less consciously, eliminated potential competitors"<fnref n="35" />.
This harassment would have allowed them to settle in the profession, or even access
positions of responsibility. The rapid censuses revealed by journalistic surveys had
also shown that, at best, some people harassed in this way had sacrificed their own
visibility on social networks in order to no longer exist as targets, even if it meant
depriving themselves of access to the employment. Others outright had changed their
activities: "It's like preventing a lot of competent people from having a professional
career and maintaining the same logic of power"<fnref n="36" />. In fact, certain competitions had
been ruthlessly ruled out: "By dint of reading dirt about me everywhere on the
networks, I was convinced that I was worth nothing"<fnref n="37" />, admitted a former web journalist,
who has since converted to fashion. Another one, who has been also professionally
reconverted, had deciphered the mechanism of *La Ligue du Lol* in the same direction:

<footnote n="34">³⁴ Our translation from: "boîte à jeu des loleurs".</footnote>

<footnote n="35">³⁵ Our translation from: "ont, plus ou moins consciemment, éliminé des concurrents potentiels".</footnote>

<footnote n="36">³⁶ Our translation from: "C'est comme çà qu'on empêche plein de gens compétents d'avoir une carrière professionnelle et qu'on entretient les mêmes logiques de pouvoir".</footnote>

<footnote n="37">³⁷ Our translation from: "À force de lire des saletés sur moi partout sur les réseaux, j'ai été convaincue que je ne valais rien".</footnote>
and their condition. Certainly, such this woman journalist felt that she had immediately
been dropped by her former professional environment in the video game press, when
she had reported the harassment she had suffered in four different media during 13
years. The statistics of a percentage of over 90% of women finding themselves
unemployed after having denounced similar facts confirmed the extent of the damage.
But this male author for his part had had to change the name of his professional
signature and then to reject the announcement of the publication of his first work under
his real name, thus hoping to stop being reduced to a character in the "box of loleurs
game"<fnref n="34" />. These findings had forced the analysis to be shifted as to the profile of the
stalkers.

The case criminally implicated young men in a sector of activity, admittedly still
attractive from an economic point of view, if we consider the extravagant
remunerations of the few founders of the main communication groups or stars of the
TV news. But where the disappointment is often cruel for the majority of those who will
evolve only in precarious functions of hard-working assistants of journalism. For Clara
Gonzales, starting by harassing people identified as minority and fragile, members of
*La Ligue du LOL* "have, more or less consciously, eliminated potential competitors"<fnref n="35" />.
This harassment would have allowed them to settle in the profession, or even access
positions of responsibility. The rapid censuses revealed by journalistic surveys had
also shown that, at best, some people harassed in this way had sacrificed their own
visibility on social networks in order to no longer exist as targets, even if it meant
depriving themselves of access to the employment. Others outright had changed their
activities: "It's like preventing a lot of competent people from having a professional
career and maintaining the same logic of power"<fnref n="36" />. In fact, certain competitions had
been ruthlessly ruled out: "By dint of reading dirt about me everywhere on the
networks, I was convinced that I was worth nothing"<fnref n="37" />, admitted a former web journalist,
who has since converted to fashion. Another one, who has been also professionally
reconverted, had deciphered the mechanism of *La Ligue du Lol* in the same direction:

<footnote n="34">³⁴ Our translation from: "boîte à jeu des loleurs".</footnote>

<footnote n="35">³⁵ Our translation from: "ont, plus ou moins consciemment, éliminé des concurrents potentiels".</footnote>

<footnote n="36">³⁶ Our translation from: "C'est comme ça qu'on empêche plein de gens compétents d'avoir une carrière professionnelle et qu'on entretient les mêmes logiques de pouvoir".</footnote>

<footnote n="37">³⁷ Our translation from: "À force de lire des saletés sur moi partout sur les réseaux, j'ai été convaincue que je ne valais rien".</footnote>
"When you have built yourself in a community which gives you power, and which never makes you accountable, you do not want not lose it"<fnref n="38" />. In particular when seeing people arriving with different profiles and points of view. A third witness was more precise, pointing out that the harassed victims were mainly influential women, with threatening power! Under the load, members of *La Ligue du LOL* had finally admit to having participated in such a professional raid out of resentment, because he was annoyed after being dismissed from key positions, or having been refused a promotion, expected, during the reorganization of their editorial staff. Michel Foucault had already thus understood the rules for the formation of discourses of power as mechanisms of exclusion of what we must consider as "their own Other".

## CONCLUSION

Probably, with *La Ligue du Lol*, we are still close to the excitement of the schoolyard or to the "*bidasserie potache*" (schoolboy banter) that has been transported to *Twitter*. Which for all these cases, mitigates in no way the dangerousness lethal assault. Finally, convergences are weak with the *Ince/s* or with the white supremacists, who theorized their hatred: the first of women, the second of "non-whites". For Isabelle Collet, "We are ultimately closer to cyberbullying situations where no one is aware - or wants to be aware - of the harmfulness of what he is doing because each individual does a very small thing. But if they are ten to do this thing continuously, it becomes monstrous" (Collet, 2019). Stanley Cohen has already demonstrated with relevance how deeply the capacity to let things go and the refusal of awareness are rooted in a society saturated with information (Cohen, 2001). Moreover, Stanley Milgram's famous analysis explains how the ascendancy of a few can lead to the submissive acceptance of collective behavior, even immoral ones, solicited by injunction until adoption by mimicry, or even outbidding, by others (Milgram, 1974).

However, we have shown that beyond the intentionality of the authors, the event at the origin of this media uproar is symptomatic of the re-feudalisation of our contemporary societies. The change brought about by online media is creating new attention spaces in the internet (Imhof, 2014, p. 327), the issues of which go beyond

<footnote n="38">³⁸ Our translation from: "Quand vous êtes construits dans une communauté qui vous donne du pouvoir, et qui ne vous demande jamais de comptes, vous ne voulez pas la perdre".</footnote>
"When you have built yourself in a community which gives you power, and which never makes you accountable, you do not want not lose it"<fnref n="38" />. In particular when seeing people arriving with different profiles and points of view. A third witness was more precise, pointing out that the harassed victims were mainly influential women, with threatening power! Under the load, members of *La Ligue du LOL* had finally admit to having participated in such a professional raid out of resentment, because he was annoyed after being dismissed from key positions, or having been refused a promotion, expected, during the reorganization of their editorial staff. Michel Foucault had already thus understood the rules for the formation of discourses of power as mechanisms of exclusion of what we must consider as "their own Other".

## CONCLUSION

Probably, with *La Ligue du Lol*, we are still close to the excitement of the schoolyard or to the "*bidasserie potache*" (schoolboy banter) that has been transported to *Twitter*. Which for all these cases, mitigates in no way the dangerousness lethal assault. Finally, convergences are weak with the *Ince/s* or with the white supremacists, who theorized their hatred: the first of women, the second of "non-whites". For Isabelle Collet, "We are ultimately closer to cyberbullying situations where no one is aware - or wants to be aware - of the harmfulness of what he is doing because each individual does a very small thing. But if they are ten to do this thing continuously, it becomes monstrous" (Collet, 2019). Stanley Cohen has already demonstrated with relevance how deeply the capacity to let things go and the refusal of awareness are rooted in a society saturated with information (Cohen, 2001). Moreover, Stanley Milgram's famous analysis explains how the ascendancy of a few can lead to the submissive acceptance of collective behavior, even immoral ones, solicited by injunction until adoption by mimicry, or even outbidding, by others (Milgram, 1974).

However, we have shown that beyond the intentionality of the authors, the event at the origin of this media uproar is symptomatic of the re-feudalisation of our contemporary societies. The change brought about by online media is creating new attention spaces in the internet (Imhof, 2014, p. 327), the issues of which go beyond

<footnote n="38">³⁸ Our translation from: "Quand vous êtes construits dans une communauté qui vous donne du pouvoir, et qui ne vous demande jamais de comptes, vous ne voulez pas la perdre".</footnote>
the sole framework of public expression. Particularly with the development of GAFAM,
private empires have replaced the initially distributed internet network (Lanier, 2015).
The latter are also the least cooperative, if we consider Twitter's silences to the
injunctions of the public authority ordering it to communicate information to identifying
and sanctioning offenders. Thus, this economic power of a few leads to a devastating
effect on the conditions for negotiating public affairs. It results in the production of "neo-
feudal" modes of distribution of wealth, recognition and power. The process
strengthens corporatism and assures to elites the attribution of immeasurable
advantages, for example to the leaders of communication groups. At the same time, it
reinforces the growing pauperization of the lower classes (Neckel, 2014). Then, these
are exposed to working conditions that make them ever more fragile, which can lead
them to cynical strategies of dominant actors, justified by survival, or by the rigid
safeguard of certain "privileges": for example, the refusal of suppression of the flat-rate
tax allowance enjoyed by journalists. Admittedly, the measure protects the most
precarious, but it "also allows companies to maintain downward pressure on wages
and (...) contributes to fueling public doubts about the independence of journalists with
regard to the political power" (Bastin, 2019).

In our analysis panel, only one testimony had suggested: " La Ligue was a
pyramid group where the servile courtesans harassed to show the bosses that they
were valuable.<fnref n="39" />" Later, *Le Monde* and *FranceInfo* also welcomed the hypothesis of a
"class contempt" by "loleurs", following an #EntenduALaRédac investigation,
conducted with several groups of journalists. But otherwise, this thesis of re-
feudalisation had never been mentioned in mainstream media, whatever the format:
paper, audiovisual or digital. On the contrary, a boycott had been put in place in the
mainstream media against a devastating pamphlet (Branco, 2019): expeditious and
sometimes not very rigorous, the essay was however edifying concerning the
"complicity of the media with power", even the confusion of interests when the
ownership of the first distinguishes Arnaud Lagardère, Xavier Neels, Bernard Arnault,
Patrick Drahi, Vincent Bolloré, Martin Bouygues... among the greatest fortunes in
France. This discretion in media analyzes testifies to the disposition in the media of
representations according to the interests of the dominant and to the persistence of

<footnote n="39">³⁹ Our translation from: "La Ligue, c'était un groupe pyramidal où les mange-merde [sic] harcelaient pour montrer aux boss qu'ils avaient de la valeur".</footnote>
the sole framework of public expression. Particularly with the development of GAFAM,
private empires have replaced the initially distributed internet network (Lanier, 2015).
The latter are also the least cooperative, if we consider Twitter's silences to the
injunctions of the public authority ordering it to communicate information to identifying
and sanctioning offenders. Thus, this economic power of a few leads to a devastating
effect on the conditions for negotiating public affairs. It results in the production of "neo-
feudal" modes of distribution of wealth, recognition and power. The process
strengthens corporatism and assures to elites the attribution of immeasurable
advantages, for example to the leaders of communication groups. At the same time, it
reinforces the growing pauperization of the lower classes (Neckel, 2014). Then, these
are exposed to working conditions that make them ever more fragile, which can lead
them to cynical strategies of dominant actors, justified by survival, or by the rigid
safeguard of certain "privileges": for example, the refusal of suppression of the flat-rate
tax allowance enjoyed by journalists. Admittedly, the measure protects the most
precarious, but it "also allows companies to maintain downward pressure on wages
and (...) contributes to fueling public doubts about the independence of journalists with
regard to the political power" (Bastin, 2019).

In our analysis panel, only one testimony had suggested: " La Ligue was a
pyramid group where the servile courtesans harassed to show the bosses that they
were valuable.<fnref n="39" />" Later, *Le Monde* and *FranceInfo* also welcomed the hypothesis of a
"class contempt" by "loleurs", following an #*EntenduAlaRédac* investigation,
conducted with several groups of journalists. But otherwise, this thesis of re-
feudalisation had never been mentioned in mainstream media, whatever the format:
paper, audiovisual or digital. On the contrary, a boycott had been put in place in the
mainstream media against a devastating pamphlet (Branco, 2019): expeditious and
sometimes not very rigorous, the essay was however edifying concerning the
"complicity of the media with power", even the confusion of interests when the
ownership of the first distinguishes Arnaud Lagardère, Xavier Neels, Bernard Arnault,
Patrick Drahi, Vincent Bolloré, Martin Bouygues... among the greatest fortunes in
France. This discretion in media analyzes testifies to the disposition in the media of
representations according to the interests of the dominant and to the persistence of

<footnote n="39">³⁹ Our translation from: "La Ligue, c'était un groupe pyramidal où les mange-merde [sic] harcelaient pour montrer aux boss qu'ils avaient de la valeur".</footnote>
the professional field constituting them. Pierre Bourdieu thus designated any socio-professional collective, whose cohesion – as it is expressed through the discourse of professionals – makes it possible to notice the reality of a clan-type habitus, whose main characteristic is to participate in both the preservation and reproduction of the field (Bourdieu, 1996 and Watine, 1999).

Of course, since the *Ligue du LOL* affair, many journalists have embarked on a genuine process of self-criticism. But even today, as illustrated by the reactions of journalists to this *Ligue du LOL* affair, the journalistic universe remains a relatively autonomous field (Bourdieu, 1996). But it also constitutes a play area where disempowerment operates, as it does in entire sections of society where the middle class had hoped to access in sustainable positions of responsibility and prosperity. The intractable laws of contemporary capitalism have today shattered those dreams of social advancement inherited from the *Glorious Thirty!* And explain pack behaviors, which some of the delinquents now wonder how they could have let themselves be drawn into, despite their personal ethics and their deontological benchmarks.

On a theoretically broader level, the *Ligue du Lol* episode forces us to move away from a holistic reading of a social totality to which individuals socialized could belong to, as members of an organization that includes them belong. The updating undertaken by Habermas invites us to consider the multiplicity, not reducible, of conflicting interests.

Above all, understanding the mechanism makes it necessary to re-register the challenges of contemporary journalism in a theoretical cultural industries approach, of which information is one of the channels. It is a question of going beyond a mediacentric reading of journalism, and take into consideration a whole chain of actors and actions "which contribute to a cultural production with complementary ways of doing and a shared culture" (Miège, 2018, D8). The proposal also offers a revealing framework of the transfer to humans of the burden of uncertainty, specific to this type of industry in a context of globalization: the massive and growing recourse on the part of the dominant communication groups to the sub-treatment of employees – sometimes very qualified – makes the less sensitive to ethics as they are paid based on piece-work and threatened with precariousness. Finally, the theoretical proposition explains the additional tension caused by the emergence of large operators in the digital sector.
the professional field constituting them. Pierre Bourdieu thus designated any socio-professional collective, whose cohesion – as it is expressed through the discourse of professionals – makes it possible to notice the reality of a clan-type habitus, whose main characteristic is to participate in both the preservation and reproduction of the field (Bourdieu, 1996 and Watine, 1999).

Of course, since the *Ligue du LOL* affair, many journalists have embarked on a genuine process of self-criticism. But even today, as illustrated by the reactions of journalists to this *Ligue du LOL* affair, the journalistic universe remains a relatively autonomous field (Bourdieu, 1996). But it also constitutes a play area where disempowerment operates, as it does in entire sections of society where the middle class had hoped to access in sustainable positions of responsibility and prosperity. The intractable laws of contemporary capitalism have today shattered those dreams of social advancement inherited from the *Glorious Thirty!* And explain pack behaviors, which some of the delinquents now wonder how they could have let themselves be drawn into, despite their personal ethics and their deontological benchmarks.

On a theoretically broader level, the *Ligue du Lol* episode forces us to move away from a holistic reading of a social totality to which individuals socialized could belong to, as members of an organization that includes them belong. The updating undertaken by Habermas invites us to consider the multiplicity, not reducible, of conflicting interests.

Above all, understanding the mechanism makes it necessary to re-register the challenges of contemporary journalism in a theoretical cultural industries approach, of which information is one of the channels. It is a question of going beyond a mediacentric reading of journalism, and take into consideration a whole chain of actors and actions "which contribute to a cultural production with complementary ways of doing and a shared culture" (Miège, 2018, D8). The proposal also offers a revealing framework of the transfer to humans of the burden of uncertainty, specific to this type of industry in a context of globalization: the massive and growing recourse on the part of the dominant communication groups to the sub-treatment of employees – sometimes very qualified – makes the less sensitive to ethics as they are paid based on piece-work and threatened with precariousness. Finally, the theoretical proposition explains the additional tension caused by the emergence of large operators in the digital sector.
In the name of liberalism and a technicalist conception which is trivialized in the computer world to which they belong, the latter flout the traditional rules of economic equilibrium in the production of information. Thus, they do not hesitate to damage intellectual property, to ignore the injunctions in terms of moderation, to counter any inclination of the public authorities in terms of regulation (Miège, 2018, D8).

The example of the drifts of la Ligue du Lol and their media treatment triply illustrates the contemporary developments in this information sector. It testifies both to its porosity and to a global process of recomposition of capitalism, with its absorption into large communication conglomerates, whose short-term financial visions tend to be dominant, dramatically (Bouquillion, 2008). It also invites to consider the information sector in a specific way compared to other areas of industrial production, even if its financialization tends to weaken the symbolic value of culture. Finally, it forces to consider the ideological construction of the new economy of the collaborative web: immersed in a status close to the media-man within clan affective communities, the user can only testify to an emotional participatory commitment and an illusory sublimation in virtuality, when one's needs and desires are not satisfied in the real and immediate context of self-realization (Bouquillion, Matthews, 2010; Ben Balaïd, 2019).
In the name of liberalism and a technicalist conception which is trivialized in the computer world to which they belong, the latter flout the traditional rules of economic equilibrium in the production of information. Thus, they do not hesitate to damage intellectual property, to ignore the injunctions in terms of moderation, to counter any inclination of the public authorities in terms of regulation (Miège, 2018, D8).

The example of the drifts of la Ligue du Lol and their media treatment triply illustrates the contemporary developments in this information sector. It testifies both to its porosity and to a global process of recomposition of capitalism, with its absorption into large communication conglomerates, whose short-term financial visions tend to be dominant, dramatically (Bouquillion, 2008). It also invites to consider the information sector in a specific way compared to other areas of industrial production, even if its financialization tends to weaken the symbolic value of culture. Finally, it forces to consider the ideological construction of the new economy of the collaborative web: immersed in a status close to the media-man within clan affective communities, the user can only testify to an emotional participatory commitment and an illusory sublimation in virtuality, when one's needs and desires are not satisfied in the real and immediate context of self-realization (Bouquillion, Matthews, 2010; Ben Balaïd, 2019).
# BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES

## Books

BOUQUILLION, Philippe (2008), *Les industries de la culture et de la communication. Les stratégies du capitalisme*, Grenoble, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble.

BOUQUILLION, Philippe, MATTHEWS, Jacob T., (2010), *Le Web collaboratif : mutations des industries de la culture et de la communication*, Grenoble, PUG (Coll. "La communication en plus").

CHARAUDEAU, Patrick (1997), *Le discours d'information médiatique, La construction du miroir social*, Paris: INA-Nathan.

CHAUVEL, Louis (2006), *Les classes moyennes à la dérive*, Paris, Le Seuil (Coll. "La République des idées").

COHEN, Stanley (2001), *States of Denial, Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering* (La négation consciente face aux atrocités et à la souffrance), Cambridge, Polity.

COULON-GULLY, Marlène (2012), *Médias : la Fabrique du genre*, (dossier *Sciences de la Société*, n° 82), Toulouse, PUM.

COULOMB-GULLY, Marlène (2016), *Huit femmes sur un plateau. Journalisme, sexe et politique*, Paris, Nouveau Monde Édition.

De LA HAYE, Yves (1985), *Journalisme, mode d'emploi. Des manières d'écrire l'actualité*, Grenoble, France, ELLUG- Pensée Sauvage.

DESLANDES, Ghislain (2008), *Le management des médias*, Paris, La Découverte (Coll. "Repères").

GOUX, Dominique, MAURIN, Eric, *Les Nouvelles Classes moyennes*, Paris, Le Seuil (Coll. "La République des idées").

HABERMAS, Jürgen (1962), *The structural Transformation of the Public Sphere : An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society*, [transl. 1969], Cambridge, Polity.

HABERMAS, Jürgen (2006), *L'espace public. Archéologie de la publicité comme dimension constitutive de la société bourgeoise*, Paris, Payot, (reed).

HUSSERL, Edmund (1936), *La crise des sociétés européennes et la phénoménologie transcendantale*, [rééd. 1972, Paris, Gallimard (Coll. "Tel"]).

MILGRAM, Stanley (1974), *Soumission à l'autorité. Un point de vue expérimental*, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, (rééd. 1989).

PELISSIER, Nicolas (2005), *Écrire sur le journalisme. Étude de dispersion d'un savoir scientifique (1937-2005)*, mémoire pour l'habilitation à diriger des recherches, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis.

PELISSIER, Nicolas (2009), *Journalisme : avis de recherche*. Bruxelles, Bruylant, (Coll. "Médias, société, relations internationales").

REBOUL, Olivier (1980), *Langage et idéologie*, Paris, PUF.

RUELLAN, Denis, (2007), *Le journalisme, ou le professionnalisme du flou*, Grenoble, PUG.

RUELLAN, Denis, (2011), *Nous, journalistes. Déontologie et identité*, Grenoble, PUG (Coll. "Communication, médias et société").

## CHAPTERS AND PAPERS IN SCIENTIFIC REVIEWS

BASTIN, Gilles (2019), « Les aides à la presse peuvent-elles contribuer à promouvoir le journalisme d'intérêt public ? », *The Conversation*, 22 avril.
http://theconversation.com/les-aides-a-la-presse-peuvent-elles-contribuer-a-promouvoir-le-jounalisme-d-interet-public-115510

BAUTIER, Roger, (2006), « L'histoire des moyens de communication dans l'espace public », pp. 197-211, in Stéphane Olivesi (dir.), *Sciences de l'information et de la
# BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES

## Books

BOUQUILLION, Philippe (2008), *Les industries de la culture et de la communication. Les stratégies du capitalisme*, Grenoble, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble.

BOUQUILLION, Philippe, MATTHEWS, Jacob T., (2010), *Le Web collaboratif : mutations des industries de la culture et de la communication*, Grenoble, PUG (Coll. "La communication en plus").

CHARAUDEAU, Patrick (1997), *Le discours d'information médiatique, La construction du miroir social*, Paris: INA-Nathan.

CHAUVEL, Louis (2006), *Les classes moyennes à la dérive*, Paris, Le Seuil (Coll. "La République des idées").

COHEN, Stanley (2001), *States of Denial, Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering* (La négation consciente face aux atrocités et à la souffrance), Cambridge, Polity.

COULON-GULLY, Marlène (2012), *Médias : la Fabrique du genre*, (dossier *Sciences de la Société*, n° 82), Toulouse, PUM.

COULOMB-GULLY, Marlène (2016), *Huit femmes sur un plateau. Journalisme, sexe et politique*, Paris, Nouveau Monde Édition.

De LA HAYE, Yves (1985), *Journalisme, mode d'emploi. Des manières d'écrire l'actualité*, Grenoble, France, ELLUG- Pensée Sauvage.

DESLANDES, Ghislain (2008), *Le management des médias*, Paris, La Découverte (Coll. "Repères").

GOUX, Dominique, MAURIN, Eric, *Les Nouvelles Classes moyennes*, Paris, Le Seuil (Coll. "La République des idées").

HABERMAS, Jürgen (1962), *The structural Transformation of the Public Sphere : An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society*, [transl. 1969], Cambridge, Polity.

HABERMAS, Jürgen (2006), *L'espace public. Archéologie de la publicité comme dimension constitutive de la société bourgeoise*, Paris, Payot, (reed).

HUSSERL, Edmund (1936), *La crise des sociétés européennes et la phénoménologie transcendantale*, [rééd. 1972, Paris, Gallimard (Coll. "Tel"]).

MILGRAM, Stanley (1974), *Soumission à l'autorité. Un point de vue expérimental*, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, (rééd. 1989).

PELISSIER, Nicolas (2005), *Écrire sur le journalisme. Étude de dispersion d'un savoir scientifique (1937-2005)*, mémoire pour l'habilitation à diriger des recherches, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis.

PELISSIER, Nicolas (2009), *Journalisme : avis de recherche*. Bruxelles, Bruylant, (Coll. "Médias, société, relations internationales").

REBOUL, Olivier (1980), *Langage et idéologie*, Paris, PUF.

RUELLAN, Denis, (2007), *Le journalisme, ou le professionnalisme du flou*, Grenoble, PUG.

RUELLAN, Denis, (2011), *Nous, journalistes. Déontologie et identité*, Grenoble, PUG (Coll. "Communication, médias et société").

## CHAPTERS AND PAPERS IN SCIENTIFIC REVIEWS

BASTIN, Gilles (2019), « Les aides à la presse peuvent-elles contribuer à promouvoir le journalisme d'intérêt public ? », *The Conversation*, 22 avril.
http://theconversation.com/les-aides-a-la-presse-peuvent-elles-contribuer-a-promouvoir-le-jounalisme-d-interet-public-115510

BAUTIER, Roger, (2006), « L'histoire des moyens de communication dans l'espace public », pp. 197-211, in Stéphane Olivesi (dir.), *Sciences de l'information et de la
communication. Objet, savoirs, discipline, Grenoble, PUG (Col. "La communication en plus").

BOURDIEU, Pierre (1996), « Journalisme et analyse », *Les Cahiers du journalisme*, n° 1, juin.

CABEDOCHE, Bertrand (2004), « Historicité, didacticité et scientificité du discours d'information médiatique. La construction du récit commémoratif dans la presse magazine », - *Les Cahiers du journalisme*, n° 13, septembre 2004, pp. 40-79.

CABEDOCHE, Bertrand (2009), « Introduire la diversité socio-ethnique dans la formation au journalisme en France ? », pp. 121-141, in Mihaï Coman (ed.), *Models of, Models for Journalism and Communication*, Bucarest, ARS Docendy, Univercitate Din Bucuresti.

CABEDOCHE, Bertrand (2013), « Promesses et limites théoriques de la régulation : l'exemple de la promotion des « minorités visibles » par le CSA français », pp. 112-124, in Jamal Eddine Naji et Yves Théorêt (dir.), *Réflexions sur les diversités mondiales*, (Orbicom, Unesco et HACA), Casablanca, Les éditions maghrébines Aïn Sebaâ, 2013. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAJ9X6evYgo

CABEDOCHE, Bertrand (2016a), « L'enseignement du journalisme interculturel pour les centres d'excellence et de référence en Afrique. Une contribution académique à la politique et à la réflexion critique de l'Unesco », pp. 163-192, in Racha Mezrioui, Zeineb Touati (dir.), *Médias et technologies numériques. Constructions identitaires et interculturalités*, Tunis et Paris : L'Harmattan, 2016 (Coll. Socio-anthropologie des mondes méditerranéens).

CABEDOCHE, Bertrand (2016b), « "Communication internationale" et enjeux scientifiques : un état de la recherche à la naissance des sciences de l'information et de la communication en France », *Les Enjeux de l'Information et de la Communication*, n°17/2, 2016, p. 55 à 82, [en ligne] URL : http://lesenjeux.u-grenoble3.fr/2016-dossier/04-Cabedoche/

DAHLGREN, Peter (2000), « L'espace public et l'internet. Structure, espace et communication », *Réseaux*, vol. 18, n°100, pp. 157-186.

DELFORCE, Bernard (1996), « La responsabilité sociale du journalisme : donner du sens », 1996, *Les Cahiers du journalisme*, n° 2, pp. 16-32.

DELFORCE, Bernard, NOYER, Jean (1999), « Pour une approche interdisciplinarité des phénomènes de médiatisation : constructivisme et discursive sociale », *Études de communication*, n° 22, pp.13-39.

DELFORCE, Bernard (2004), « Une approche pertinente du journalisme », *Questions de communication*, n°6 pp. 111-133.

FELSTINER, William L. F.ABEL, Richard L., SARAT, Austin (1980). *The Emergence and Transformation of Disputes: Naming, Blaming, Claiming, Law and society review, Volume 15, Number 3-4*, pp. 631-654.

GALIBERT, Olivier (2014), « Vers une instrumentalisation généralisée du lien communautaire en ligne : la montée en puissance du Community management », pp. 117-136, in Valérie Lépine, Fabienne Martin-Juchat, Chrystelle Millet-Fourrier, (dir), *Acteurs de la communication des entreprises et des organisations. Pratiques et perspectives*, Grenoble, PUG, 2014 (Coll. "Communication, médias et sociétés").

GAUTHIER, Gilles (2003), « Critique du constructivisme en communication », *Questions de communication*, n° 3, 2003, pp. 185-210.

GAUTHIER, Gilles (2005), « Le constructivisme, un point de vue intenable en journalisme », *Questions de communication*, n° 7, pp. 121-145.

HABERMAS, Jürgen (1992), « "L'espace public", 30 ans après », *Quaderni*, n° 12, automne 1992, *Les espaces publics*, pp. 161-191.

IMHOF, Kurt (2014), « Der dünne Firnis der Zivilisation. Krisen in der Öffentlichkeit und die Krise der Öffentlichkeit », *Zeitschrift für Theoretische Soziologie* 3(2), pp. 304–338.
communication. Objet, savoirs, discipline, Grenoble, PUG (Col. "La communication en plus").

BOURDIEU, Pierre (1996), « Journalisme et analyse », *Les Cahiers du journalisme*, n° 1, juin.

CABEDOCHE, Bertrand (2004), « Historicité, didacticité et scientificité du discours d'information médiatique. La construction du récit commémoratif dans la presse magazine », - *Les Cahiers du journalisme*, n° 13, septembre 2004, pp. 40-79.

CABEDOCHE, Bertrand (2009), « Introduire la diversité socio-ethnique dans la formation au journalisme en France ? », pp. 121-141, in Mihaï Coman (ed.), *Models of, Models for Journalism and Communication*, Bucarest, ARS Docendy, Univercitate Din Bucuresti.

CABEDOCHE, Bertrand (2013), « Promesses et limites théoriques de la régulation : l'exemple de la promotion des « minorités visibles » par le CSA français », pp. 112-124, in Jamal Eddine Naji et Yves Théorêt (dir.), *Réflexions sur les diversités mondiales*, (Orbicom, Unesco et HACA), Casablanca, Les éditions maghrébines Aïn Sebaâ, 2013. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAJ9X6evYgo

CABEDOCHE, Bertrand (2016a), « L'enseignement du journalisme interculturel pour les centres d'excellence et de référence en Afrique. Une contribution académique à la politique et à la réflexion critique de l'Unesco », pp. 163-192, in Racha Mezrioui, Zeineb Touati (dir.), *Médias et technologies numériques. Constructions identitaires et interculturalités*, Tunis et Paris : L'Harmattan, 2016 (Coll. Socio-anthropologie des mondes méditerranéens).

CABEDOCHE, Bertrand (2016b), « "Communication internationale" et enjeux scientifiques : un état de la recherche à la naissance des sciences de l'information et de la communication en France », *Les Enjeux de l'Information et de la Communication*, n°17/2, 2016, p. 55 à 82, [en ligne] URL : http://lesenjeux.u-grenoble3.fr/2016-dossier/04-Cabedoche/

DAHLGREN, Peter (2000), « L'espace public et l'internet. Structure, espace et communication », *Réseaux*, vol. 18, n°100, pp. 157-186.

DELFORCE, Bernard (1996), « La responsabilité sociale du journalisme : donner du sens », 1996, *Les Cahiers du journalisme*, n° 2, pp. 16-32.

DELFORCE, Bernard, NOYER, Jean (1999), « Pour une approche interdisciplinarité des phénomènes de médiatisation : constructisme et discursive sociale », *Études de communication*, n° 22, pp.13-39.

DELFORCE, Bernard (2004), « Une approche pertinente du journalisme », *Questions de communication*, n°6 pp. 111-133.

FELSTINER, William L. F.ABEL, Richard L., SARAT, Austin (1980). *The Emergence and Transformation of Disputes: Naming, Blaming, Claiming, Law and society review, Volume 15, Number 3-4*, pp. 631-654.

GALIBERT, Olivier (2014), « Vers une instrumentalisation généralisée du lien communautaire en ligne : la montée en puissance du Community management », pp. 117-136, in Valérie Lépine, Fabienne Martin-Juchat, Chrystelle Millet-Fourrier, (dir), *Acteurs de la communication des entreprises et des organisations. Pratiques et perspectives*, Grenoble, PUG, 2014 (Coll. "Communication, médias et sociétés").

GAUTHIER, Gilles (2003), « Critique du constructisme en communication », *Questions de communication*, n° 3, 2003, pp. 185-210.

GAUTHIER, Gilles (2005), « Le constructisme, un point de vue intenable en journalisme », *Questions de communication*, n° 7, pp. 121-145.

HABERMAS, Jürgen (1992), « "L'espace public", 30 ans après », *Quaderni*, n° 12, automne 1992, *Les espaces publics*, pp. 161-191.

IMHOF, Kurt (2014), « Der dünne Firnis der Zivilisation. Krisen in der Öffentlichkeit und die Krise der Öffentlichkeit », *Zeitschrift für Theoretische Soziologie* 3(2), pp. 304–338.
LEMIEUX, Cyrille (2001) « Les formats de l'égalitarisme. Transformations et limites de la figure du journaliste-justicier dans la France contemporaine », Quaderni, n° 45, pp. 53-68.

LE MOIGNE, Jean-Louis (2001), « Pourquoi je suis un constructiviste non repentant », Revue du MAUSS, n° 17, pp.197-223.

MIEGE Bernard (2010), *L'espace public contemporain. Approche info-communicationnelle*, Grenoble, PUG

NECKEL, Sighard (2017), « Retour vers le futur : la reféodalisation du capitalisme moderne », *Swiss Journal of Sociology*, 43( 1), pp. 183-196.

ROST, Katja, STAHEL, Lea, FREY, Bruno S. (2016), "Digital Social Norm enforcement : Online Firestorms in Social Media", *Plos One*, June 17, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155923

VOYENNE, Bernard (1959) « Les journalistes », *Revue Française de Science politique*, Vol. 9, n° 4, 1959, pp. 901-934.

WATINE, Thierry (1999), « Bourdieu et les médias : des lois du champ et de l'habitus comme présomption du conservatisme des journalistes », *Les Cahiers du journalisme*, n° 6, octobre 1999, pp. 147-148.

## THESIS AND REPOSITORIES FOR HABILITATION TO SUPERVISE RESEARCH

NAÏT-BOUDAT, Faïza (2012), *Reconfiguration du champ journalistique et logiques sociales : Enjeux d'une représentation des journalistes pigistes en précaires*, thèse pour le doctorat en sciences de l'information et de la communication, Université Stendhal Grenoble3, 28 novembre 2012.

SALLES, Chloé (2010), *Les mutations d'une presse de « référence » : évolution des stratégies d'acteurs à partir de représentations et pratiques journalistiques sur Internet*. Les blogs au cœur des stratégies de repositionnement de la presse écrite, le cas du journal Le Monde, thèse pour le doctorat en sciences de l'information et de la communication, Université Stendhal Grenoble3.

## Reading notes

Ben Balaïd, Sami (2019), « Philippe Bouquillion, Jacob T. Matthews : *Le Web collaboratif. Mutations des industries de la culture et de la communication* », *Études de communication* [En ligne], 38 | 2012, mis en ligne le 01 janvier 2012, consulté le 30 avril 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/edc/3447

## REPORT

HOOG, Émmanuel, CLEMENT-CUZIN, Sylvie, BAUDET, Cléome (2019), *Rapport Confiance et liberté. Vers la création d'une instance d'autorégulation et de médiation de l'information* (dit Rapport Hoog), Paris, La Documentation française. https://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/var/storage/rapports-publics/194000299.pdf

## BOOKS OF SOCIAL ACTORS

BRANCO, Juan (2019), *Crépuscule. Macron et les oligarques. L'enquête vérité*, La Laune, Au diable Vauvert, Massot éditions.

COLLET, Isabelle (2019), *entretien avec Laure Beaudonnet, dans « L'abus de pouvoir, ça fait mâle »*, 20 minutes (édition numérique), 12 février, p. 7.

REY-ROBERT, Valérie (2019), *Une culture du viol à la française. Du troussage domestique à la liberté d'importuner*, Paris, Libertalia.

SHIMMIN, Rob (2017), "Introduction", Conference *Internal communication*, Quadriga University Applied Science, Berlin, december 4 to december 5.
LEMIEUX, Cyrille (2001) « Les formats de l'égalitarisme. Transformations et limites de la figure du journaliste-justicier dans la France contemporaine », Quaderni, n° 45, pp. 53-68.

LE MOIGNE, Jean-Louis (2001), « Pourquoi je suis un constructiviste non repentant », *Revue du MAUSS*, n° 17, pp.197-223.

MIEGE Bernard (2010), *L'espace public contemporain. Approche info-communicationnelle*, Grenoble, PUG

NECKEL, Sighard (2017), « Retour vers le futur : la reféodalisation du capitalisme moderne », *Swiss Journal of Sociology*, 43( 1), pp. 183-196.

ROST, Katja, STAHEL, Lea, FREY, Bruno S. (2016), "Digital Social Norm enforcement : Online Firestorms in Social Media", *Plos One*, June 17, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155923

VOYENNE, Bernard (1959) « Les journalistes », *Revue Française de Science politique*, Vol. 9, n° 4, 1959, pp. 901-934.

WATINE, Thierry (1999), « Bourdieu et les médias : des lois du champ et de l'habitus comme présomption du conservatisme des journalistes », *Les Cahiers du journalisme*, n° 6, octobre 1999, pp. 147-148.

## THESIS AND REPOSITORIES FOR HABILITATION TO SUPERVISE RESEARCH

NAÏT-BOUDAT, Faïza (2012), *Reconfiguration du champ journalistique et logiques sociales : Enjeux d'une représentation des journalistes pigistes en précaires*, thèse pour le doctorat en sciences de l'information et de la communication, Université Stendhal Grenoble3, 28 novembre 2012.

SALLES, Chloé (2010), *Les mutations d'une presse de « référence » : évolution des stratégies d'acteurs à partir de représentations et pratiques journalistiques sur Internet*. Les blogs au cœur des stratégies de repositionnement de la presse écrite, le cas du journal Le Monde, thèse pour le doctorat en sciences de l'information et de la communication, Université Stendhal Grenoble3.

## Reading notes

Ben Balaïd, Sami (2019), « Philippe Bouquillion, Jacob T. Matthews : *Le Web collaboratif. Mutations des industries de la culture et de la communication* », *Études de communication* [En ligne], 38 | 2012, mis en ligne le 01 janvier 2012, consulté le 30 avril 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/edc/3447

## REPORT

HOOG, Émmanuel, CLEMENT-CUZIN, Sylvie, BAUDET, Cléome (2019), *Rapport Confiance et liberté. Vers la création d'une instance d'autorégulation et de médiation de l'information* (dit Rapport Hoog), Paris, La Documentation française. https://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/var/storage/rapports-publics/194000299.pdf

## BOOKS OF SOCIAL ACTORS

BRANCO, Juan (2019), *Crépuscule. Macron et les oligarques. L'enquête vérité*, La Laune, Au diable Vauvert, Massot éditions.

COLLET, Isabelle (2019), *entretien avec Laure Beaudonnet, dans « L'abus de pouvoir, ça fait mâle »*, 20 minutes (édition numérique), 12 février, p. 7.

REY-ROBERT, Valérie (2019), *Une culture du viol à la française. Du troussage domestique à la liberté d'importuner*, Paris, Libertalia.

SHIMMIN, Rob (2017), "Introduction", Conference *Internal communication*, Quadriga University Applied Science, Berlin, december 4 to december 5.