New trends in French communication research

French communication and media research has been considerably developed during the last two decades. Its development is characterised by multidisciplinary approaches and often original directions. This particularly holds true for research into the genesis of communication as a social and political phenomenon, and the formation of social uses of mass media. Specific to French research is also the attention paid to controversies between intellectuals, politicians and the journalistic elites. Finally, communication is also the domain where historians and sociologists of the public sphere encounter philosophers interested in the problem of collective action.