Journalists and scholars discussed the difference in immigration news coverage between France and the United States at a book launch for Steinhardt professor Rodney Benson’s book “Shaping Immigration News: A French American Comparison”.
The event at La Maison Francaise NYU on Nov. 6 featured a panel with Benson, NYU French professor Frederic Viguier, Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Connecticut Gaye Tuchman and James Graff, former Paris bureau chief for Time magazine.
The discussion was co-sponsored by the NYU Institute of French Studies, the NYU Department of Media, Culture and Communication, the NYU Institute for Public Knowledge, the NYU Carter Journalism Institute and the French-American Foundation.
“The immigration policy debate is heating up again in the United States,” Benson said in an interview with WSN before the event. “It seemed like a discussion about the book with journalists and immigration and media scholars could speak to some of the questions being debated in Washington.”
Before the discussion, Viguier explained the significance of Benson’s book.
“Professor Benson’s book helps understand why media coverage of immigration is different in both countries and what each journalistic field can learn from each other,” Viguier said.
Benson used a slideshow to help explain the ways in which French media coverage of immigration was more effective than U.S. media coverage of immigration.
“It is clear that French newspapers mix news and opinions in a way that U.S. newspapers do not,” Benson said.
Viguier praised Benson’s book, but said it had a blind spot.
“We should not forget the role played by the states in this new liberal shift,” Viguier said. “If we read the best historians and sociologists of immigration in France, they pass new light on the topic by revealing the crucial role played by the French state in reshaping the meaning of immigration.”
Tuchman said immigration news is about people, and questions of immigration are life-and-death issues.
“All four of my grandparents were immigrants,” Tuchman said. “My paternal grandmother was an illegal immigrant. She came here on her cousin’s passport in order to escape arrest. I’m here because my grandmother was an illegal immigrant.”
The panelists also discussed the present state of the world of news. Tuchman said newspapers remain the primary source of information.
“Newspapers still matter, though fewer citizens read them,” Tuchman said. “I suspect that through the sheer volume of pressure and work news is going to become more homogeneous.”
Nathalie Moga, a 27-year-old reporter for the only national French magazine in the U.S. France-Amerique said, though valuable, comparing news coverage in the two countries is difficult.
“America is a very big country, and France is so tiny and the structures of the media are not the same,” Moga said. “In France, [what’s] really shaping the debate is the local news even more than the national [news], and in America it’s more the national [news].”
Afeefa Tariq is a staff writer. Email her at [email protected].
