Anin Naimatul Kumala, Myrna Laksman-Huntley

Right-Wing Media Coverage of the 2024 French Right-Wing Political Party Campaigns

Introduction

Right-wing media coverage of the 2024 french right-wing political party campaigns. Analyse de la couverture des campagnes 2024 par Le Figaro et L'Express. Favorisent le Rassemblement National par structures simples et cadrage efficace.

Abstract

L'élection du Parlement européen de 2024 marque la 10e élection de ce type et la première après le Brexit, ce qui a entraîné des campagnes actives des parties politiques dans tous les États membres, y compris en France. Cette étude examine le soutien préférentiel des médias français de droite dans leur couverture des campagnes des parties politiques de droite. En utilisant la théorie de Le Querler (1994) sur la structure et la fonction des phrases, l'étude révèle que Le Figaro et L'Express emploient principalement des structures de phrases simples, ce qui indique une intention de produire des informations accessibles et d'attirer l'attention du public. En appliquant la théorie du cadrage d'Entman (1993), l'analyse des titres et des stratégies de cadrage montre que les deux médias ont tendance à favoriser Rassemblement National (RN) par rapport aux autres parties de droite. Le Figaro offre une couverture extensive soutenue par des contenus vidéo efficaces, tandis que L'Express utilise des choix de mots frappants dans ses titres et contenus. Cette conclusion souligne l'importance de prendre en compte l'arrière-plan et les stratégies de chaque média. Bien que les deux médias partagent une orientation idéologique avec les trois partis de droite, ils démontrent une préférence notable pour RN dans leur couverture.

Review

The study "Right-Wing Media Coverage of the 2024 French Right-Wing Political Party Campaigns" addresses a highly pertinent and timely subject: the role of ideologically aligned media in shaping political narratives during significant electoral events. Focusing on the 2024 European Parliament elections in France, the paper meticulously examines how two prominent right-wing French media outlets, Le Figaro and L'Express, covered the campaigns of right-wing political parties. Employing a dual theoretical framework—Le Querler's (1994) theory on sentence structure and Entman's (1993) framing theory—the research identifies two key findings. Firstly, both outlets primarily utilize simple sentence structures, suggesting an intentional strategy for accessibility and public engagement. Secondly, and more critically, the study reveals a clear preferential treatment for Rassemblement National (RN) over other right-wing parties, despite the shared ideological orientation, manifesting through distinct strategies such as extensive video content in Le Figaro and impactful word choices in L'Express. While the combination of linguistic analysis and media framing offers a potentially rich approach to understanding media bias, certain aspects of the methodology as presented in the abstract warrant further scrutiny. The application of Le Querler's theory to link simple sentence structures directly to intentions of "accessibility and attention-grabbing" could benefit from a more explicit methodological justification regarding how this inference is robustly drawn beyond mere observation. Furthermore, while the study concludes that both media share an "ideological orientation with the three right-wing parties," it only explicitly names Rassemblement National as receiving preferential treatment. Greater specificity regarding the "other" right-wing parties examined would enhance the clarity and comparative strength of the preferential bias finding. The abstract also describes "effective video content" and "striking word choices" as findings, raising questions about the specific metrics or qualitative analysis employed to systematically assess 'effectiveness' or 'strikingness' within the stated theoretical frameworks. Despite these minor points for clarification, the study makes a valuable contribution by highlighting the nuanced internal dynamics of media bias, even within ideologically aligned outlets. Its finding that right-wing media can show distinct preferences among parties *within* the right-wing spectrum underscores the complexity of media-politics relationships beyond simple left-right dichotomies. This research sets a strong foundation for future studies, which could expand to include a wider array of media types (e.g., social media, broadcast) or extend to other European contexts to explore whether similar patterns of intra-ideological media bias exist. Furthermore, investigating the potential impact of these differential framing and linguistic strategies on public perception and voter behavior would be a logical and significant next step, solidifying the policy and societal implications of these findings.

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