The French Media and the Forging of a Franco-British Alliance in the late 1930s

Hucker, Daniel

Abstract

This article explores the interconnections between the media in France and the emergence of a Franco-British alliance on the eve of World War Two, emphasising how newspaper, radio and newsreel coverage helped mould British perceptions of France during the late-1930s. It will argue that British assessments of France, and thus France's potential value as a wartime ally, were influenced greatly by the dominant representations furnished by the media. In 1936, such representations portrayed a polarised France unworthy of British support; by 1939, they depicted a strong and united country of inestimable value to Britain. This transformation was not simply fortuitous; by the late-1930s, French politicians, conscious of the deleterious effect that media representations of a divided France was having on their country’s prestige, endeavoured to transform the media from a symptom of decadence and malaise into a weapon of unity and strength.

Citation

Hucker, D. (2017). The French Media and the Forging of a Franco-British Alliance in the late 1930s. Media History, 23(3-4), 330-344. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2017.1309268

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 10, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Apr 5, 2017
• Publication Date: Oct 2, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 10, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 6, 2018
• Journal: Media History
• Print ISSN: 1368-8804
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9729
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 3-4
• Pages: 330-344
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2017.1309268
• Keywords: France, United Kingdom, Newspapers, Radio, Twentieth Century, War and Society, Edouard Daladier
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/854851
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688804.2017.1309268
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Media History on 05.04.2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13688804.2017.1309268