Ce colloque se propose d’explorer les dimensions de la fabrique de l’opinion et la multiplicité des enjeux qu’elle ouvre. Dans cette perspective, étudier l’opinion reviendrait finalement à décrire le rôle de l’image, du son, de la parole et de la langue dans la création de l’opinion. Il s’agira de confronter les regards pluridisciplinaires et de les enrichir mutuellement. L’objectif sera de provoquer la rencontre et le dialogue de différentes approches à travers des sessions thématiques mêlant interventions et tables rondes. En ce sens, il importe de rendre compte des éléments permettant de forger une opinion et de l’alimenter, dans le but de l’instrumentaliser à des fins de promotion, de prise du pouvoir ou de mobilisation des foules.

Argument

This symposium proposes to explore the dimensions of manufacturing public opinion and the multiplicity of stakes it poses. From this perspective, studying opinion ultimately amounts to describing the role of image, sound, speech and language in the construction of opinion. It will be a question of confronting the multidisciplinary glances and of enriching them mutually. The objective will be to bring about convergence and dialogue of different approaches through thematic sessions combining lectures and round tables. In this sense, it is necessary to give an account of the elements that allow us to forge an opinion and to feed it, in order to instrumentalize it for the purposes of promotion, power or mobilization of the crowds.

Doxa is between science and ignorance (Plato, 1966, p.235). It allows to grasp the appearances of the world which surrounds the interpreting person, without necessarily reaching the truth. Aristotle (1987, p.155) gives a reasonable status to this concept by an opposition between science and opinion. But, unlike science, an opinion is a way of thinking or a judgment, whether personal or collective, that one carries on a matter, on a subject or a set of subjects. An opinion indicates a particular orientation which is not necessarily right. It is built on representations that can be interpreted according to the experiences of an individual or a socio-cultural community. It can be texts, sounds, slogans, images, colors, bodies, etc. These elements of the world are not completely autonomous and independent of each other (Bardin, 1975), and often transmit heterogeneous messages through multimodal corpuses (Barthes, 1965). These are interpreted with reference to socio-cultural notions, such as the stereotypes shared by members of a community (Allen,1965).

Opinion is thus an essential element in the composition of an individual or collective cognitive filter that allows us to perceive reality and interpret the world. When it is shared, this filter represents a factor of authentication and a cultural cement within a community, thanks to its consensual character (Boyer, 2003).

Therefore, the media discourse puts forward interpretations of facts that meet both the expectations of a target audience, often determined by surveys, and those of an editorial line dictated for promotional purposes.

This is why the media are a real sounding board and are one of the architects of the doxa (Mayaffre, 2005). In the same way, politicians use propaganda in times of war and peace to mobilize troops, manipulate crowds and win over minds in the run-up to elections. Political discourse is sprinkled with linguistic fixations referring to common values in space and time, activating the pathos of the audience and/or provoking anger against a common enemy. As for film discourse, it is produced in a universe of characters, things and situations arranged by the director according to a certain meaning (Goldmann, 1971).

Today, more than ever, we are witnessing the emergence of a new type of discourse, the digital one. Social networks and the digital universe have become the new pool for shaping and influencing opinion. On our screens, we are constantly submerged by information, content that is increasingly at risk of being "manufactured" or even "false" (fake news).

These universes, among many others, convey different readings of the world's objects, often oriented by actors with enunciative authority and/or charisma that place them at the center of a universe of symbols.

This event invites researchers to share interdisciplinary work in order to determine the ingredients, tools, actors and factors that contribute in some way to shaping opinion, as well as the contexts that foster this multimodal social practice.

Main topics

Research areas including, but not restricted to:

•  Political-media discourse and doxa;
•  Web and participative audience;
•  Post-truth era and collective emotion;
•  Lexical units in discourse: between expression and content;
•  The role of social networks in the fabrication of "digital" opinion. What future geopolitical stakes?
•  Manipulation of public opinion;
•  Opinion in the public space;
•  Cinema, a propaganda tool: between images of war and wars of images;
•  Use of propaganda in times of war and peace;
•  Censorship in cinema and the power of image. What about the puritan moral?
•  Limits of representations: sex and taboos.

Submission guidelines

Paper proposals in French or English should be sent

before April 30^th, 2021,

to the following address: colloques.doc.upv@gmail.com.

They should be submitted as a Word document in docx format and with an abstract of 250 to 300 words, 5 to 10 key words, a biographical note of 50 to 100 words and a bibliography.

The authors of selected proposals will be notified by May 15^th, 2021.

Event format

This symposium will take place, from June 23^rd to June 25^th 2021, in a hybrid format. The participants may either join us on-site or virtually.

Organizing Committee

• Raja TAWIL (Doctorant en études cinématographiques et audiovisuelles, RIRRA21)
• Loubna SALAH ZAITOUNI (Doctorante en études arabes, ReSO)

Scientific Committee

• Yacine BOULAGHMEN (PhD student in Arab Studies, ReSO)
• Nina FICHES (PhD student in comparative literature, CRISES)
• Sara REGRAGUI (PhD student in Chinese Studies, ReSO)
• Guyma Jules VITAL (PhD student in Sociology, LERSEM)

Contact

Yacine BOULAGHMEN : yacine.boulaghmen@univ-montp3.fr

Bibliography

ALLEN, V. L. (1965). “Situational factors in conformity”, in L. Berkowitz (ed.), Advances in

experimental social psychology, vol.2, New York, Academic Press.

ARISTOTE. (1987). Organon IV. Paris : Vrin.

BARDIN, L. (1975). « Le texte et l’image », Communication et langages, vol.26, n° : 1, 98-

112.

BARTHES, R. (1965). « Rhétorique de l’image », Communications, n° :4, pp.40-51. URL :

https://www.persee.fr/doc/comm_0588-8018_1964_num_4_1_1027

BOURDIEU, P. (1996). Sur la télévision, suivi de L'emprise du journalisme, Paris : Liber.

BOYER, H. (2003). De l’autre côté du discours. Recherches sur le fonctionnement des

représentations communautaires, Paris : L’Harmattan.

GOLDMANN, A. (1971). Cinéma et société moderne. Paris : Anthropos, Coll.Sociologie et

connaissance.

MAYAFFRE, D. (2005). « De la lexicométrie à la logométrie ». Astrolabe, 2005, pp.1-11. URL

:https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00551921/document

PLATON. (1966). La République. Paris : GF-Flammarion.