Lawyers, Media and Communication in France from 1945 to the Present.

This thesis focuses on a socio-professional entity (lawyers) and their professional practice of communication and use of the media in France from 1945 until the present. The law stayed during a long period outside the market sphere. But recently a new market (of the law) has emerged: this market is worldwide, complex and very competitive. The legal profession has been impacted deeply by this recent development, which has rendered communications necessary. The legal profession is aware of this change and has progressively softened the ethical rules in this regard.

To start, we will focus on the representative authority of the profession, the National Council of Bar, which acts as a mandatory source in the media. We will notably analyse the strategies used within the framework of this institution's communications in order to promote, to influence the representation of the profession in the media and to enhance the perimeter of action of this institution. While lawyers' ordinary use of communications remains minimal, there are two exceptions in the legal profession: corporate law firms and high-profile lawyers involved in criminal cases.

We will study these two categories of actors: their manner of using communications and their use of the media, and we will describe the processes, the strategies, and behaviours toward the media, as well as the objectives targeted.