The Color of May 1968. Paris Match and the Events of May and June 1968

Audrey Leblanc (1)

1 EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales

In mid-May 1968, the Syndicat du Livre (Printers Union), to which the majority of the workers in the printing plants and paper industries belonged, joined the general movement. This meant the strikes now directly affected the news magazines of the time, in particular Paris Match, which ceased publication for four consecutive weeks. When the leading weekly news magazine of the day returned to the newsstands, it went back over events that dated in part from one month earlier. On June 15, the editors constructed a retrospective narrative of ‘May ’68’ in an issue that presented a historicizing reading of the spring’s events, despite the fact that some of the movements in question were still underway. Reinforced by a formal presentation that was highly unusual for the magazine – a departure partially necessitated by disruptions connected with the strikes taking place at the printing plants – this media construction reveals the effort that went into designing the issue as a whole. It thus helps to show how the magazine’s editorial and ideological aims were expressed in the narrative presented as well as in the formal decisions supporting it, the two aspects working together to produce an overarching media system: the forme magazine.

Mots clés: media; photojournalism; May 68; History; Cultural History; photography; color

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Histoire; Sciences de l'information et de la communication

Audrey Leblanc. The Color of May 1968. Paris Match and the Events of May and June 1968. Etudes photographiques, 2010. ⟨hal-01395719⟩