This article examines the interrelationship between the media and the executive in Fifth Republic France. The focus is on the structural, operational and cultural aspects of the media that have contributed to the forging of an unequal power relationship with the executive. The article argues that these features have combined to undermine the mainstream media’s capacity to function as a powerful autonomous actor in the national political communication system and to act as a check on the exercise of executive leadership. As a result, the mainstream media in France have relatively low levels of autonomous power compared with their counterparts in many other western democracies.
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