Extract
[...] Despite their belonging to a local elite, their education, social status, and involvement in the European sector, the "indigenous" journalists fail to become the bearers of a"world of contact" tenuous but real within the colonial society in Algeria. Highly politicized, Algerian journalism experienced partial and late professionalization due to ethnic discrimination, mistrust, and censorship by the French authorities. Moreover, journalists based their journalistic activity on a very strong identity affiliation, linked to the politicization of their writings, which put the formation of a professional corporate group in the background. [...]
[...] Context of production (political, social, and/or historiographical implications) The article by Philipp Zessin is published in July-September 2011, in Le Mouvement Social. This journal highlights social history through the contribution of multidisciplinary research, from all geographical and cultural areas. It is also a place of debate, allowing the expression of different historical or scientific approaches. The article therefore belongs to a multidisciplinary academic corpus with a social and political purpose, just like its subject. 5. Constructive critique of the article (strengths and weaknesses/shortcomings according to you) The historiographical method of Philipp Zessin is rigorous, and his sources are numerous. [...]
[...] Nevertheless, the article has a limitation: despite government mistrust, journalistic writings are only intended for an elite, or less than 10% of the interwar population. The dominant culture is that of orality. What do the masses think then? The article does not answer this. Hence, the "indigenous" press has allowed for an identity awareness, but the scope of this revelation, within what Philipp Zessin calls the "masses", remains unknown, not due to the author's negligence but rather due to the problem of access to such oral sources, which are now lost. [...]
[...] The frequent use of citation of academic bibliographic resources allows him to support his argument, as in the case of the citation of Ali Merad. In addition to academic references, the author bases his reflection on the study of documents from the time. These are three in number: the journalistic production of the time, which he lists (including La Défense, Alger républicain, La Voix indigène?), the government surveillance archives of the time, allowing for obtaining biographical information on the editors of these newspapers, and the correspondence of these editors, notably Lamine Lamoudi and Aboulhak alias Mohamed Benhoura, who both participated in the newspaper La Défense. [...]
