Social semiotic approach of press websites. Genesis of a method Chapitre d’ouvrage - Décembre 2023

Based on the analysis of the website of the television channel BFM TV – a French media outlet that is both very popular and divisive – this chapter proposes to re-trace the genesis and evolution of the method from two experimental fields : one conducted in 2017, the other in 2020, with students from the professional Master’s degree programs in digital communication and project management at the Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis university. First, the authors present the epistemological framework of their method. They then break down and analyze the results of the two experiments in the field conducted in 2017 and 2020 to show how the evolution of the methodological framework has led to a shift. Initially focused on an interpretative semiotics promoting the identification of major editorial units and how they can be critically decoded, the authors chose to focus in 2020 on questioning the interpretative filters activated by the subject.