Journalists and Intellectuals: a New Cultural Configuration?

<jats:p>Summary: Over the past decade or so, the idea has prevailed in France that intellectuals have been dispossessed of their influence by a certain type of journalist. Recent developments in the relationship between these two social forces can he traced by means of concepts of media configuration and cultural configuration, borrowed from the work of Norbert Elias. In fact, the identity crisis from which journalists are suffering and the re-drawing of boundaries in the realm of communications show that the very definition of a journalist is becoming increasingly problematical in the face of competition from 'communicators'. At the same time, the disappearance of the 'prophetic intellectual' and the realignments of affiliation in scholarly circles go some way to explain the intellectuals' loss of prestige. Hence a new cultural configuration is emerging, shaped by a different balance of forces, in which journalists do indeed seem to have become the functional equivalents of intellectuals. </jats:p>