This work traces the history of information and mass communication in France from the Second Empire forward. The departure point is the launching of the Petit Journal, the first popular daily paper, which marked the true beginning of the age of mass press. It's great importance resided not only in the fact that readership was extended to include the masses, urban and later rural, but also in the system of diffusion and the lay-out of the paper - its contents, presentation, style and rapports with politics. Bit by bit, the role of information was changing and with the apparition of radio and television, the question was asked if the news wren't being drowned out in their communication - was journalistic activity being eclipsed by the omnipresence of the "show".The second aspect of the book is thus naturally related to the journalist who finds himself, whether in press agencies or editorial offices, is at the very source of information and faced with choices concerning the information he chooses to present and comment. The journalist thus occupies a select role in the establishement of a public and democratic space. Many other problematics confronting the journalist are also covered : his relationship with censuring powers, the technical revolution in typesetting and printing, the birth of "feminine" press, the relationship of written press and radio, the consitution of an audiovisual monopoly and its abolition, the evolution of television programmes ...Marc martin is an historian specialized in press and advertising and a professor at the University of Paris X-Nanterre. He is the author of Trois siècles de publicité (Three decades of Advertising) published in 1992.