Usages des NTIC, les approches de la diffusion, de l'innovation et de l'appropriation (1re partie) by Florence MILLERAND Research in media and technology use is characterized by its wide diversity, both in its objects of research, the problematics it has developed, and the theoretical positions which underpin it. This article attempts a synthesis of three approaches to the study of uses: diffusionist approaches, innovation approaches and appropriation approaches.* The intellectual context in which each approach emerged, the postulates upon which each is based, and the paradigm in which each is embedded is discussed. The inherent model of the user and various understandings of the notion of "use" are then addressed, permitting a better understanding of the theoretical and methodological divides which separate these approaches. *The section on appropriation approaches (2nd part) will be published in COMMposite's Spring 98 issue. © 1998 by Florence MILLERAND. All rights reserved. Resumen | Résumé Vers les musés numérisés: de la visite à la navigation by Geneviève VIDAL In the context of the market expansion which now extends to museums, the author lays out the basis for a comparative analysis of museology studies and multimedia technology use studies, in order to evaluate whether these methods of analysis emerge from the same paradigm(s). The article shows that the two approaches may well proceed to a cross-fertilisation, based on their convergence through a debate between two paradigms: a dominant paradigm which focuses on the user-actor, and the other, which swings the focus back to macro-subjects, in this case technological and economic systems. © 1998 by Geneviève VIDAL. All rights reserved. Resumen | Résumé Parthenay, entre passé médiéval et avenir numérique by Éric GEORGE and Maryse RIVARD In this article, the authors propose a "virtual" visit to France's first "digital city". A conference was held in September, 1997 in Parthenay, France on "Democracy and multimedia networks", organized by the European and Citizen Information Highway and Multimedia Watch (Veille européenne et citoyenne sur les autoroutes de l'information et le multimédia, VECAM) at Parthenay. The authors were in attendance, and discovered both the city and the project. Interested in the computerization of societies and curious as to whether this type of experiment is useful for understanding the content and social uses of ICTs, a study was undertaken on the multiple facets which lend the notion of "digital city" its substance, especially given Parthenay's small size and the medieval and rural heritage which remain key aspects to the town. Based on fieldwork observation, discussion with key actors, analysis of the digital city's internet site, and a reading of the first experiment reports written up by the project researchers, this article addresses the following questions: What are the characteristics of the technological apparatuses in operation at Parthenay? Is it too early to understand the utility, even the emerging social uses, of these apparatuses? To what extent is this experiment generalisable, and to what extent are its specificities irreproducable? © 1998 by Éric GEORGE and Maryse RIVARD. All rights reserved. Resumen | Résumé L'image d'Infonie dans la presse française ou la « divergence » des visions de la convergence des nouvelles technologies de communication by Franck REBILLARD Digitalisation represents a possible next step in the coming together of the computer, audiovisual and telecommunication sectors. It implies the multiplication of visions of society -- "information highway," "cyberspace," the "age of multimedia", and so forth -- breathing new life into the grand scheme of socio-technical "convergence" envisioned for the past twenty years as a solution to the crisis of Western nations. This convergence is by no means simple, however: rather than a response to simple technological determinisms, it is in fact a construct emerging from interaction between various protagonists: public authorities, industrial actors, designers, writers, users. My study of media coverage of Infonie, a France-based on-line service, reveals that the construct's complexity cannot simply be explained as the result of interaction between various categories of users -- here, journalists and industrial actors -- because these categories themselves mask a high degree of diversity, for example among journalists. My analysis of newspaper reactions to Infonie reveals two orders of contradiction: seasoned NICT journalists are quicker to identify change than non-specialists, and differences in perspective are economic, not political, tracing an axis ranging from interventionism to liberalism. © 1998 by Franck REBILLARD. All rights reserved. Resumen | Résumé Les aspects communicationnels et culturels de la « crise de la vache folle» by Guillaume LATZKO-TOTH This article attempts to reconstitute the European "mad-cow crisis" of Spring, 1996, as an object of study for the communication sciences. If the risk of human infection occupied pride of place in media coverage around the world, analyses of the media and sociological phenomon as such are almost non-existent. After having outlined the various dimensions of the crisis, this exploratory article attempts to analyse its cultural and communicational aspects, aligning itself with recent work on the role of the mass media in science communication and on the differences between scientific thought and natural thought. In particular, an analyis of news coverage and of the two scientific communiqués at the crisis's origin will underpin an attempt to demonstrate a disproportionate gap between the excitement of various actors and actual risk evaluations, indicating that the "disease" in question was above all cultural and communicational. © 1998 by Guillaume LATZKO-TOTH. All rights reserved. Resumen | Résumé © COMMposite v98.1 - 1998 - Tous droits réservés.