Nuit Debout| Toward a Creative Activism with a Sense of Humor: An Interview with François Ruffin

Abstract

Sociologist Serge Chaumier interviews the influential French activist-journalist-documentary filmmaker and now member of French parliament François Ruffin, who was widely perceived to have played a major role in sparking Nuit Debout. His work holds additional interest for scholars of journalism, communication, and social movements in that he represents a version of journalism as activism (or perhaps a “post-journalism” as activism, in that he is a producer of multiple forms of content aimed at social change; a critical journalism emerges in multiple forms from the same journalist-activist). His work demonstrates both journalism and activism in transition: It negotiates relationships to emotion-, or, more specifically, empathy-driven multimedia storytelling in both areas of communication practice. He offers a critique of traditional forms of journalism, activism, and social movements, including Nuit Debout.