# FRENCH 30 - Upper level French : Current Events and Media in the Francophone World Semester: Spring | Year offered: 2026 | Link: [Course Website](https://locator.tlt.harvard.edu/course/colgsas-126942/2025/spring/12178) This course explores the theme of identity and representation in francophone media through various types of media, from the written press to social media, while revisiting French grammatical structures and refining speaking and writing skills. Through spontaneous exchange, collaboration, and presentational discourse, this course will examine current events in the Francophone world as represented in newspaper articles, music, images, film, and advertisements from places as diverse as Montreal, Port-au-Prince, Djibouti, Brussels, Kinshasa, and Paris. Course materials will include links to digital news, films, websites, podcasts, literary texts, and visual media, among other resources. Course themes include an analysis of stereotypes and identity markers of Francophones, social life through social media, diverse francophone perspectives in trending media, and questions of truth and justice as represented through digital media. Course assignments include journalistic writing and the development of podcast episodes that will contribute to Harvard University’s French-language podcast. You will engage in various interactive communicative activities throughout the course, concluding with a live journalistic panel and debate with an invited panel of Francophone journalists and podcasters. --- ## Course Head [### Claire-Marie Brisson ](/people/claire-marie-brisson) Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literatures (French) Academic Degrees: Ph.D. in French (Cultural History), University of Virginia; M.A. in French (Cultural History), Wayne State University; B.A in French Studies and Secondary Education, Minors in German and Political Science, University of Michigan-Dearborn... ![Claire-Marie Brisson](/sites/g/files/omnuum8296/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-03/brisson.jpg?itok=Yv7PrMbz) See also:- [ Language ](/class-categories/language) - [ French language ](/keywords/french-language) - [ French ](/language/french) - [ Claire-Marie Brisson ](/language-instructor/claire-marie-brisson) - [ Spring 2026 ](/class/term/spring-2026)