| Abstract | This article reports the results of a study of coverage of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Paris published in French newspapers, newsmagazines, and online news media in 2009. Building on a previous study of images of the liberation in Parisian newspapers at the 60th anniversary in 2004, it provides empirical evidence for the conventional wisdom that less anniversary journalism is produced in non-decennial than decennial anniversaries. In addition, the article shows that visual coverage of the 65th anniversary of the liberation was even more reductive than coverage of the 60th, concentrating almost exclusively on images of French joy and authority and forgoing more problematic representations of German occupiers, French collaborationists, and U.S. troops. Finally, the article argues that this sparse and reductive view of the liberation of Paris has the potential to affect collective memories of the event as it recedes into the past and the number of living French citizens who remember it firsthand declines.
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