Often criticized and confronted, particularly in the case of the print media, with a steady decline in sales, can the media stop the crisis they are going through? To better understand the aspirations of the French, the Make.org platform has consulted widely with 104,000 people, asking them "how can the media improve society?". These participants worked on 1,605 proposals to improve the media.
>> Friday guests of Culture Media Europe 1, the founder of the platform Axel Dauchez, and Jean-Michel Salvator, co-author of the book Les reporters sont formidable , unveiled the main expectations formulated by the participants.
Information that takes its time
Regarding the treatment of information, the French consulted require more slowness and deepening. "People are lost," notes Axel Dauchez, founder of the Make.org platform. And even if they consult information continuously, "it does not bring them the satisfaction they expect." Consumers particularly reject the recovery of AFP dispatches on all news sites. "People realize this, and it's a reproach," says Alex Dauchez. They claim "basic treatments, a follow-up in the long term and not jerks".
This request does not mean a rejection of news channels, nuance Jean-Michel Salvator, which recalls that the French "inform themselves massively on websites and news channels". "25% of French people have between two and five applications of info on their mobile phone," he says again.
Taking the example of a channel like Arte, often cited as an example but still outpaced by other channels in terms of audiences, or the strong advance of BFM-TV, however regularly criticized, Franceinfo, Jean-Michel Salvator believes that "the media that people dream about exist, but they do not look at them".
More pedagogy, but also investigation
Second idea emerging from the consultation, respondents asked for more pedagogy and expertise in the media. "They want more scientific value with real experts, independent and at the same time less editorialization of information," says Axel Dauchez.
For his part, Jean-Michel Salvator, taking the example of the written press, believes that this movement is already at work. "More and more, there is a distinction between info sites, which are an info tap, and paper newspapers.The deepening press exists.Many newspapers do a tremendous job of decrypting."
While the people consulted are also in demand of a greater place granted to the investigation, the two guests of Europe 1 note that this will is thwarted by the will of a certain number of redactions to assume the necessary costs to the investigation. "It creates frustration and disappointment among consumers," notes Axel Dauchez. But for Jean-Michel Salvator, the responsibility is also to look for readers, who "want a demanding info, but do not want to pay."
A journalism of pedagogy and solution
Finally, the interviewees ask for positive topics and solution journalism. "We must find topics that are not necessarily the blackest," says Axel Dauchez, according to which the French expect "media that engage the reader to not just be informed, but to take action." "There is a need for journalists to side with readers," he adds.
"The French want to find in their media their everyday lives and concrete solutions," says Jean-Michel Salvator, which nuances however the requirement of a journalism more centered around the good news. "If we do too much good news, people will have the impression that they are hiding things, and it is a machine to feed the plot."