French interest in current affairs has never been lower. According to the annual barometer carried out by Kantar for the daily La Croix, published on Wednesday January 15, only 59% of French people, or eight points less than in 2019, say they follow the news with "fairly large" or "very large" interest. "versus 41% who report" very low "or" fairly low "interest.
However, the year 2019 was notably marked by many subjects likely to arouse public interest such as the Yellow Vests crisis, the great national debate, the fire of Notre-Dame or the European elections.
The barometer also reveals that the French do not trust the media: only 50% consider the information broadcast on the radio credible, 46% for the written press, 40% for television and 23% for information from the Internet.
Figures which are enough to worry the media regularly confronted with the strong distrust of citizens especially critical of the coverage of yellow vests, according to sociologist Jean-Marie Charon, media specialist at CNRS, contacted by France 24.
France 24: How to explain the French people's lack of interest in current affairs despite the many events of 2019?
Jean-Marie Charon: It is likely that there is a link between the nature of the events treated and the debates that took place on their treatment, in particular with regard to the Yellow Vests. The La Croix barometer notably shows that 71% of French people believe that the media have not properly reported their experiences. But why continue to get informed if one has the impression that this information does not reflect your reality?
The other lesson, which is confirmed a little more each year, is the deep disinterest of young people for the traditional media which did not know how to adapt their contents, their subjects, their angles to the concerns of the youngest. They turn more to social networks and are characterized by a difficulty in identifying sources of information. They do not necessarily have a great perception of what differentiates this or that media. There is therefore an important issue of media education for the youngest, but also of identification. Highlighting its particularity will become an essential component of the editorial line in the future.
We also see that the French do not trust the media, especially the Internet ...
It is indeed the medium which collects the lowest confidence rate, but perhaps today, the concept of Internet is too vague. Between traditional media sites, social networks, more confidential sites, the Internet media includes too much content while radio, television or the print media are better identified.
With regard to confidence, the French note a lack of reliability and believe that there are too many errors, too many approximations, of nonsense. They say that the content offered by the media does not have the solidity of an encyclopedia. This shows that they do not have in mind the time and resources constraints of journalists. Furthermore, this feeling of unreliability is reinforced by the fact that the heart of the readership or listeners or viewers to whom the media are addressed is now a very educated public and therefore capable of picking up on journalists' errors when they cover their domain.
You mentioned the media treatment of the Yellow Vests. Did the coverage of the demonstrations mark a turning point in the relationship of the French to the media?
It's obvious. There was a great disappointment of the public concerning the treatment of the Yellow Vests and a lot of misunderstanding, with in particular a polarization between those who mobilized and who wanted the media to be their relay, and then the observers and analysts who had their side comments rather critical vis-à-vis the yellow vests.
We also see that there is great confusion among the French to differentiate the editorialist from the journalist. The image of these commentators who are present all day long on the news channels and who seem extremely distant from people's experiences weighs considerably. In reality, when the French are very critical in saying "the media", we realize that it is more a problem linked to editorialists than to basic information delivered by journalists in the field.
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