Tours (AFP)
The Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to "unprecedented media coverage" in the television news, far exceeding that of previous epidemics or health crises, shows a study published Thursday by the National Audiovisual Institute.
According to this study published in the Ina media review, and presented at the Assises du journalisme de Tours, the epidemic has generated, in the evening news of the major channels (TF1, France 2, France 3, Arte and M6) , nearly 8,500 subjects during the first semester of 2020, ie "50 subjects on average per day".
“This represents 60% of the overall information offer for the 1st semester of 2020” in terms of the number of subjects, note the authors, Géraldine Poels and Véronique Lefort.
"With more than half of the television news devoted to the new coronavirus, the health crisis has benefited from exceptional coverage. Neither previous epidemics nor health in general are usually so publicized", they underline.
This media impact greatly exceeds that of influenza A (H1N1) in 2009 (more than 1,000 subjects), that of SARS (319 subjects) or even that of the AIDS epidemic, which gave rise to 2,253 subjects but over a much longer duration since it dates back to the 1980s.
First mentioned in the news on January 18, the coverage of the new coronavirus, initially weak, intensified suddenly at the end of February (after the announcement of a first death in France), and swelled to represent 80% of the subjects disseminated during confinement.
The study also shows that the health crisis has swept away all the usual topics of news: health represented 74% of the subjects broadcast in March, domestic politics almost disappearing (3%).
The situation then normalized very slowly, with a gradual return to a variety of subjects, notably politics with municipal elections and the change of government.
Ina has also classified the personalities linked to this health crisis by the number of speeches in the news.
In the "top 10", we only find men, led by Minister of Health Olivier Véran, ahead of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and President Emmanuel Macron.
On the other hand, "Professor Didier Raoult only arrives at 16th place in this ranking, which suggests that his visibility was much lower on historical channels than on continuous news channels, where his media coverage rivals that of Olivier Véran ", further notes the study.
© 2020 AFP