War in Ukraine: the mistrust of the French for information circulating on social networks
Ukrainian armed forces fire at positions after Russia invaded Ukraine, near the settlement of Makariv, Ukraine, March 6, 2022. REUTERS - MAKSIM LEVIN
Text by: Dominique Desaunay Follow
3 mins
According to an opinion study, commissioned from Ifop by the crisis communication agency, LaFrenchCom, a majority of French people would trust more information on the Ukrainian conflict which is disseminated by traditional media than that conveyed by social networks. .
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From the beginning of the war launched by Vladimir Putin, the media and digital shock wave that the conflict in Ukraine caused spread throughout the world.
For a large majority of French people, ie 59% of them, the traditional media, from television to radio, including the written press, are considered reliable sources of information.
On the other hand, the people questioned show a broad distrust of the information circulating on social networks.
Twitter and Facebook, for example, do not exceed 21% in terms of trust in the credibility of facts that are relayed online.
And in general, the distribution channels on the Web are often accused of favoring the circulation of Infox, in this opinion study commissioned from Ifop, specifies Julien Auffret, director general of the communication agency of
LaFrenchCom
crisis
: “
With this study we see an inversion on the part of public opinion concerning their sources of information, the French display a broad mistrust for the information circulating on social networks.
As for the traditional media, it is Arte and the France Télévisions group which overall benefit the most: Arte with 70% of those questioned who trust the information relayed and 67% for France Télévisions.
This study highlights the awareness in France that social networks are also propaganda channels to win the digital battle caused by the war in Ukraine.
However, these same networks are also important for many Internet users.
They follow, for example,
»
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Implicit recognition for the work of journalists
This distrust of the ability of social networks to control verified information reveals a certain maturity on the part of French Internet users.
But beyond this observation, it is also an implicit recognition for the work accomplished by the journalists in the field or in the newsrooms who constantly report on the evolution of the conflict.
Journalists who knew how to give television viewers, listeners and their readers, from the start of the Russian offensive, the essential keys to deciphering so that they could form their own opinion on the war in Ukraine.
And we also note in this study that Vladimir Putin's communication strategy, which nevertheless relied on more traditional propaganda springs, has been widely disavowed on all Western social networks.
All in all, the opposite would have been surprising, because today the question of the opinion of Russian citizens who would inform themselves online or through the press about the conflict no longer even arises, with social networks and traditional media. locked or simply banned from broadcasting by the Kremlin authorities.
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