1 History
1.1 Newspapers
Newspapers are the oldest medium and oldest way to communicate to the people. Before the second World War, newspapers had a big influence on the people. They were separated in the ideological pillars, Christians, liberals and socialists. Everybody bought the newspaper form their ideologic. (Carls, sd)
The Nazis shut down all the newspapers in the Second World War. Two groups were created these days: collaborators and resistors. Because the Nazis shut down all the newspapers, the French began to rely on the radio as media. After the Second World War, the media became very political. The government started to play a role in the media. The government paid the media subsidies, this was not to support them, but to be sure that the newspapers wrote what they wanted. (Carls, sd)
During the war, the French press became more uniform. The war years were marked by rising production costs, inflation, the cost of now commonplace photographic reproductions, increases in the price of paper, and rising social costs. (Carls, sd)
The newspapers were subsidized by the government, so they had the power to decide what came in the newspapers. It was a sort of propaganda. The people didn’t realize that because they don’t know better. (Lardeau, sd)
The first mass circulation paper, was distributed in 1863 and was called “Le Petit Journal”. This newspaper was available everywhere in France. They’re one of the biggest newspapers in France.
After a few decennia the newspapers and print magazines became a medium to gain money. There were more advertisements and people started to realise that it was a booming business. ‘Le Monde’, as an example, was acquired by French Billionaires. The government has less to say in what the newspapers produce. Contrary to 50 years ago. (Lardeau, sd)
When we look at the numbers, we see that in 2000, 18,3% of the French people read the daily, national newspapers. The regional newspapers were more read, with an average of 38,4%. Magazines were read by almost everyone, a lot of people were interested in the content of magazines. The number of readers in Paris are the highest. One third of all the readers in France, are based in the capital. Men read more newspapers than women. (Carls, sd)
1.2 Radio and television
1.2.1 Radio
After the popular newspapers, France got radio stations. These came up in 1899, for the first time. When we go far back in time, we see that radio is very old in France. In 1899, the Italian Gugliermo Macaroni was able to make a connexion between France and England. This was the start of radio. The first time that is was possible to communicate via radio overseas. (Smith-Rose, sd)
Radio Tour Eiffel was the first radio channel who broadcasted news, this in 1925. Radio continued in his popularity throughout the second World War, this was a channel from the government. In this period, a few private stations came up, they were cropped up throughout the Nazi Party. (hjl5058, 2014)
Radio Lille was a radio who broadcasted in Belgium. This changed when the German invaded Belgium. The station was located in France after this invasion. A lot of Belgian radio stations came to France, because they weren’t not able to broadcast from Belgium, due to all the problems. The German also invaded the north of France, the stations who were located there. (Boel, 2011)
After the Second World War, radio became a public monopoly. After the election of president François Mitterrand, everything changed. He allowed the licensing of the “free” radio stations. A Private radio sector broadcasting is born in France
Despite television was very popular, radio had still it’s cultural impact. In 1994 we see a new rule, this is to protect the French cultural. The rising radio channels, need to broadcast 40% of the songs in French. (Lardeau, sd)
1.2.2 Television
The first official television broadcast by the station Paris-PTT Vision. The instalment of the television transmitter on top of the Eiffel Tower. Broadcasts ceased in September 1939 during the Second World war, the Eiffel Tower transmitter was tossed back just before the “Wehrmacht” arrived in Paris in 1940. Broadcast resumed in 1944 with the liberation. After the war, the new start was slow and gradual. While programs consisted mostly of variety show shot in the studio, the first broadcasts of major live events finally arose in 1948, with the arrival of the Tour the France.
Television was being studied before the second World War , but was available a time after the World War. The French had access to television, this via satellite, in 1948. It was very expensive, so not everyone bought a television or had access to it. They could only watch one channel, that channel was run by the government. (Lardeau, sd)
Colour television was available in October 1967. In 1987, cable television was possible. Everybody who bought a television, just had to buy a cable and they had access. This was a big revolution and television became cheaper and cheaper. Cable television was significant to contribution to the cultural life in France. This kind of television, had three channels, all of them were run by the government. Television was a state monopoly from 1948 until 1982.
Nowadays there are more than 240 channels in France. We see independent commercial stations who broadcast total different things. Things as local information, American series or games and quizzes are popular on these stations. Some of these stations are part of a package, people can pay for them. In this way, you create the feeling of being exclusive. When people pay for a channel, they receive something that not everybody has. (Sorlin)
We can call national channels, public channels. They are gathered under the same banner. Despite they are competing with each other. The oldest channels are now digitalised and are cable channels. But when we look at the commercial channels, we see that they broadcast more amusement television. They focus on amusing the people, such as music channels. This makes that more people watch commercial channels. The public ones only have 40% of the watchers. (Sorlin)
Of course these tv channels don’t only broadcast programs. As we know, there is also advertisement. These days, they had the possibility to broadcast 5 minutes of advertisement, each hour. In the night they couldn’t broadcast advertisements. Also, the advertisements can’t interrupt programs, they have to be between two programs. (Sorlin)
1.3 Journalism
The French press has long had a belief of defending its freedoms and building high standards for reporting the news, political news in appropriate. Using it to promote democracy and educate the readers, it frequently engages in debates about what constitutes proper journalistic practice and ethics. The opinion press very diversified and the quality of journalism is very high in general. (Carls, sd)
The statute of journalists is defined by the collective Labour contract for journalists. In 1973, we see in the Labour Code that there are 4 types of journalists. We see professional journalists, “assimilated” journalists, pigsties (= occupy a position unique in the world of journalism, in between free lancers and tenured journalists) and temporary journalist. All of these types exists they all have disadvantages and advantages. But publicity agents and occasional collaborators are not considered journalists. (Carls, sd)
The profession has become less secure and very competitive, with journalists leaving the profession at a high rate after a few years when their career does not take off as hoped, and employers prolonging the "trial" period. Also, journalism has become increasingly a second profession and students are getting a higher education in school, in order to be competitive in this world. (Carls, sd)
Two-thirds of all new card-holding journalists are employed in the Ile-de-France (Paris) region, a number that remained steady in the 1990s. This is very logic, because almost all the national newspapers are based in the capital city. (Carls, sd)
1.4 Cinema
Not a lot of people know the fact that France is a big player in the movie industry. As we saw in the lessons, there are two famous inventors, Frenchmen. Auguste and Louis Lumière, they made their first movie in 1895. This was called “La sortie de l’usine Lumière à Lyon” and was revolutionary. They were not only capable of making a movie, they had the possibility to show this on a big screen. (Travers, 2012)
“The cinema is an invention without a future.” Said Louis Lumière. In the future we see, that is was certainly wrong.
1.5 Digitalisation
Internet became something very important in our society. Also mobile telephony has grown strongly since 2005. In 2011, 33,6% of the householders had an internet connection and 95% of the householders had a mobile service. (Vedel , Koc-Michalska, Granchet, Leteinturier, & Villeneuve, 2013)
The number of internet users in France in 2011, was 38,2 million and most of these users, were over 11 years old. When we look at the growth from 2001 to 2011, we see that this population grew with 22 million internet users, which is enormous. We also see that the number of woman using internet, increased the past decade. People who work, use internet more often than before. (Vedel , Koc-Michalska, Granchet, Leteinturier, & Villeneuve, 2013)
For people with an higher degree, it was easier to handle with this digitalisation. The internet is used the most for searching information. They also use internet for doing bank transitions of checking social media. This we still see, so this tendency stays the same. (Vedel , Koc-Michalska, Granchet, Leteinturier, & Villeneuve, 2013)
Consequently the importance of radio and newspapers decreased, which is normal if television increased. The television consumption grew by six minutes every day. Which is also normal because more people had access to television and programs. (Vedel , Koc-Michalska, Granchet, Leteinturier, & Villeneuve, 2013)
2 Nowadays in France
2.1 France is “the homeland of human rights”, true or not
In 2017, France is ranked on place 39 in the list of ‘level of press freedom’. This is not a very good number for a European country. Everybody thinks that France is an amazing country in the field of news and press freedom. But the numbers are saying something else. (Lardeau, sd) In 2018, France makes progress, the take spot 33 in the list. They arise with 6 spots. (Reporters without borders, sd)
In 2011 and 2015, Islamised people did an attack to Charlie Hebdo. The magazine illustrates cartoons and in some of them, they laugh with Mohammed. A part of the people, Muslims in particular, are hurt by these illustrations and they come up for their religion. They did this is an even respect less way. The media has to think about who they can hurt, France is a big country with a lot of people. The media need to think about everyone’s feelings. (Charlie Hebdo, 2017)
2.2 Who is the most popular one
If we talk about the most popular one, then it is easy, that’s television, obviously. If we look at the numbers, we see that the French, watch 22 hours a week to the television. That means, 193 minutes each day, which is a lot. When we look at the average number in Europe, France is far above this European average. (Carls, sd)
When we talk about the changes in the media consumption patterns, we see that television is the most popular one. The people follow the political news on the television. Television is followed by radio and the internet. But people between 15 and 24 years old, watch less television than other groups. This came from a research that NPA Conseil has done.
2.3 Tendency
2.3.1 Newspapers
When we look at the region newspapers, we see that the numbers aren’t really changing. Contrary to the provincial newspapers, they have a higher reader loyalty. France is a very big country and there is a lot of news. Now everybody wants to know everything. It’s normal that people buy the newspaper which gives the information form their own region. (Media of France, sd)
The most popular newspaper these days are Le Monde, Libération and Le Figaro. All of them have their headquarters in Paris, the capital city. Contrary to decennia’s ago, the newspapers are now owned by the government, they are independent. (Lardeau, sd)
Le Monde is the biggest one. The newspaper exists since 1944 and is available in the whole world. The paper has a Berliner format. This format is between a tabloid and a traditional newspaper. In total there is a circulation of 303.400 newspapers. The newspaper is owned by the company Groupe Le Monde. This media group in owned by Pierre Bergé, Xavier Niel and Mathieu Pigasse. Though a paper that is closer in its political positioning to the Guardian in the UK, than it is to the Times. (Le Monde, 2018)
Le Figaro is a daily newspaper that exists since 1826. The newspaper has, just as Le Monde the Berliner format. Le Figaro is owned by the Dassault Group and is only distributed in France. This group is owned by the family Dassault. Alexis Brézet is the editor at the moment. When we look at the circulation, they have an average of 313.010 newspapers. It is at the same time the closest French equivalent of the Daily Telegraph and of the Times. (Le Figaro, 2018)
Libération is another big French newspaper. The format of this newspaper is compact, which means that it is a broadsheet-quality newspaper printed in a tabloid format. Libération is a newspapers since 1973 and is distributed in France. The newspaper is owned by Altice, Bruno Ledoux an Patrick Drahi. Similar in many ways to Britain's "Guardian”. (Libération, 2018)
L’Humanité is a popular newspaper in France and was founded in 1904. The newspaper is a tabloid and was an official organ from the socialists. The political party of Jean Jaurès (socialist) had founded the newspaper. (L'Humanité, 2018)
Aujoud’hui is a weekly newspaper in France since 1940. A lot of people think that this newspaper has to do something with “Ajourd’hui en France” (Le Parisien), but there is no relation between these two. There were a lot of problems with the government and the Jews so they had to stop. The newspaper doesn’t exist anymore. (Aujourd'hui, 2017)
L’Equipe is the French sport newspaper. The distribution is everywhere in France, the first name of the newspaper was L’Auto Vélo in 1946. The newspaper focuses on the French rugby and football, the most popular sports in France. (L'Equipe, 2017)
In a nutshell, we can tell that Le Monde is the most respected and intellectual newspaper in France. Le Figaro is the most regarded newspaper of the wright wing. Libération is a good left centred newspaper. L’Humanité is the most critical newspaper, the have a lot of critic on the government. (Vedel , Koc-Michalska, Granchet, Leteinturier, & Villeneuve, 2013)
Ouest-France is a daily newspaper, which is based in Rennes (in the north of France). This newspaper is a very big one in France. Ouest-France was founded in 1944 and had the Berliner format. This newspaper is not a national newspaper, but a regional newspaper, one of the most popular one in France. It is since 1975, the first daily newspaper with terms of circulation with an average of a small 700 000 copies, each day. The newspaper is sold in three regions and there are 53 editions each day. (Ouest-France, 2018)
The traditional economic structure of newspapers, with a delicate balancing act between publicity revenues, state subsidies, and sales revenues, has all but disappeared. The new technology desires the support of financial-technological support groups, thus turning the press into actual enterprises. The new press figures are the technological magnates, the announcers and the sponsors. (Carls, sd)
When we look at the graph (Appendix 2) we see that nearly all the newspapers have a lot of ups and downs, but overall we can conclude a slump between 1999 and 2011.
In France the number stays of newspapers really high. But as in Belgium, we see the digitalization. We have ‘GoPress’ in Belgium, but the French have Library PressDisplay. They have access to it, just as we have. It is the same system, it just specializes the French newspapers. They provides 300 newspapers worldwide. The news you can find there, is from the last 60 days. (French history, 2018)
Just as we have in Belgium, the French have a free daily newspaper. In Belgium we have “de Metro” and in France they have “20 minutes”. The name refers to the fact that we could read the newspaper 20 minutes each day, it is an easy and fast newspaper. (20 minutes (France), 2018)
20 Minutes is launched in 2002, in the capital city of France. The newspaper is published in 11 areas in the county, they have national and regional sections in the newspaper. 20 Minutes is active in more countries and in part of Ouest-France. (20 minutes (France), 2018)
In France they have the BnF, which is the Bibliothèque National de France. Here we can find a collection of newspapers from the nineteenth and twentieth century. You can find famous newspapers as Le Figaro, La Croix, La Press and many more. The digital archive is called ‘Gallica’. This makes the access to them very easy for everybody. This access was not guaranteed for everybody back in the days. (French history, 2018) On French Newspaper Archives, we can find all the newspapers from the same ages. But they work independent. (French Newspaper Archives (1823-1979))
We can conclude in general that the future will be very hard for prints. The digitalisation is really hard for them. It is a lot easier to go online, a lot of content is free online. The online news platforms can give non-stop updates of news and people get addicted to it. This means also that it gets very hard for advertisers. A lot of people go online and don’t read the prints anymore. Advertisements are expensive on prints, but if the companies don’t have enough revenues, it is hopeless. They are trying to find new ways to stay in contact with the readership. (Vedel , Koc-Michalska, Granchet, Leteinturier, & Villeneuve, 2013)
2.3.2 Radio and television
2.3.2.1 Radio
The radio consumption is really high. It is the most trusted medium in France. Médiamétrie said that each Frenchmen has listened every day to the radio. From these people, 26,3% listens to state-owned stations and 68,9% listens to commercial stations and the remaining people listen to others. News and entertainment programs on the radio, are the most popular. On the second place, we see culture and classic music. (Lardeau, sd)
Radio France is one of the biggest radio stations in France. They exist since 1975, when the ORTF fell apart. It is owned by the government and paid by the Frenchmen. They broadcast in whole France. (Repères, sd)
NRJ is also a really big radio company in France. NRJ is a commercial radio station and founded by Jean Paul Baudecroux. They started in 1981 as a local station in Paris. They’re now the biggest station in Europe and one of the biggest in the whole world. The ‘abroad adventure’ started in 1991 for NRJ. As example, we broadcast NRJ in Flanders since the beginning of September. (Fondations NRJ, sd)
In France, NRJ has also several television channels (NRJ 12, NRJ Paris and NRJ Hits). They broadcast from the NRJ Group, they form one big company. NRJ is a really big company worldwide and everything started in France. Since a few years, they have an advertisement part in the company, this is called NRJ Global. They buy and sell advertisements for television and radio. (NRJ Group, 2018)
Europe 1 is the biggest commercial radio station in France, Lagadère Active is the owner of the radio channel. The radio was founded in 1955 and broadcasted in the whole country. In Belgium and the Netherlands, we can receive Europe 1 and in the whole world, people can receive Europe 1 via internet. The radio was founded to compete with Radio Luxemburg. This radio station didn’t broadcast from France, because there was a state monopoly in France. (Europe 1, 2016)
Nowadays in Paris, you can receive 52 radio channels. This is a big number. Because France is such a large country, they have a lot of radio channels. Just as we have in Belgium, there are a lot of types. You can listen to classical music, pop music, alternative music, there is for everybody a channel to listen to. (Boel, 2011)
The radio, founded by the government of France, is called Radio France International (RFI). This radio is raised in 1975 as a part of Radio France, it was for the French part of Afrika. In 1986, the law changed so RFI became independent. They broadcast in different languages, in French, English, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Chinse and Spanish. (Radio France Internationale, 2014)
2.3.2.2 Television
Television is not that good in France, but not as bad as in the UK. We see that France has the news at 8pm and they have the same categories we have in Belgium or the UK. They only difference is the fact that they do less interviews with political and these interviews are kinder than in other countries. After the news, most of the time, they broadcast a movie. This vertical programming is the same as in other countries. All the accessible programs are in primetime and the more serious programs are later in the evening. (French television – watching television in France, sd) (appendix 3)
Most of the programs are international programs which are dubbed. The television is pretty cheap in France, it is a bit fake. They don’t make a lot of their own programs, they buy them and broadcast them. (French television – watching television in France, sd)
In 2000, the holding “France Télévisions” made his debut. This holding included La Cinquième which was renamed “France 5”, France 2 and France 3. The president of the group is elected by CSA (Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel). Marc Tessier, who was already president of France 2 and France 3, was named president of the new group. (France télévisions, 2018)
Digital television came up in 2005. This was called digital terrestrial television (DTT). In 2008, still 34% of the French population wasn’t using digital television. One year later, the companies switched to only digital television channels so the numbers increased seriously. The last numbers can tell us that 94,6% of the house holdings have digital television. (Obervatory, 2015)
The flagship network, TF1, is privately-owned and public broadcaster France Televisions is funded from the TV licence fee and advertising revenue. TF1 group is owned by Bouygues which is owned by the family Bouygues. This group has participation in 12 television channels. (appendix 1)
Public television also established, in 2006, its own nonstop news service, France 24, airing in French, Arabic, and English. France Télévisions also lanced VOD (Video on demand), and the people now always have access to videos and programs. They can watch their shows, whenever they want it. (France télévisions, 2018) France Télévisions is the second biggest television company in Europe. This in the meaning of number of watchers. (Obervatory, 2015)
In this list, we can also find four other French broadcasters. TF1, M6, ARTE France, Eurosport are in this top 50. From these companies, TF1 and M6 are ranked in the leading companies who are private companies. (Obervatory, 2015)
The second most popular television channel CNews. This is the shorter version of Canal News, the news channel started in 1999 and had the name I-Télévision and afterwords I-Télé. The change to CNews, refers to the strike in 2016. This channel is a 24 hour commercial news channel. Together with the channels Canal+, C8 and CStar, they form part of the Canal+ Groupe. (CNews, 2018) Canal+overseas is responsible for 46,1% of the digital platforms. (Obervatory, 2015)
RTL, owned by Bertelsmann, which is owned by the family Mohn. Is one of the biggest broadcasters in Europe. They have participation in more than one country. The channel RTL is known everywhere in Europe. They have radio and television everywhere in Europe. Both television and radio are popular from RTL. (appendix 1)
Vivendi SA is a big French media conglomerate. The company is a television company, but they also have powers in the music production industry, movie industry and the digital and satellite television. Vivendi exists since 1853 and in 2000 the company had a merger. (Vivendi SA, 2017)
Vivendi is a very big company in France. They are ranked on place 13 of the list of most leading audio-visual companies worldwide. In this list we can also find France Télévisions, they are ranked on place 22. Place 40 is also for a French company, TF1. This three French companies have their positions in the top 50. (Obervatory, 2015)
2.3.3 Journalism
A lot of people don’t see journalists as a serious profession. There are people who say that journalists just need to manipulate, everybody can do it. Also, we can sent the media our own news, they don’t do everything. Social media ruins the look for journalists. The most important journalistic AJP is the FNPF or Fédération Nationale de la Presse Française. (Carls, sd)
We can, as a normal citizen, send news to the agencies. This makes everyone a journalist. The fact that every newspaper had an online news platform, is this positive of negative for the quality of news. Everyone wants to be the first to publish news. Journalists don’t check and doublecheck their sources, they just want to publish and be the first. This is actually very negative for the reputation of the journalists. (Vedel , Koc-Michalska, Granchet, Leteinturier, & Villeneuve, 2013)
2.3.4 Cinema
When we look at the number of cinemas in France nowadays, the numbers are very high. A good example is the giant Kinepolis. This Belgian company became a very big player in cinema in Europe. France is one of the countries who counts a lot of Kinepolis buildings. In 2017, there were 11 Kinepolis cinemas in France, the same number as in Belgium. (Cinema of France, 2018)
Kinepolis is not the only cinema company in France. But they are the leaders, the cinemas are not only for the movies, they are multiplex buildings nowadays. These are buildings with more facilities then movies. (Cinema of France, 2018)
France is after America, the biggest film industry in the world. They are capable of making movies in the French language which attract a big audience. When we look at how many Oscar nominees and prizes France won, we can say that thy are on a good track. (Cinema of France, 2018)
2.3.5 Online communication
Facebook is the most used social media in France, followed by Skyrock. Skyrock is a blog platform that is founded by a radio maker from France. When we look at the numbers, we see that, in 2016, 56% of the French people were online. Of course are the other media as, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram very popular in France. (France profile – Media, 2017)
Early these days, France was known as Minitel. It was a monopolistic digital monopoly, it seemed frozen in time. At the end of the 1990’s, a technology gap. 30% of the French families had an internet connection in 2001. This was lower than the European average, which was 38%. Since 2001, these number had a growth of 4% each month, which was the fastest growth in Europe. At the end of 2001, the French had an number of 16 million internet users. From these people, only 40% of them had an internet connection at work. In 2002, the internet grew and grew until what we have right now. (Lardeau, sd)
As already said, the called France a Minitel. This is because France was the first country to put their newspapers online, this newspaper was called ‘Les Echos’. It was a revolutionary thing and this happened in the 1980s. The free publicity was not always positive, the French saw the number of daily readers increasing. This is normal because the online newspapers were free in the beginning. The number of readers didn’t increase really fast, not everyone had access to internet these days. In 1996, France had seven online daily newspapers out. (Carls, sd)
The number of people who read the newspapers online, started to raise. More and more people had access to internet and wanted to read for free. Despite French can buy a newspaper on each corner of the street, people became more lazy then before. (Carls, sd)
In 2015, CSA did a research about the maximalization and value of the internet use. 2800 people participates the research of CSA. The results were used to create a perceived performance score in paid, earned and owned media. The results told us that the balance of earned, owned and paid media is very variable. (France's Brands Vie for Position Across Paid, Owned and Earned Media, 2015) (Appendix 4)