2023-04-29 06:00:42
What protester against the pension reform did not feel a gap between his experience and the reports devoted to this long social conflict? Since the beginning of the movement, on January 16, the images of crowds, police charges, throwing of projectiles and burning garbage cans have multiplied to the point of obscuring, sometimes, the reality of mainly peaceful demonstrations. On the news channels (BFM-TV, CNews, LCI and Franceinfo) as on social networks (TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, etc.), the images swirled in the same cloud of tear gas… while delivering stories often opposed. At the heart of these divergent interpretations, the question of the use of force to maintain order: little criticized or even encouraged on the one hand, furiously denounced on the other.
“Tell me what you look at, I will tell you who you are. » The formula seems to have never been so relevant, and the gap between a part of young people connected and their elders attached to their good old television more gaping than in recent weeks. While distrust of traditional audiovisual media goes hand in hand with the rise of more collaborative information channels, the mobilization against this reform and the subject of police violence may well have delivered the 2023 version of the eternal conflict between generations. .
According to a survey carried out by IFOP for Fiducial/Sud Radio in March 2023, trust in law enforcement has plummeted since 1999, especially among young people. Only 42% of respondents say they have ” trust “ in the police, against 53% in 1999; a figure that drops to 28% among those under 35, and to 19% among 18-24 year olds. Regarding police violence, 56% of French people consider that they « correspondent to reality”. Among them, 72% of 18-24 year olds, but only 43% of over 65s. Frédéric Dabi, CEO of IFOP, sees in this discrepancy the mark of a radical change in the relationship to information of the different age groups: “All the studies available to us show an unprecedented generational divide in access to information. For the first time in history, young and old no longer get their information from the same sources. »
The screen cut in two
Even if speaking of “young people” as a homogeneous social group makes little sense, it is clear that a large number of them find in social networks a “against public space”according to the expression of the professor in information and communication Arnaud Mercier, co-director, with Jean-Marie Charon, of the book The Yellow Vests. A journalistic challenge (Editions Panthéon-Assas, 2022). It is there, on the “networks”, that they receive « l’information alternative » to that which their elders absorb on the traditional channels or any news. Gone are the days when, from grandparents to grandchildren, the whole family watched the same images on a few channels or listened to the same reports on the radio, even if it meant arguing over the meal afterwards. “Nowadays, everyone does their shopping and goes looking for what corresponds to their ideas, on police violence in particular, and reinforces their prejudices”summarizes Mr. Dabi.
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