For this “field” investigation, there was no need to get on a train: it only took a few clicks to change universe. It was a Wednesday afternoon on Twitch, a live video streaming platform, that an appointment was made between The world and streamer Jean Massiet to close a special day dedicated to French youth as the presidential election approaches. “I was born before the fall of the Berlin Wall: the USSR still existed, children! »quips Jean Massiet, 33, who presents himself as one of the “dinosaurs” of the platform.
In order to launch the discussion, the former cabinet collaborator of Marisol Touraine, then Minister of Health, challenges his audience to find out if he finds himself there in this strange presidential campaign, stifled by the din of the war in Ukraine. On the chat, the answers of the young people fuse: “Sometimes, I have the impression that it talks about subjects that are beyond me and whose issues I don’t understand” ; “No clear information, I’m lost” ; “I think the political shows on TV are made by boomers.”
With his printed T-shirt and his beard, curled up in what looks like his living room, Jean Massiet looks more like a good friend than a PAF “boomeur”. Average age of his community: 24 years old, with 40% 15-24 year olds, 40% 24-35 year olds, and a large majority of men – Twitch being, originally, used to follow games of video games. He therefore knows how to talk to young people: since 2017, he has wanted to make political news accessible to them, which often seems complex and jargon to them, going so far as to comment for hours on the sessions of current questions to the government (QAG) at the National Assembly. , like The Parliamentary Channel for Dummies.
Because, according to the 35e barometer of confidence in the media published in January 2022, as every year, by The cross, the rift is growing between French youth and the media of radio, television and the written press. Among 18-24 year olds, interest in current affairs drops, dropping from 51% to 38% between 2022 and 2021. 68% (compared to 53% for the population as a whole) believe that climate change is badly dealt with. Similarly, Twitch fans lament that mainstream titles pay so little attention to video games.
Traditional media shunned
In a context where the news is both dense and dramatic, after two years of health crisis and in the face of the climate emergency, 18-25 year olds seem to shun the so-called “traditional” media. A thousand leagues from an outdated 20-hour newscast, unfamiliar with a paper press that dirty the fingers of their grandparents, rather eager for clicks, scrolls, snaps: where, when, how, with whom do they inform?
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