When he was younger, he was called ” the journalist “. As soon as she “captured” information, N’namou Sambu the “transmitted”voluble, to his loved ones. “We used to watch the JT as a family. I had a fascination for special envoys”remembers the young Stéphanoise, ” right arm “ of a mother of seven children exercising the “precarious occupations” housekeeper or childminder.
Without perceiving« obstacles » to her passion or knowing too much about the industry, the young woman turned to literary studies, then English. “I was not yet aware of the glass ceiling that exists when you come from a modest background”, she confides. It is while looking for solutions to break it that she discovers La Chance.
L’association “for media diversity” was created in 2007 by young graduates of the Journalists Training Center (CFJ) in Paris struck by the socio-cultural homogeneity of their promotion and editorial staff. Their former school then agrees to lend a room on Saturdays to help scholarship students prepare for the competitions of the 14 schools of journalism recognized by the profession.
“At the end of the year, the first seven beneficiaries were admitted”relates Marc Epstein, former reporter for the Point and president of the association. ” Fifteen years later, 67% of 600 young people passed by La Chance have dropped out of school, and three quarters have become journalists. » At the start of the next school year, La Chance, and its network of 400 volunteer journalists present in major cities, will open a 7th branch in Bordeaux.
Educational and financial assistance
It was in Grenoble that N’namou Sambu successfully applied. “90% of the course was distance learning. The pace was quite grueling with general knowledge lessons, French, English, Obs conferences… We were very tight-knit within the promotion, we helped each other to put the news on the record! »she recalls.
Volunteer journalists like François Carrel, correspondent for Releaseoccupy a central role. “Our role is to ensure the Saturday sessions, to be by their side and give them confidence by telling them that they are legitimate and should be proud of who they are. They are also given a maximum of keys and codes of the journalistic society”.
At the end of the eight months of training, La Chance finances the costs of presentation for the competition and travel. Eligible for a school, N’namou Sambu is ultimately not taken. It’s a big disappointment. The volunteers and his friends from La Chance encourage him to represent himself, to multiply his experiences.
She enrolled in the Equal Opportunities preparatory school at Lille and the Bondy Blog, rewatched La Chance, and at the age of 21 won the Celsa competition, in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Here again, La Chance is present and helps him finance part of his rent while waiting for his alternation in a media in September. “It’s an institution that won’t let you down! »she sums up, gratefully.
“Feeling of fraud”
“That such an association exists is almost too good to be true! »adds Khadija Toufik, who dared not believe in her “kid’s dream” from his Toulouse suburbs. She sees herself again « fantasmant » on the profession of great reporter, saddened by the negative image that the media send back of his city and imagining “tell life as it is” in France “who feels forgotten”.
The “La Chance” association during an intervention at the Journalists Training Center (CFJ) in Paris. / Luck
After a master’s degree in international trade, she braved self-censorship and applied for “La Chance”. “I couldn’t see myself doing anything else”, she recalls. After a busy year, “anxiety and insomnia”she feels, at 26, ” happy ” to realise “subjects that make sense” in the economics department of France Télévisions, alternating with his training at the Practical Institute of Journalism (IPJ).
“Most of my professional opportunities, I had them thanks to La Chance”observes Émilie Cochaud Kaminski, from the class of 2011. From a modest background, the young woman fulfilled the dream of her father, who died suddenly when she was 14, of becoming a journalist, not without experiencing “sense of imposture”. “The problem of self-confidence is common to all La Chance students. It’s our weakness “, she confides.
The health crisis has accentuated his doubts and difficulties. La Chance then offered him the opportunity to run paid media education workshops. A revelation. “The social and generational proximity with the students creates interest and trust”remarks the journalist, now a correspondent in Sweden.
Precarious positions
The association fills “editorial shortcomings”, according to Emilie Cochaud Kaminski. “We know that precarious positions are a must, but those who have financial support from their family experience it more peacefully. “. Marc Epstein observes this paradox of having, on the one hand, “Companies that have been approaching us for two or three years to welcome a greater number of La Chance alumni”and, on the other, former students who “crying famine” upon leaving their training.
The association, which will celebrate its 15th anniversary on July 2 and has never stopped anticipating the needs of its beneficiaries, intends today “develop a network of HRDs aware of these issues to better work on professional integration” of these young people.
Launched by the Conference of Schools of Journalism (CEJ), the “states general of training and employment of young people” also intend to facilitate the conditions of integration and awareness of their expectations by the media. “Young journalists are very aware of the social utility of their profession, but the profession of passion is no longer an excuse to accept everything”, summarizes Pascal Guénée, director of the IPJ and president of the CEJ. A pioneer in journalism training through apprenticeship in 2004, he remembers the reluctance at the time to “opening the way to a diploma for different profiles” and fears of “devaluation” of training.
Chance has shown that this is not the case for Marc Epstein. “Our former students have the energy of will. They are fighters. They are like explorers advancing through the jungle. They transcended what their classes intended them to do. Faced with a minister, they will not hesitate to ask the same question several times, without being impressed. They are particularly well equipped to be world smugglers »he decides.
Does the diversity of profiles allow for a diversity of information?
The basic question, continues Pascal Guénée, is to know “if a wording that better reflects society guarantees a treatment that is more representative of what it is”. This is not the opinion of this other school principal requesting anonymity. “The newsrooms cannot call for diversity and acculturate once they have integrated them. It’s a question of the business project and the desire to open up to other social issues. This also reflects on the method of organization, management issues. »
“Our association is important for social justice and equal access. It is also important for our profession because it enriches the exchanges within the newsrooms and fights against the mistrust of an audience, concludes Marc Epstein. If the media does not open up more, a growing part of society will not recognize itself in the media coverage and turn to social networks where the algorithms will do what it takes to bring these people into communities sharing the same vision of the world. »
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Effective training
La Chance (formerly La Chance aux Concours) each year prepares 80 to 100 scholarship students or students with disabilities for competitions at 14 schools of journalism recognized by the profession in its seven regional branches (Bordeaux, Grenoble, Marseille, Paris, Rennes, Strasbourg and Toulouse).
Thanks to La Chance, funded by foundations, media and public institutions, with the participation of 400 volunteer journalists, 67% of the beneficiaries obtained a school of journalism, and 76% entered the profession. Each school promotion today consists on average of approximately “8 to 10%” of students from La Chance, according to the association.
Applications are open until September 10 to join the 2022-2023 class.