No more letting them go without doing anything. While teenagers are listening less to the radio and moving further away from television news, at the start of the school year, there is an urgent need for the media to try to retain them. Even to win back these young listeners and viewers who increasingly trust social networks for information. According to a report from the Reuters institute published in Junethe majority of users worldwide of social platforms TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, respectively 55%, 55% and 52%, say they pay attention to celebrities and influencers when it comes to information.
The need for audience renewal is becoming all the more pressing as the average age of viewers continues to age from year to year. It was 63 years old for the France 2 television news and 57 years old for that of TF1 during the last 2022-2023 season, according to Médiamétrie.
This aging also concerns radio. In 2003, the average age of Franceinfo listeners was 48.3 years old; ten years later, the average was 52.3 years. For two seasons, she has now reached 55 years old. “If we want the Franceinfo brand to continue to be a reference for younger generations, we need to find new ways to reach them, on the right channel and in the right way”judge Estelle Cognacq, digital director of public information radio.
A delay in reaction from the audiovisual sector
Radio Franceinfo thus entrusted the mission of developing a five-minute daily newspaper for 15-25 year olds to journalist Léo Tescher. Since 1er September, the podcast “What does it say? » is posted online Monday to Friday at 7 a.m. It is available on podcast platforms (Spotify and Deezer), the website, the social network Instagram and the Radio France application. Inspired by the Swiss format “Le short”, produced by RTS, its editions are made up of targeted subjects. “I want to address social themes that affect young people: insecurity, housing, online sexism, harassment, gender, sexuality…”, details Léo Tescher. The thirty-year-old also deciphers international news, major political events, but also sport and culture in the broad sense: cinema, music and video games.
Unlike several written press titles (The Parisian, The world…), which have been offering formats specially designed for young audiences on various social platforms for around ten years already, the audiovisual sector has been slow to react. The explosion of disinformation and conspiracy, accelerated by social networks, has finally convinced them. “There is an urgent need for media education”admits Thierry Thuillier, director of information at TF1. “The threat is becoming more imminent for our democracies, we needed to get started”justifies Alexandre Kara, director of information at France Télévisions.
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