“The Republic is one and indivisible; it must also be so in its representation on the screens. » This imperative, stated by Carole Bienaimé Besse, member of Arcom (ex-CSA), serves as a chimera for television. In a little over a decade, she has made little progress and still prefers to show on the air white people belonging to wealthy social categories and living in large cities rather than those from immigrant backgrounds, from lower social classes and living in the countryside, concludes the annual report drawn up by the audiovisual regulator. This was based on 1,800 hours of programs of all genres viewed on nineteen digital terrestrial television channels in 2021. “We see that it remains extremely difficult for publishers to represent French society”laments Carole Bienaimé Besse, also a producer.
In 2021, the situation has even worsened for “people perceived as ‘non-white'”. Their representation rate rose in one year from 16% to 14%, in particular due to non-stop news channels, where the rate did not exceed 10%, with the exception of BFM-TV (14% ). Not content with having been significantly less represented in news programs, people of color held a negative role in 2021, in 43% of cases, a jump of 11 points in one year.
A missed opportunity, observes Arcom, while French news, dominated last year by general public subjects such as the vaccine strategy, constituted “a fertile ground for the fair representation of French society”. “As soon as we let our guard down, we can see that the natural comes back at a gallop”continues Carole Bienaimé Besse, who nevertheless mentions the progress made in terms of fiction. “The roles proposed are less stereotyped in fiction and give pride of place to positive roles and heroes. »
The social classes that the viewer sees are a thousand leagues from the French reality. “The CSPs + [cadres, professions libérales, chefs d’entreprise] are overrepresented. with a rate of 75%, well beyond their actual weight (27%). Conversely, the CSP – (employees, workers … or 27% of the French) constitute only 10% of the characters. “It is worrying to see that, despite the crisis or the questions of purchasing power, the chains do not manage to represent these categories. They must invite themselves to the screen, as during the crisis of “yellow vests” “remarks the member of the Arcom college.
You have 46.55% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.