Foreign Media

Radio France International
http://en.rfi.fr/company

The media panorama of France is based on two trends; a key role from the state and the power of ownership from media markets such as TV, Radio, and Print. The presence of politics in French journalism is very limited, which it helps to keep people from all parties in peace. The continuing technology innovation throughout the years has brought a new cultural industry into France, where most citizens are not interested in print journalism as their medium. They rather go online using their smart-phones and tablets or watch TV to get their news regardless of how much advertisement is included. In combination with exporting and importing trade, France rank at 61% of its GDP (gross domestic product).

The printing press in France is not as freely as in the United States of America. In the 1980s the French government set a couple of state institutions to regulate all types of media, including print. One of those was the Superior Council of Audio-Visual (SCA) whose duties are to supervise all media publications. In fact, media agencies would need the SCA approval before placing their prints on the market for sale. This would cause competition issues among the rest of similar mediums as well. It sounds like an authoritarian theory where the government decides what to get published and what to get banned from the public. Nonetheless, the daily print of both French and U.S. newspapers are declining due to the migration of the digital era. As far as it goes in the United States, the government can’t play any role on what the media is publishing. Donald Trump wishes to have control over the media at his convenience. He even thought about suspending media licenses if they publish his crooked and lack of epistemology actions. Fox News is one of the most media agencies that share similar ideologies of Donald Trump.

In contrast with print, the French radio industry remains a favorite medium to listen to the news or music. The French audience measurement agency better known as the Médiamétrie, reported in December 2017 that almost 80 percent of teenagers would listen to a radio station at least once a week. I also learned that radio stations in French are less concentrated in the local audience but more interested in national programming, including international news coverage like Paris-based Radio France International that has more than 400 worldwide correspondents in different languages. But nothing compares to the American Central National News (CNN) global media that holds more than 4,000 professionals worldwide working every calendar day 24/7 to bring one of the best news stories in the universe.

Television in France is divided into three categories; one of them is public, which is financed by people’s taxes. So citizen’s money is required in order to transmit television signal. Secondly, private for free, which is financed by advertising companies where they finance TV stations to broadcast their content in exchange for commercial ads during its programming. Lastly, they have a private pay-TV option, where people pay a subscription in order to watch TV. This is similar to the U.S. cable TV system, which is base on a monthly subscription. However, in the United States, people can choose to watch free TV local channels by using a digital antenna, or they can choose to rent cable TV as well.

In contrast with France, in the U.S., there are no restrictions for the internet use, except those websites that violate moral ethics with the porn industry or any other activity that can put people at risk, especially children. Both countries hold a severe punishment to those who send terrorist treats online. Nonetheless, both countries offer freedom of speech to their citizens. The United States and France have a similar chilling effect where the government will jail journalists who presumptively have published a story that discredits people in power (politicians). They will also try to silence those media professionals who are trying to publish a similar story.

In conclusion, the media industry in France is mostly owned by billionaires like Pierre Bergé who died in 2017 and owned French press Le Monde. The French media is controlled mostly by politics and the wealthiest. The system for accountability towards journalists is forbidden. Elite journalists are more political conducted giving opinions instead of presenting supporting facts on their stories. The one thing I don’t like is the media being controlled by government institutions instead of being completely free speech. In contrast with the United States, the press is supposed to be free but the current government wants to turn it into a state-controlled operation.

Sources:
https://medialandscapes.org/country/france
https://www.heritage.org/index/country/france
https://www.cnn.com/about
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2017/france
http://en.rfi.fr/company

Pavlik, John V. Convegring Media, 2018. Print (pg. 323)