Origins, social background, age, disability: television still shows a monochromatic France

Since 2009, the Audiovisual and Digital Communications Regulatory Authority (formerly CSA) reports annually to the French Parliament on a “barometer of the representation of French society”. This allows you to take stock and measure the trend (or regression) of the image of society reflected by our screens.

For 2021 the numbers are eloquent: television programs above all a France of city centers, white, able-bodied, and of high socio-professional category.

Inconspicuous diversity

On the issue of social race, the report indicates that people perceived as non-white were seen less on television in 2021 than in 2020: their presence decreased by 2%, from 16 to 14 more exactly. On non-stop news channels they represent 10% people indexed.

This under-visibility in certain contexts is accompanied by hyper-visibility in others: in the news, 43% of people with a negative attitude in the news they are seen as “non-white”.

The representation of disability is extremely low: 0.8% of all indexed individuals have a disability. After calling these results ” particularly disappointing “, The report analyzes:

“The human resources policies of audiovisual media companies, increasingly favorable to the inclusion of people with disabilities in their companies, can’t find their counterpart on the screen. “

The dominance of city centers and CSP +

The report continues on the representation of the French territories and their inhabitants. In 2021, we mainly see city center residents (65%) on television. Villagers represent only 13% of the images (three points less than the previous year), e those in the suburbs, 4%.

As for the French from overseas territories, in this first year since the end of the France Ô channel, represent only 3% of the total number of people indexed, up from 10% in 2019 and 2020.

Furthermore, the visible socio-professional categories are far from being a reflection of society. Those called superiors (managers, company executives, higher intellectual professions, intermediate professions, etc.) are accounted for 75% while they make up about 29% of the general population. CSP- are represented up to 10%and the inactive a 15%.

Women over 50 do not exist

Not only that: age is also a vector of invisibility, or at least it is for women. At the house of those over 50 shown on our screens represent only 28% against 39% overall attendance, all ages put together.

To change this distorted mirror that is television, Arcom encourages non-stop news channels to do so “ better understand the challenges of an equitable representation of French society in its diversity “It also calls on all program editors to make greater commitments in terms of age, disability or socio-professional status … And keep them.

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