LAB 9 of the World Forum for Democracy, held on 7 November 2019 under the sponsorship of the Congress, addressed a crucial issue for democracy: the future of local and regional journalism. The deterioration in recent years of the conditions in which local journalists operate has affected public trust in the media as well as in the democratic process. Only alliances between professional journalism and citizen engagement seem to open up innovative prospects.
The two initiatives presented during the LAB – “Médiacités”, which involves its readers in conducting investigations, and the newspaper “Le Drenche”, which seeks to help citizens to form their own opinions about topical issues, in particular through opposing opinion forums – are based on the recognition of the woeful situation of the local media at present. The founder of Médiacités, Jacques Trentesaux, former journalist at the French newsmagazine “L’Express”, sounded the alarm: “over the past 10 years in France, employment in local and regional media has declined by 12.5%, 108 local news outlets have closed and the political pluralism of the local media has fallen by 50%.”
However, this situation does not only concern France. Jean-Paul Bastin, elective representative from a small town in Belgium far from Brussels, said that over the last 15 years he had seen the situation of the journalists who followed the work of municipal councils become increasingly insecure: they are poorly paid and do not have enough time or proper training to be able to address the complexity of the relevant debates, which is leading to a lowering of standards in terms of transmitting the issues of local politics to the public. The analysis was harsher still in some regions of the United Kingdom, which Andrew Dawson, local councillor in Chester and Congress Thematic Spokesperson on Promoting Public Ethics, said have become media deserts. As a victim of slanderous claims on social media, he had to set up his own blog to “explain the truth” to people. In fact, social media are becoming increasingly important as sources of information, but they are prey to fake news, hate speech and various forms of community-based isolationism. What solutions could therefore be considered to renew public debate based on reliable information?
The approach of the newspaper “Le Drenche”, founded by Florent Guignard, who was educated as an engineer, offers an interesting method to get people out of the filter bubbles created by social media algorithms. The newspaper offers its readers a three-stage process, with information about the relevant context followed by two opposing opinion forums written by individuals who can talk legitimately about the subject (representatives of associations, politicians, experts) and then tools for finding out more and for deeper citizen engagement. With an editorial committee of 350 committed readers, the newspaper therefore guarantees independence of content unaffected by its revenue sources, which mainly come from advertising. Through its partnership with the regional newspaper “Ouest-France” and free distribution of its print edition in universities, Le Drenche succeeds in reaching “dormant” groups and turning them into committed and well-informed readers.
Based in four major metropolitan areas in France (Toulouse, Lille, Lyon and Nantes), Médiacités also uses ordinary citizens as whistleblowers and sources for investigative reports concerning local and regional politics. “Our site tries to make up for the cruel lack of investigative journalism at local level,” said Jacques Trentesaux. “Political decentralisation in France has not come with decentralisation of the media, although the budgets managed at local and regional levels have increased, leading to greater opportunities for wrongdoing.” Like Florent Guignard, Jacques Trentesaux nevertheless said that all-out citizen journalism is not the solution and that people do not just suddenly become journalists, which means there is a need to involve the public in the efforts of real professionals.
Accordingly, the “Journalist for a Day” project presented by Elsa Schalck, Vice-President of the Grand-Est Region (France), enables pupils from senior secondary schools in the region to find out what the work of journalists involves by becoming reporters for a day. In partnership with local newspapers (DNA and L’Alsace), the project raises young people’s awareness of the need to look for information outside social media. This project to provide training in deciphering information is also supported by the “Month of the Other” initiative launched by the region following the desecration of graves in 2004.
Lastly, the LAB gained useful insights from the website “Avant-Garde Algérie”, founded by journalist and activist Meziane Abane. Its success demonstrates that even in situations where press freedom is limited, a large audience still exists for information serving the interests of citizens. There remains the question of what new business models local media could use to guarantee their independence, given that advertising can be influenced by the defence of private interests that diverge from those of the public. According to Jean-Paul Bastin, one approach that should be followed without delay would be to “start by taxing and raising contributions from GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon), which make big profits without contributing to the financial well-being of our fellow citizens”. Following a lively debate with the public, the moderator, Raphaël Comte, a Swiss member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, concluded by hoping that journalists and the public would move forward together through this period of transformation of the profession.
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