If the trend continues, Professor Mireille Lalancette will certainly watch the very special edition of Everybody talks about it (TLMEP) broadcast Sunday evening on ICI Radio-Canada Télé. It will be the 500e talk show broadcast imported in 2004 from France, where it has no longer existed since 2006. The Quebec facsimile quickly became and remained an essential part of the sociomedia life of French-speaking Quebec. A sort of cathodic high mass…
“I especially watch the show when politicians are on it,” says the professor. I find that production has improved by moving away from the initial French model to concentrate on social issues. It gives participants the opportunity to express themselves on recent political issues, to take stock, to express their opinion, their perspective. »
She cites the concrete example of the recent visit of France Bélisle, resigned mayor of Gatineau, who came to expose her put under critical pressure. “She was very calm, very calm,” said the university teleobserver. The mayor was able to explain her situation and lift the veil on what led to her decision. […] This show becomes a must-see for politicians, especially during election periods. All those who refused to go, especially those from the Conservative Party, were blamed for it. It’s a bit like telling Quebecers that they are not important. Bouder TLMEP demonstrates a sort of snobbery in relation to the electorate who expect participation. »
Television, which appeared in Canada in 1952, quickly occupied a central and unifying place in society. Great popular hits like La petite vie, Les Bougons, Lance etcompte, Passe-Partout And Beautiful Sundays (from September 1966 to August 2004, in the Sunday evening slot) held up a distorting mirror to the French-speaking community and helped to crystallize strong symbolic images of national identity. TLMEP is now part of the rare group of local TV classics, although with an added influence due to the attention paid to the political issues of the day.
Info + entertainment
Mireille Lalancette teaches at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières. She is affiliated with the Political Communication Research Group and the Center for the Study of Democratic Citizenship. She is also one of the rare specialists on the subject of information processing by entertainment media productions, “infotainment”, for short.
The show Infoman (created in 2000) belongs to this niche, very popular here as elsewhere. The day (is still young)broadcast on ICI Radio-Canada Première, also stands out as a specialty of the public broadcaster.
“In this term, “infotainment”, it is still a question of information, says Mme Lalancette. Politicians who go to TLMEP have a much better chance of being listened to than if they spend 10 seconds on TVA. They go there to show another side of themselves. They go there to show their ability to react to jokes on set, to show that they are not stuck while speaking seriously about political issues. »
TLMEP is fueled by stars. We only meet the 1% of the Union of Artists who came to “plot” a show, a book, a show. Véronique Cloutier, a large part of whose career is based on the media coverage of stars and starlets, was the very first guest of the first season and has returned 14 times since. She will be there again this weekend, with the tip of the pyramid of the national star system.
Visiting politicians also belong to the crème de la crème. Professor Lalancette, however, makes a difference between pipolisation (or stardom) and the personalization of politics. The first leads to the often involuntary display of the private lives of elected officials or leaders, on the model of gossip about royal families. The process at work on Sunday evening focuses instead on the personality of the politicians from a speech to the “I”, without the wooden language.
This way of doing things based on the authenticity of the person rather than on the facade of the character served the late Jack Layton well during the 2011 electoral campaign. The leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) delivered a sympathetic performance when he came to speak of his cancer in early April. His party more than doubled its score and the orange wave swept Quebec in the elections five weeks later.
“There was a TLMEP effect, but it must be put into perspective,” adds the professor, recalling that the popularity of the NDP increased before and after Mr. Layton’s personalized appearance, including thanks to his good performance in the debate. leaders. During the 500e, which will be broadcast on Sunday, we will hear Justin Trudeau talk about his parents’ divorce as a significant event in his life and the recent breakup of his relationship. “The essence of this show is to ask questions that others do not dare to ask,” summarizes the expert.
A good dinner
She also knows how to receive confidences and delicate remarks with kindness. In any case, the Quebec version of TLMEP no longer reproduces the stupid dinner of the original model (the creator Thierry Ardisson is from the anniversary show), adopted in a diet version for a few years here too, as the man knows too well of TV Guy Fournier, who scatologically paid the price. TLMEP also does not indulge in the excesses of opposition and populism observable in Do not touch My TV ! (another Franco-French production, launched in 2010), which revolves around a group of regular columnists and guests placed on the grill.
“At TLMEP, we still feel a great respect for the guests, especially for the politicians,” says M.me Lalancette. They would be idiots not to take advantage of the public and the platform, and it is in fact to take advantage of it that they go there. This is not a place where you’re going to get skinned. In Quebec, we don’t really like chicanery. We like harmony, we like consensus, while accepting not to agree with each other. »
In France, infotainment is sometimes criticized because it contributes to a “lowering of politics”. We understand that Mireille Lalancette believes rather that the national version of TLMEP succeeds in reframing the treatment of politics to distinguish itself from the traditional forms developed for decades by journalists. Not all media invitations are equal in a political career, and the infotainment spectacle of this cathodic high mass has its place, according to the specialist, in the communication system useful to society and debates.
“I think we have to accept this infotainment show as it is,” concludes the professor. What interests me is to watch what TLMEP or other shows like Infoman can do for politicians. And if it’s a spark plug to go further later, as in some cases digital social media can be, why not? »