I am talking to you about a time that those under twenty cannot know. A time when we discovered the latest developments in the news not in real time, but… the next day.
At that time, we would open the newspaper in the morning and read the news as if it were the last chapter of a novel we had been immersed in all our lives. So we had the whole story and all the characters in our heads, and we would simply discover the most recent twists and turns.
Journalistic texts at the time were written according to this daily and linear reading: they took it for granted that readers held all the keys to understanding, and were content with new facts, without much contextualization.
But since the rise of the Internet and the cell phone, I’m not telling you anything new here, information is live, and it’s everywhere, all the time. No need to go looking for the news on the doormat, it comes to you, in multiple ways.
This means that many more citizens are much better informed.
But here’s the thing: the corollary of this evolution is that many people have a cross-hatched information ritual. They flit from one news item, one network and one platform to another. They move from one status to another, from one issue to another, from a war to great misery, via the latest celebrity news.
People see much, much more information than before, but in a more fragmented way: a headline on the video display in the subway, a notification on their cell phone, a piece of news on the radio, a newsletter in their emails, a few minutes spent on the mobile app The Pressetc.
That’s fine, everyone has their own way of navigating a sea of information.
But this atomization of the information ritual is not without consequences: a growing proportion of citizens are struggling to keep up with current events, are feeling increasingly left behind by the news, and are thus choosing to lose interest in it.
Because the media, according to them, do not help them enough to understand what is happening.
This is one of the most powerful revelations that researchers have made in recent years, in my opinion.
“A significant proportion of young people and those with less education say they avoid news because it is difficult to follow or understand, suggesting that news media could do much more to simplify language and better explain or contextualize complex stories,” the report read. Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute of 2022*.
With good reason. A casual reader who reads that Kenyan police are trying to put down “BBQ” and Haitian gangs in Port-au-Prince will not understand anything. Nor will he be able to appreciate the importance of the appointment of a relatively unknown man to the Élysée if he does not know that France was without a government for 50 days.
This is how it is, The Pressthat we have accelerated changes already underway. Journalists are adding even more context to their texts. We often preface them with highlights (What you need to know), a context box (The story so far) or essential information (Who is such person).
We also add information boxes as needed when we write about a lesser-known concept (Pierre Poilievre’s motion of censure last Thursday, for example). We multiply the analyses, the chronicles, the decryptions and the texts in question/answer format.
And seeing the reading rates of this explanatory content, you greatly appreciate this type of content.
And to all this, this fall, we are adding a new section in LaPresse+ as well as a newsletter: “Understanding”.
Subscribe to the “Understanding” newsletter
Every Monday starting tomorrow, the Comprendre section will republish texts that explain important issues, answer essential questions and give readers the essential keys to following current events… without feeling left behind.
Tomorrow we will find content that will help us better understand what a “mobile nurse” is, for example, while the conflict between the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) and the government continues. We will also explain why 7,000 students wait every morning for a yellow bus that does not come.
“It’s an essential stopover to catch your breath in the whirlwind of current events,” as Isabelle Audet and Alexandre Vigneault, who are leading the project, explain.
The goal is to better meet the needs of readers, your needs, all of you. Because quite frankly, no matter whether you are an occasional or avid reader, you can never be too much accompanied in his information ritual.
* In France, for example, 11% of under-35s have difficulty following the news. It’s 15% in the United States.
Read the Digital News Report 2022
Write to Francis Cardinal
Next Sunday: Active Avoidance