The representation of diversity on television deteriorated in 2021, a year marked in particular by a decline in the proportion of people perceived as “non-white”, barely visible in news programs and channels, according to an Arcom report published on Tuesday.
Like its predecessor, the CSA, since 2009, Arcom has studied the programs of 19 channels, free DTT and Canal+, for two weeks, in January and November 2021. This year, all news channels continuously were taken into account, with the analysis of the programs of LCI and franceinfo, in addition to that of BFM and CNews.
Less than 15% of people seen on TV are “non-white”
Result, people seen as “non-white” represent only 14% of the tens of thousands of individuals appeared in the programs viewed, a figure down 2 points compared to 2020 (16%) and “same as 2014 and 2015”deplores the regulator in its report submitted to Parliament.
In particular, the “low proportion” of these people “in the news” and on the news channels continuouslywhere their share stops at 10%, against 15% for generalist channels historical (TF1, France 2, M6…) and 16% for DTT thematic channels (C8, TMC, W9, etc).
Arcom asks news channels to do better
The Arcom therefore “encourages” the news channels to do better, even though BFMTV is the best studentwith a rate of 14%.
In detail and by type of program, the share of people seen as “non-white” rises to 17% in fiction (-1 point compared to 2020) and 19% in entertainment (+1 point), against only 13% in magazines/documentaries and 11% (-3 points) in news programswhere they represent “43% of people with a negative connotation attitude”.
A finding “all the more regrettable” that publishers are required to pay “particular attention” to “French news in newspapers”, in touch with reality, recalls Arcom.
Only 39% of people seen on TV are women, the marginal disability
More generally, television remains a distorting mirror of society. The presence of women there is “stable” at 39% (against 38% in 2020), still far from the 52% of the French population, while representation of disability, which affects around 20% of French people, “remains marginal” at 0.8% (+0.2 point). The study of an additional week during the April confinement also showed that the health crisis had not had a significant impact on these trends.