A closed session on the net
Written by Sarah Missaoui
French public radio stations have started an experiment that is getting all of the media in a tizzy. For a period of five days, starting on Monday, five journalists - Nour-Eddine Zidane from France Inter, Benjamin Muller from France Info, Janic Tremblay from La Première Chaîne de Radio-Canada, Anne-Paul Martin from 1st-RTS (Radio Television Switzerland) and Nicolas Willems from First-RTBF (Radio Télévision Belge Francophone) – cut themselves off from all outside contact. They lived together in a cottage in the Perigord region of France with Facebook and Twitter, the most frequently used social networks in the world, as their only source of information. Despite having no TV, radio or newspapers, the journalists tried to keep abreast with the news.
The goal was to try and keep in touch with current affairs despite being cut off from all official sources of information.
On a daily basis the journalists scoured Facebook and Twitter for news, finding, for example, that Nicolas Sarkozy is absent from social networks, despite regularly featuring in newspaper articles. Social networkers are clearly more interested in celebrities.
Our guinea pigs soon realised that the hierarchy of information is different, as social networkers prefer amusing or anecdotal items. One of them also pointed out that most of the information being written in French was about France, making it difficult for the journalists from Belgium, Switzerland and Canada to find out what was happening in their countries. And, not surprisingly, they found that English was the dominant language on Facebook and Twitter.
Finally, the journalists found social networks cannot be relied on for accuracy; nothing is totally true or totally false. The posts may be partially true but Facebook and Twitter users are not as fussed about research as journalists. No-one can therefore truly rely on these networks for facts.
To conclude, the journalists found that social networks cannot replace traditional media but can instead complement it.
“One provides information, while the other passes it on,” says France Info’s Benjamin Muller.
However, it still remains to be seen whether, like blogs, social networks will eventually become part of the media landscape.
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