We like to gripe about news coverage here at ODTAA – particularly the kind of horse-race-and-poll-fixated news coverage that so often passes for Canadian (and American) political analysis.
Turns out that’s a problem over in Europe as well. Dominique Wolton, writing in Le Monde, argues that democracy is impossible without real political communication – and that the news media are falling down in that function, most recently with the referendum on the European constitution.
En r?©alit?©, les m?©dias sont le moteur de la communication politique, mais ?† deux conditions. D’abord ?©viter d’?™tre trop li?©s aux ?©lites et conserver la fonction de m?©diation entre les diff?©rents milieux de la soci?©t?©. Ils doivent refl?©ter l’h?©t?©rog?©n?©it?© de celle-ci. C’est leur r?¥le d?©mocratique. D’autant qu’en haut les dirigeants n’ont souvent plus de rapports avec la r?©alit?© et n’y acc?®dent qu’?† travers les m?©dias. Si les m?©dias ne refl?®tent pas mieux la diversit?©, le risque d’incommunication augmente. Et le nombre de supports ne suffit pas ?† rendre plus transparente et compr?©hensible la soci?©t?©, car tous parlent de la m?™me chose, au m?™me moment. Pas assez ouverts, pas assez pluralistes, trop conformistes. L’espace m?©diatique ne transcrit pas assez l’h?©t?©rog?©n?©it?© culturelle et sociale. Ensuite, les m?©dias doivent ?©viter de devenir simples commentateurs de sondages. Il y a trop de sondages command?©s ou comment?©s. On serait effar?©, tous m?©dias confondus, de voir sur une seule journ?©e le nombre d’informations qui se r?©duisent ?† un commentaire de sondage.
The gist of that passage is that the news media can drive genuine political communication, provided they do two things.
One, they have to reflect the true diversity of public opinion, instead of simply becoming the mouthpiece for elite consensus. And two, they must avoid the trap of focusing on opinion polls to the exclusion of all else. And in both cases, they failed.
Meanwhile Netpolitique, a French blog focusing on the intersection of politics and the Internet, points out that the article misses a key element: the role of online discussion, especially blogs, in fostering exactly that kind of diversity. (They also have a handy English-language summary of the role blogs and the Net played in the campaign.)
