The We Are COM team exchanged views with Jacques Attali 🤗 Famous graduate of Polytechnique, ENA and founder of 4 international institutions (Action against Hunger, EUREKA, EBRD et Positive PlanetHe is the author of over 1.000 editorials in L'Express magazine and over 80 books. He is currently a columnist for the newspaper Les Echos.
On the occasion of the publication of his latest book " Media Stories: From Smoke Signals to Social Networks, and Beyond Jacques Attali shares his analyses of the media of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. An exceptional encounter. Club We Are COM to enlighten corporate communicators on the new challenges of advertisers Faced with the constant evolution of the media ecosystem, we're rewinding to take a leap... into the future! 🚀
???? First of all, Jacques Attali, could you give us your definitions of information, communication and entertainment?
Jacques Attali Information is a fact or event that is to be transmitted. Entertainment, on the other hand, allows us to occupy our minds outside of the real world. Examples include literature, theater, cinema, music… Finally, Communication lies in the act of transmitting a message, whether informative or entertaining. It can take various forms, be confined to a private sphere, or address the masses.
Nevertheless, genres are blurring. Information can indeed take on a form of entertainment. And this phenomenon is not new! It actually depends on the willingness of the media or those in power to acquire... hearings ever-expanding. A prince might wish to keep his subjects informed of the kingdom's news; or a merchant might want to attract the attention of potential customers. Once information was no longer reserved solely for the elite, the first advertisements and announcements appeared.
I would say that the world is somehow under the sway of the dictatorship of meansforced to respond to an increasingly large, increasingly rapid and above all, increasingly demanding demand.
(I.e. What does the epic story of the media – of the distribution channels – tell us about the future of the media?
JA The future cannot be envisioned and understood solely by examining the laws of the past. The past teaches us that, on the one hand, there is an ever-increasing demand for access to information to understand the world, to navigate it, to live in it, to be entertained in it, to survive in it by confronting it or by ignoring it. On the other hand, technologies are increasingly present and increasingly global.
In this book I state the following law: a new communication technique invariably stems from a new technique for producing personal messages. Indeed, mail gave rise to the press, the telephone gave rise to radio, photography gave rise to cinema and television, and more recently, email gave rise to online media and the Social Media. Today, the importance of more personal and confidential messages, which I call digital avvisi, is reappearing. Online media are indeed becoming increasingly personalized and individualized, monetized in ways other than simple subscriptions. As a reminder, avvisi, formerly called "gazetta," were the first commercial letters copied by hand and sold in the 15th century. By understanding these past phenomena, we can glimpse the challenges of the present.
It should also be noted that the media have failed to capitalize on new technologies. Indeed, The print media, radio and television, possessing databases, attracting attention and having a good knowledge of the markets, could have been the driving force behind social networksBut new players have taken it over.
Never assume that a current phenomenon is something new.
🤔 Yesterday's merchants were both the media and the media's customers. Today, have brands become media outlets, or should they become so in the context of a cookie-free internet?
JA I would say that brands have always been media. Never assume that a current phenomenon is something new. Many brands have newspapers internalMoreover, the world's best-selling newspaper was launched by a group of American insurance and retirement companies. An association can also become a true media outlet when it champions a widely supported cause. Nowadays, many brands need their own media platforms to disseminate information and establish themselves as authorities. sitesannual reports, sponsoring, right down to internal press groups, more or less visible.
(I.e. « The media have always sought to understand their customers' tastes […] to make the best use of the data they obtain "You write. Thanks to the GDPR, the consent of internet users is required. Is that enough? What strategies will media outlets use to circumvent the GDPR and satisfy advertisers? Can they still control their data?"
JA The GDPR does not constitute a defense strategy in itself since the Internet users click automatically. Today, traditional media no longer control data: it is owned by social networks and cloud providers. From my point of view, the great media battle seems lost, at least for print media. The issue is no longer so much the satisfaction of advertisers as that of readers or viewers. Their challenge is to survive through their customers, not advertising. Currently, only the radio enjoys a very particular model being a very inexpensive medium to produce, often public and in which advertising plays an important role, even if this source of revenue is likely to dry up.
🛠 Lincoln used photography in his election campaign, Roosevelt radio, Kennedy television, Obama social media, Trump Facebook audience segments, and the unfiltered reach of Twitter. Throughout history, what different roles have Europe and the USA played? Are we still operating within this division of roles?
JA Essentially, print media have disappeared from the European and American ecosystem, leaving the field to countries such as Japan, India, or China. The great prosperity of the Western press is now a thing of the past, and this also applies to digital newspapers. We are actually far behind Asia.
Yet it was indeed in the West that it all began; the development of the media unfolded on a country-by-country basis. The Netherlands was the first center of freedom of thought and speech. From the 18th century onward, England took over, followed by the United States, whose independence was partly driven by freedom of the press. The invention of the media, particularly the press, stemmed from this interplay between Great Britain and the United States during the 19th century.rdcentury. Subsequently, the innovations of these two powers would eventually reduce European countries to the status of followers. Finally, Japan would awaken at the end of the 19th century.rdcentury, becoming the dominant nation in print media, because it was very well protected from digital media thanks to a very particular management of subscriptions.
It should be noted that the most important roles were played by countries that defended fundamental freedoms. which are those of thought, expression and of course freedom of the press.
(I.e. 97% of Facebook's revenue comes from advertising (Facebook Ads). To what extent are advertisers complicit in the spread of... fake news and conspiracy theories by financing this click economy?
JA I completely agree. First, I think we shouldn't demonize social media. It is indeed very useful, but today it's so useful that it constitutes a public service, while simultaneously generating fortunes for a few private individuals. This is problematic.
In my opinion, it is becoming essential to establish regulations so that social networks stop being machines that swallow up all innovations. Facebook, for example, has taken over Instagram and WhatsApp.
It is true that by funding Facebook, advertisers are funding a private company that plays a public service role. The question that remains is therefore: will advertisers have the courage to band together to impose a charter for the deployment and control of truth?
However, it is also up to the customers of these new networks to exert pressure. Pressure strong enough to establish robust regulations guaranteeing the preservation of truth and the fight against fraud. fake news
Our freedom of expression cannot depend on the goodwill of a few shareholders.
🤐 Could advertisers be the future regulators, demanding genuine content moderation by social networks? Two current events: the censorship of Trump by media outlets (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), therefore by the private sphere; the threat of the withdrawal of France Soir's status as a news site by the Ministry of Culture, therefore by the public sphere.
JA : We must not forget that advertisers are not in a position to be moral, but we can imagine that they are intelligent enough to understand that their long-term interest leads to content moderation. Indeed, it is inconceivable to replace an arbitrary decision by the president of a social network with an equally arbitrary decision resulting from a secret committee of advertisers.
Regarding the Ministry of Culture's decision concerning France Soir, it depends directly on the application of the law. As for this infamous case of Twitter censoring Trump, in particular, it does indeed concern me. I believe that it is not up to a private individual to make a censorship decision, however justified it may be. Our freedom of expression cannot depend on the goodwill of a few shareholders. Once again, we need to put in place regulations that are as international as possible. And obviously, we are very far from that.
👀 What is your view on press relations, the relationships between journalists and advertisers, and businesses?
JA Journalists are becoming increasingly proletarianized and precarious. In the future, jobs in this profession will almost certainly favor temporary contracts. The distinction between a press professional and a witness to a situation will become increasingly blurred. So, for journalists, isn't it only natural to try new forms of collaboration? The important thing during a "clean-up" is that the reader is informed. It is indeed essential to make paid activities public, and this can and should be done in an atmosphere of general non-suspicion and mutual respect. ; such as the collaborations between healthcare professionals and the pharmaceutical sector are published.
📊 An influencer can earn a much better living than an editor-in-chief of a major newspaper precisely because of their partnerships with brands. What will the new economic models of the media be tomorrow?
JA I would say that a good business model is a digital advisory service, remunerated either by its readership (via subscriptions), or through partnerships with brands and explicitly relying on advertising. A influencer is simply financed by brands, so he is reduced to the status of a sandwich board man, that is to say he becomes a prescriber crushed by advertisers.
Some newspapers manage to thrive thanks to their readership. Take, for example, the Chained DuckThis century-old weekly has managed to remain independent and accessible, without succumbing to the easy lure of advertising. Indeed, a good media outlet is one that is read or watched for the quality of the information it provides. Therefore, it must derive its revenue directly from its readers, not from those who benefit from others receiving this information for free. As for directly compensating journalists through bonuses, points, or tips, I find this somewhat dangerous. It can create both a situation of dependency and a hierarchical difficulty.
The search for truth is the real challenge of tomorrow.
😮 💨 From horses to 5G, by way of carrier pigeons and the telegraph, the race against time is a constant. We have reached immediacy. What will be the next step?
JA One step remains permanent, and it is not the easiest: knowing where the truth lies and knowing how to judge the quality of an article. I dream of an application that could certify items instantly, in the form of fact-checking digital. I refer you to the French initiative Deep Newswhich seeks to assign values of quality and veracity to an article.
In my opinion, the search for truth is the real challenge of tomorrow. 5G doesn't actually bring anything new. Today, we have access to a wide range of digital solutions that simplify writing, such as spell checkers available in multiple languages, or automatic writing tools that allow us to reproduce a particular style. Some articles are written entirely by automated systems, and voices can be fictional or recreated. More recently, we have seen the emergence of holograms that reproduce body language. Soon, 3D will be in our homes. Thanks to it, we will be able to enter reality and easily immerse ourselves in a match, a terrorist attack, or a TV studio from the comfort of our living rooms. Guy Debord Didn't he say: " The truth is but a tiny spark of falsehood "?
🌍 The internet was envisioned as a "global village" with unlimited access to knowledge, information, and so on. Is this a utopia? Is transparency without education simply demagoguery?
JA : If each of us learns and manages to distinguish truth from falsehood, then it is not a utopia. Only pedagogy matters! It is essential to know how to differentiate between the following three concepts: fact, belief, and opinion. This is what is called the epistemology of science, and it must be taught from a very young age.
Of course, all of this is subject to perpetual change; truth does not constitute a definitive value. The fantasy of a "global village" offering unlimited access to knowledge can only be realized if we manage to protect ourselves from the deluge of fake news and lies. To prevent the "global village" from being corrupted, it must become a place of unlimited access to knowledge, not one of unlimited access to possessions and self-knowledge. Increasingly, social networks are becoming such as internal narcissistic expression, but access to knowledge does not come through the frantic search for approval or accumulation.
To give you a more concrete example, let's consider the debate surrounding bookstores during lockdown. At home, we have many books waiting to be read. However, we continue to buy books. Why? In reality, all of this is based on the universal and human fear of death. Not having read everything is, unconsciously, a way of delaying the inevitable. This brings us back to the idea of entertainment, a way of escaping our own fear of death. Humans do everything they can to avoid confronting it, understanding it, or preparing for it. This is why places of information tend to become places of entertainment, in the Pascalian sense of the term.
