“You don’t think that the news on TV is reliable, much less so than the radio or the newspapers. And of all TV channels, TF1 is the least reliable. On the other hand, you almost never listen to the radio, don’t read newspapers, and get most of your news from… TF1 », says Nicolas Duvernois in his article How to Tell if you’re French on The Metaverse website.

What is your opinion about the French media?

True, many French people criticize the 1.00 p.m. news on TF1 TV channel with Jean-Pierre Pernault journalist since most reports deal with the country France. You may discover how the wine producers sell their best wines in the Alsace region or how the first skis were made in the Savoie region at the end of the 19^th century. The other national and international topics about politics, economics, health, education, the environment come first, but all the reports last only a few minutes without any deep analysis or debates. So, you may feel like you are watching a TV documentary about the country France instead of learning everything about the swine flu.

In Lyon, we have the equivalent with France 3 TV channel, except that the news is divided into two parts. There is a clear cut between the national, international news and the local ones. You can watch the news item, the international and national news and the documentaries about the Rhone-Alps region. Many people living in Lyon watch the local news on France 3 at 7.30 p.m. before the national and international news on TF1 or France 2 at 8.00 p.m. Some even prefer to watch the news on France 3 from 7.00 to 8.00 p.m, and then the news on TF1 or France 2. They think that they need both programs to be sure they get more reliable information. For those who want to watch only local information about Lyon region, they can watch the local TV programs on TLM TV channel.

In addition, they can listen to the radio programs on national radios that broadcast music, entertainment and news. The well-known radios are RTL, RMC, France Info, France Inter and France Culture. The former are more popular whereas cultivated people would rather listen to France Inter and France Culture radios.

In Lyon, some radios broadcast jazz music like Fréquence Jazz or classic music like Radio Classique, Arab radios like Radio Orient… but none of them have English-speaking radio programs.

Saying that the French do not listen to the radio is wrong, but they usually listen to music programs on NRJ, RTL2 and Radio Nostalgie. Only a few people will be interested in quality programs. They can listen to France Inter, though it is said to be rather left-wing, or they may prefer France Culture which is undoubtedly the best one in France.

Moreover, the French do not read as many newspapers as the British do. Some people read local papers like the Progrès in Lyon, but others prefer the left-wing national papers like Le Monde or the right-wing ones like the Figaro.

Today, there are other local magazines about Lyon such as Lyon Mag, Lyon People, Lyon Poche about the cultural life in Lyon (cinema, music, theater…), Tribune de Lyon about Metropolitan Lyon and some free magazines such as Metro Lyon or Lyonplus.

So, the French have a dream that one day they will be able to read or listen to high quality news, reports or videos. Unfortunately, they think they have not much time. For that reason, they usually satisfy themselves with TF1 news. Reading newspapers is not part of their cultural habits. They do not trust in the journalists as they do not want to be influenced by the French media.