On the roads, in museums, near institutional buildings… Environmental activists are appearing more and more in the media. Resigned, revolted and committed, their limits are increasingly blurred because to convince the decision-makers to move the lines, it is first necessary to be noticed. And if the months of marches for the climate were not enough, some have decided to take it up a notch. To understand their motivations for sometimes putting themselves in danger to “save the planet” in the face of climate inaction, Correspondent followed three of them in a report broadcast this Thursday evening on France 2.
“We wanted to understand what drives them to do this because often in news reports, we don’t hear their arguments”, explains Romain Boutilly, the director of the report, to 20 minutes. “All call themselves ordinary citizens, not activists or militants. […] They are often young people who are aware that it is necessary to disrupt, shock, sabotage and use the media to make themselves heard. »
That a media leaves them a platform of more than twenty minutes at one hour of broad diffusion is it not therefore falling into a “trap” tended by these activists? The director above all evokes an “update” of the way of approaching the subject, coupled with a step aside. While news programs and newspapers are often content to deal with the facts and the possible inconvenience they cause, this report comes several months after the wave of actions at the start of the school year. “We can no longer talk about the climate by pointing the finger at radical environmentalists or by saying: ‘It’s great it’s hot.’ »
The media game
“They were called either extremists or naive during actions in museums where they covered paintings with soup, but I think they simply understood the rules of the media game”, analyzes for 20 minutes press and media historian Alexis Lévrier. He observes that despite the warnings of scientists, environmental issues are still struggling to interest the general public.
It was without counting on the summer of 2022 in France, its forest fires and its intense heat. “These events were extreme but rather classic for the summer and this is the type of subject that we traditionally find in the mainstream media at this time and after that, we no longer talk about it”, deplores Anne-Lise Vernières, co – president of the group Climate Quota, questioning the media on their treatment of the ecological crisis. “The subject is treated continuously by associations and political figures mobilized on the subject. All this remains in a very restricted social niche. To reach society in general, we have to go through the mainstream media, except that they select interventions on a media agenda that is not necessarily focused on ecological issues…”
She believes that thanks to the actions of civil disobedience, the subject was able to continue beyond the summer. “At this stage, unless there is a political announcement on the subject, there are no other actions that have mobilized journalists so much,” she rejoices. The successive blockages of the Tour de France, the intrusion on a court during Roland-Garros are all examples that remain in mind. Until sometimes leading to invitations on the sets. But benevolence is rare in these cases according to Quota Climat who cites the example of Sasha, environmental activist from Last Renovation, interviewed by Apolline de Malherbe on BFM TV in June 2022.
Radicality put to the test by criticism
According to Alexis Lévrier, there is a “telegenics of violence” which imposes using it to be filmed and to be heard, mainly on continuous television channels. “There is a very visible Bolloré model on C8 or CNews, which works on clashes and therefore violent actions and which hardly leaves room for anything else. This model is also at work during debates or interviews. Taken up by other news channels, the media focus on violence fuels media schizophrenia. The media shows violence, and therefore indirectly encourages it, and then criticizes it.
The use of radical methods also has its counter-productive aspects according to Quota Climat. “In the mainstream media, we will treat them with negative terms, with critical analysis on set. We observe a tendency to radicalize environmental action and to put these activists in the box of very politicized, radical people, who disturb when they are not necessarily politicized ”, points out Anne-Lise Vernières. According to her, this type of treatment encourages a hatred of these activists by part of the population. “It creates a divide, a friction in society. »
Correspondent takes the gamble of dealing with the subject against the grain. “Our interest is not to relay video to make the buzz but to understand why they in particular are committed to this point, details Romain Boutilly. The novelty is that they have perfectly understood that the general public must identify with them so they play the game of communication and the media and it is a little different than the reapers of GMOs or the activists of Greenpeace “, notes the journalist who has already worked on subjects concerning climate activists.
The influence of “show television”
Questioning the media is not new, says Alexis Lévrier. “We can blame them for everything, but they have a great capacity for introspection and self-analysis. This will be the case ten days after the Chernobyl nuclear incident in 1986. While the authorities believe that the French population is at no risk, newspapers return to previous publications. May 12, Release title “The Nuclear Lie”. On climate issues, many newsrooms have recently adopted specifications for a treatment commensurate with the challenge after the summer of 2022.
“The real question is, do these investigative shows like Correspondent would have organized long reports on non-violent actions? They are rigorous programs but are they themselves influenced by this television spectacle? asks Alexis Lévrier.
No doubt for Romain Boutilly, “ecological and environmental activism will be a major theme in the media” in the years to come. All the more reason, according to him, for “not to caricature them”.