Representation of diversity

Arcom's mission is to contribute to social cohesion and the fight against discrimination in the field of audiovisual communication (cf: Law of March 31, 2006 for equal opportunity, resulting from article 3-1 of the law of September 30, 1986, relating to freedom of communication).

As such, Arcom is responsible for working with broadcasters to ensure that their programming reflects the diversity of French society.

Each year, Arcom is required to report to Parliament on publishers' actions to ensure that programming reflects the diversity of French society, and to propose appropriate measures to improve the representation of diversity in all programme types.

Subsequently, the law gave Arcom the mission of ensuring "[...] that the diversity of French society is represented in the programs of audiovisual communication services and that this representation is free from prejudice." (cf: law n°2017-86 of January 27, 2017 on equality and citizenship).

All "providers of audiovisual communication" are covered by the 1986 law, so both television and radio are covered by the legal provision.

After browsing through the channels, Arcom adopted a resolution aimed at promoting the representation of diversity in French society in the programming of free national terrestrial channels and Canal+. This deliberation sets out the managerial commitments to be made by each editor to Arcom, as well as the monitoring procedures to be carried out by Arcom.

The text was amended, by decision of the full college dated September 16, 2015, to include radio stations wishing to submit to it. As a result, any radio provider who agrees to do so will be subject to the deliberation. An amendment to their agreement will be required to give conventional value to the annual undertaking.

On February 11, 2014, a charter was signed at Arcom to promote the training and professional integration of disabled people in the audiovisual industry. The charter was signed by Marie-Arlette Carlotti, Minister Delegate in charge of Disabled People and the Fight against Exclusion, Olivier Schrameck, former Chairman of the French Superior Audiovisual Council, numerous audiovisuel professionals, heads of journalism and film schools as well as associations.

Even before the law supplied Arcom with the power to oversee social cohesion in the field of audiovisual communication, the Authority had already taken initiatives in this direction.

As early as 1999, Arcom commissioned its first quantitative study on the perception of the diversity of French society on television.

In 2001, it included in the agreements of each private television channel a commitment to take into account the diversity of origins and cultures of the national community on air.

On March 11, 2008, the Diversity Observatory was created. Its aim was to monitor the actions taken by TV channels to promote diversity in the broadest sense (origin, socio-professional category, gender, disability, etc.). In 2008, Arcom also commissioned a survey of free-to-air DTT channels and Canal+.

2009 saw the creation of the Diversity Barometer, and the adoption of a resolution on November 10 to introduce annual commitments from channels.

Every year since 2010, Arcom has submitted a report to Parliament on the representation of diversity on television, including recommendations for improving the situation.

Commitments set out in the amended deliberation of November 10, 2009

As each broadcaster has its own specificities in terms of programming, the deliberation enables each to commit to increasing its performance in areas where it is lacking. The sum of these commitments should lead to an overall movement towards better representation of diversity on screens. Arcom has sent private broadcasters amendments to their agreements, making provision for annual commitments.

On-air commitments and off-air initiatives

The commitments made by the channels are of several kinds.

Some, of course, relate to the results of the barometer and therefore concern the programs they show: some channels have adopted a professional ethics charter that includes a provision on the representation of diversity in programming, while another has set up its own Diversity Observatory.

Other commitments also take into account awareness-raising initiatives and the channels' internal organization.

The Radio France group's radio stations are required to implement a number of actions that are made provision for in their mission statement:

" The company participates in actions to promote social cohesion and fight agains discrimination.

It takes into account, in its on-air representation, the diversity of origins and cultures of the national community.

It ensures that its programs provide the most realistic image possible of French society in all its diversity.

It also pays particular attention to the on-air treatment of different segments of the population.

In general, it promotes the values of a shared culture and civic-mindedness ".

This provision of the specifications essentially reproduces the text of article 3-1 of the law of September 30, 1986.

It gives Radio France the mission of expressing the diversity of French society in its broadest sense, through the programs it broadcasts.

Private radio operators' agreements contain no provisions requiring them to take into account the diversity of French society on air.

The only existing provisions concern ethical aspects, notably requiring broadcasters to ensure that their programs "do not encourage discriminatory behavior towards people because of their origin, sex, family situation, physical appearance, surname, state of health, disability, their genetic characteristics, their morals, their sexual orientation, their age, their political opinions, their trade union activities, their membership or non-membership, real or assumed, of a particular ethnic group, nation, race or religion " and " to promote the values of integration and solidarity which are those of the Republic. "

An initial study was carried out in 2010 to assess the possibility of transposing the diversity barometer to radio. In addition to the hetero-designation method, which corresponds to the perception of on-air speakers by a third-party indexer, several hypotheses were examined. However, the Observatory came to the conclusion that, apart from the gender criterion, the diversity barometer cannot currently be transposed to radio, notably due to the complexity of analyzing data relating to origin, socio-professional categories and disability.

To raise awareness raising in the radio world of the need to better represent the diversity of French society on air, Arcom has included a stipulation on the epresentation of French society in the new agreements with private operators Europe 1, RMC and RTL. This stipulation requires these three radio operators to report annually to Arcom on actions taken to promote diversity.

Finally, by decision of the plenary college on September 16, 2015, Arcom amended its deliberation of November 10, 2009, to include radio stations wishing to comply. As a result, any radio provider who agrees to do so will be subject to the deliberation. A modification of their agreement will be necessary to give conventional value to the annual commitment.

The Observatoire de l'égalité, de l'éducation et de la cohésion sociale is a new body for reflection on social cohesion issues created in January 2020. It comprises some thirty members appointed by Arcom, from a variety of backgrounds and with diverse skills. It will meet every two months for a half-day working session under the chairmanship of Councillor Carole Bienaimé-Besse, in charge of the "Education, public protection and social cohesion" working group.

The aim of this new body is to address issues relating to diversity,media literacy, women's rights andequality in the broadest sense of the term in the audiovisual media. It may be called upon to formulate concrete proposals for action, and to take part in awareness-raising initiatives with the audiovisuel world on these issues.

The new observatory has been summonsed to achieve a number of key objectives:

• Identify the challenges for equality and social cohesion in the digital age;
• Contribute to the development of public information on the use of screens, and to the deployment of operations and "resource" documents for media and information literacy;
• Understand new needs in terms of representation of diversity, for example, developing a methodology for integrating a criterion relating to sexual orientation into the 2020 diversity barometer;
• Consider gender equality from a cross-sectional perspective;
• Monitor the audiovisual media's consideration of the challenges that the Paris 2024 Games entail in terms of social cohesion;
• Reflecting on the means to resolve the challenges of making media and the quality of content accessible to people with visual or hearing disabilities: the Observatory will work with the Mobile Media Forum to advance the subject of connected television, the accessibility of on-demand audiovisual media services (ADMS) and digital services to people with visual or hearing disabilities. It will also help assess the quality of subtitling, audiodescription and French Sign Language (French Sign Language) in conjunction with associations and broadcasters;
• Contribute to the enrichment of the interactive platform to be set up by Arcom as part of the best practices set out in the charter on the representation of disability and disabled people.

The members

• Jérémie BOROY, President of the CNCPH ;
• Pascale COLISSON, Head of Teaching at the Institut Pratique du Journalisme, Paris-Dauphine University;
• Éric MOLINIÉ, General Secretary of Dalkia, former Chairman of the HALDE;
• Patrick SIMON, Director of Research at Ined ;
• Francis PEREZ, President of the Culture Commission of the Confédération Française pour la Promotion Sociale des Aveugles ou Amblyopes;
• Mehdi DERFOUFI, Doctor of Film Studies;
• Benjamin STORA, President of the Orientation Council - Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration;
• Rachel GARRAT, Co-President of the Association des journalistes lesbiennes, gays, bi.e.s et trans (AJL);
• Paul de SINETY, Délégué général de la Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France;
• Agnès CHAUVEAU, Director of diffusion and innovation, INA;
• Jean-Claude LESCURE, Professor of journalism, Director of the Gennevilliers School of Journalism;
• Olivier HOUDÉ, Administrator of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Professor La Psy Dé CNRS ;
• Carina CHATAIN, Head of digital literacy at the French national data protection agency;
• Divina FRAU-MEIGS, President Défi 8 ANR, President Savoir*Devenir - Chaire UNESCO Savoir Devenir à l'ère du développement numérique durable - Porteuse des projets ANR TRANSLIT, CIP ECO, ERASMUS+ ECFOLI, UNESCO radicalisation, Membre du groupe d'experts de haut niveau sur les fakenews à la Commission Européenne ;
• Serge BARBET, Deputy Director of Clémi;
• Romain BADOUARD, Senior Lecturer at the University of Cergy-Pontoise;
• Salwa TOKO, President, Conseil national du numérique ;
• Jean-Paul CLUZEL, Former Director of the Paris Opera, former Chairman of Radio France Internationale and Radio France, former Chairman of the Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées;
• Mercedes ERRA, President of Havas Worldwide and founder of BETC;
• Brigitte GRESY, President of the French High Council for Equality between Women and Men;
• Marlène COULOMB-GULLY, Researcher, Member of the French High Council for Equality between Women and Men;
• Nicole ABAR, Soccer player ;
• Léonora MIANO, Writer ;
• Laurence EQUILBEY, Conductor;
• Tatiana JAMA, Member of the Conseil national du numérique ;
• Eva DARLAN, Actress, producer and director;
• Bouchera AZZOUZ, Member of the INA Board of Directors, Author/director/Founding President of Ateliers du Féminisme Populaire;
• Astrid GUYART, French Olympic fencer;
• George PAU-LANGEVIN, Deputy Rights Defender in charge of fighting discrimination and promoting equality.

Arcom set up the Diversity Observatory on March 11, 2008 to monitor the actions taken by TV channels and radio stations to promote diversity in French society and fight discrimination.

Chaired by Carole Bienaimé Besse, the Observatory provides a forum for reflection on possible ways of improving diversity in television and radio, and guides Arcom in its actions by formulating concrete proposals and carrying out awareness-raising initiatives with the audiovisuel world.

In July 2014, Arcom created an "Education & Media" Observatory to enrich, from a participatory angle, the work of its "Audiovisual and Education" working group.

The Observatory brings together people with diverse and complementary skills: media and communication professionals, institutional partners, audiovisual specialists and students. The Observatory provides a forum for reflection on strengthening the links between education and the media. As an operational body, it supports Arcom in its action by formulating concrete proposals and by associating itself with the orientations of the "Social Cohesion" working group with respect to the audiovisuel world and, in particular, the public.

Since its creation in early 2013, Arcom's "Women's Rights" working group has undertaken numerous actions to improve the representation of women on audiovisual communication services.

Browse Arcom's studies and actions on women's rights.

The overall methodology of the barometer was agreed with the channels, and consists in indexing, in each program, the people who speak on air as well as extras[2], whatever the duration of this appearance and speaking time. The barometer is based on the observation of two weeks of programs, at peak times (5pm-11pm, plus 1pm news broadcasts), on 17 free-to-air DTT channels as well as Canal+.

Arcom has implemented a weighting principle that takes into account program length (more or less than 5 minutes) and the roles, according to their importance, of the indexed individuals (heroes, main characters, secondary characters and extras). The role of the speaker ("positive", "negative" or "neutral") has also been indexed in the barometer since 2013.

Over 40,000 individuals are indexed, excluding advertising, in each wave of the barometer.

>> Browse all annual barometer results

>> Browse Arcom's latest Diversity Barometer: "Results of the 2018 wave of the Diversity Barometer".

>> Every year Arcom submits a report to Parliament on the representation of diversity of French society on television, based in particular on the results of the barometer.

[1] Order of July 20, 1992 on periodic health examinations.

[2] Extras have only been indexed since 2015. For cost reasons, they will only be indexed every two years.