“Media education is fundamental”: a Tour de France to understand how information is produced

Clermont-Ferrand hosted for the first time this Wednesday, April 1, the Academic Tour de France for media and information education and digital citizenship. It has been organized since 2022 by France Télévisions in partnership with the Ministry of National Education and CLEMI (Center for Media and Information Education). HAS

“Building reliable information in the post-truth era†is the theme of this day. It’s about knowing how the media work and, above all, how information is produced. Anaïs Delcourt, teacher in economics and management at Lycée Sidoine Apollinaire, explains: “We need to have reliable information. Finally, when we cross-reference our information with that of the students, we realize that there are sometimes small disagreements. It is interesting to see how they get their information, to teach them to simply check their sources†.

The use of artificial intelligence is shaking up our vision of the world, sometimes even transforming it through algorithms. Michael Lainé, lecturer in economics at the University of Paris 8, insists: “There is a first logic which reassures us in our opinions when we have them, to the point of locking us in cognitive bubbles. We are almost only exposed to content that goes in this preliminary direction. There is a second logic which is that of arousing uncontrollable emotions in us, including fear, indignation, anger. This will favor divisive and anxiety-inducing content. In the long run, this changes our points of view†.

Decryptions are necessary. This is why this Tour de France was created. On the program, we find workshops and round tables, and new features such as algorithms which are now based on the choice of Internet users. Lê Nguyên Hoang, doctor of mathematics, emphasizes: “This content is better rated and will be recommended following a vote. Most people consider this content recommendable†.

A second day will allow students from Lycée Blaise-Pascal to benefit from a masterclass on Elon Musk’s conquest of power.

Fanny Jaffray, director of strategy and development for Media and Information Education (EMI) at France Télévisions, was the guest of Ici Auvergne this Wednesday April 1st.

She wrote in a column in Le Monde in January 2025 that democracy in the age of social networks is a practice that must be learned. It states: “Media literacy is fundamental and is part of education for citizenship in a democracy. What defines a democracy is that we freely choose our representatives. To vote conscientiously, you must be able to form an opinion. To form an opinion, you have to seek out information. While practices evolve very quickly, the challenge is to teach students to distinguish information from opinion, to seek information at the source, and then become informed citizens.†.

She continues: “Media literacy is a shared responsibility of all of society. This is obviously a fundamental mission of the school. The Ministry of National Education devotes school programs to this issue. It is also a mission shared with the media, in particular public service media like France Télévisions, which have an extremely strong commitment in the matter. It’s a shared responsibility and that’s why we created this partnership, with France Télévisions, the Ministry of National Education and CLEMI, the ministry’s operator, to bring together teachers and journalists, those who produce information†.

Fanny Jaffray talks about raising awareness among young people: “Today’s young people have extremely intense digital practices. They spend hours on social networks. But they are both quite aware of the dangers they run and the risks of manipulating information. Our role is to give them the keys to deciphering the economic models of the platforms, to know why they see this content and not another. France Télévisions produces numerous decryption programs and carries out field actions†.

Fanny Jaffray insiste : “There is the issue of regulating large platforms. This is a current issue because, at the moment, a bill is being debated in Parliament, on the ban on social networks for under 15s. It’s a huge project that took a lot of time. We have been talking about these regulatory issues for around ten years. At the moment, things are moving very strongly, notably thanks to court decisions, in the United States. The European Commission also has this competence at European level to regulate large platforms. We feel that things are moving, that the law will evolve to take into account these systemic risks that large platforms pose to our information space†.

Article produced from the report by Christian Darneuville, Sébastien Bonnetot and Fabien Gandilhon / France 3 Auvergne