** on the front page: between the window and the truth **
It’s funny as the world of information revolves around us. Each morning, we are greeted by the frenzy of the news that piled up, a kind of unlimited buffet where we choose what we like. A killing in Colombia, a meeting at the top of European leaders, a new Popstar album of the moment. All this emerges, sparkling on the first page, as if it were the only reflection that reality could offer us. But, behind these big titles, a question often sneaks: what story hides behind the headlines? A very different atmosphere is played behind the scenes, far from the spotlights.
The paradox of modern information is that it desperately tries to embody the truth while moving away from it. An example? Take social networks, these daily megaphones that amplify voices, but where noise becomes the norm, and nuance, a rare luxury. In the era where information is eaten as a wooden fire pizza – fast, tasty and often indigestible -, we forget to ask: what really means “to be in the headlines”?
The media, in essence, want the guards of truth. Often cited for their “serious”, they are taken in a delicate dance, between the need to inform and the desire to captivate. Each written line is a choice, an angle, an interpretation. When do we think of the society we want to build through our consumption of information? When is this commodity in truth?
A few months ago, a study of Fatshimetrics revealed that 70 % of French people prefer an engaging story rather than a factual story. This freezing figure embodies the essence of our time: the craze for sensationalism at the expense of the analysis. We want it to slam, that it creates buzz, and above all, that it makes it react. Maybe even at our expense; Does the explosion of pop-up news and incessant notifications not make us adrenaline consumers much more than knowledge?
But let’s go back to this idea of the front page. What do we mean by this choice of “one”? A hierarchy of suffering? A shaping of public opinion? It is as if, by placing a subject on the first page, the media sculpted its societal value. If a discrepancy between the headlines and the real is visible, what are the truths that are hidden in the shadows, not narrated because they do not make the “weight” or because they seem too banal? All this brings us to another essential reflection: what impact has this choice on our reading of the world?
Peripheral affairs, those that deserve perhaps more dense coverage, are often stifled by the sirens of popular dramas. An investigation into the consequences of climate change in urban areas, for example, may not be as convincing as a tragic accident a few hundred kilometers. For what ? Because a stifling, insidious and complex reality does not make as much clicks as a story of action or conflict.
But what about this tension between spectacle and truth? Wouldn’t it be time to question this collective desire to sculpt our realities on the altar of entertainment? Perhaps this is the sign that we have disappeared to wear the glasses of the nuance, depth, commitment. The information should enrich and awaken us, not just entertain us.
So, to this one that smiles at us every morning, let us consider it an invitation to question, to rise above the tumult. Without falling into pessimism, we have this little glimmer of hope: that these “one” who dominates can also push us to curious, to look further, to take a step back and to consult the interior pages, where the true story, the one we speak less, is woves slowly but surely.
And finally, what about our responsibility for us, consumers of information? Are we ready to dive? To look for, dig, and not be satisfied with what we are served on a tray? The stakes are high, but if we give a little time to reflection, maybe we will find the courage to question what makes the headline.