The other day, I was invited by the teacher of my elder son to intervene in his class, to explain the job of a journalist. Even if I did not push the coquetry up to put on a multipoche jacket, me whose intense field activity takes place mainly in open space, here I am standing in this cluttered part of posters and memo cards, came to embody the quintessence of the profession. Needless to say, I’m a little stressed. Before coming, I made a quick passage on the Wikipedia website, to check what was the foundation of my priesthood: “Journalism is the activity that consists of collecting, checking and possibly commenting on the facts to bring them to the attention from the public in the media by respecting the same ethics of journalism. “
Ethics? The interest of mediation? In fact, the first questions focus on the pragmatic aspects of the profession. I perceive a form of common sense quite commendable: if you want to move towards a sector, it is better to know the rear kitchens: “Sir, how much do you win?”, “When you leave in reporting , Do you pay your tickets? “,” You have already met stars? “,” And athletes? “,” Are there specialized journalists in the weather? ” , “What are your work schedules?”, “Do you have ever crossed TF1 reporters?”, “You have moved on TV?”, “We leave you time to rest?”, ” Do we invite you for trips? “, Etc. The questions are so heterogeneous that I almost feel about passing the Voight-Kampff test, the one that Harrison Ford uses in Blade Runner to flush out the “replicants”, these humanoid robots devoted with empathy.
Sensational desire
As the class has actively worked on the “Fake News” during the previous weeks, another component of questions relates to the reliability of the information. “When someone died, how can we check that he is really dead?”, Asks me for a student. All this makes it possible to approach the issue of official sources, to evoke the existence of the France-Presse agency, to talk about the work of colleagues of decoders, to teach children that many obituaries are prepared in advance (Horrified mold of the mistress). Faced with me, in the right corner of the class, a little girl continues to lift my finger always resting the same question: “Sir, how do we recognize a” fake news “?” p>
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