{"id":13029,"date":"2022-02-12T08:30:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-12T06:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/ordres-et-desordres-de-lespace-public-mediatique-francais\/"},"modified":"2022-03-14T12:05:21","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T10:05:21","slug":"ordres-et-desordres-de-lespace-public-mediatique-francais","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/ordres-et-desordres-de-lespace-public-mediatique-francais\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Order and Disorder in French Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Dominique Cardon, Jean-Philippe Cointet, Pedro Ramaciotti Morales, m\u00e9dialab<\/p>\n<p>Following an initial study conducted in 2018 in collaboration with Sciences Po\u2019s School of Journalism and the Montaigne Institute \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/lespace-public-numerique-a-lepreuve-des-infox-une-comparaison-franco-americaine\/)\">The digital commons and fake news: a Franco-American comparison\u2009\u2013\u2009<\/a>the m\u00e9dialab continued the research to extend its analysis of the French media ecosystem: <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/ftp\/arxiv\/papers\/2107\/2107.12073.pdf\">Uncovering the structure of the French media ecosystem<\/a><span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">(1)<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Jean-Philippe Cointet, Dominique Cardon, Andre\u00ef Mogoutov, Benjamin Ooghe-Tabanou, Guillaume Plique, and Pedro Ramaciotti Morales, 7th International Conference in Computational Social Sciences, 2021<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script>. The emergence of a French-style Fox News, the influence of fake news on the upcoming presidential elections, the threat of media polarisation, and hate speech on social networks are among the many ills that plague the digital commons and that are considered a serious threat to democracy. Hence the importance of a structural perspective on the French digital commons: taking a step back to understand its form, its dynamic, and self-regulation.<\/p>\n<h3>The Three Floors of the Digital Commons<\/h3>\n<p>To capture the complexity of the French information ecosystem\u2019s architecture and its circulation pathways, it is important to take the measure of its diversity first. Three identifiable layers structure it: the authority of the information coming from the \u2018press, TV and radio\u2019, the influence derived from the circulation of this information, notably on Twitter, and the conversation, especially on Facebook, which develops in a more fragmented and hidden way within the relational niches produced by users (see figure below).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>The three layers of the information space and the tools to analyse them <\/strong><i><br \/>\n(Hyphe, the Twitter API, and Crowdtangle, which provide access to public content on Facebook)<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Capture-de\u0301cran-2022-01-19-a\u0300-08.27.49.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12806 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Capture-de\u0301cran-2022-01-19-a\u0300-08.27.49-1024x501.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"501\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Capture-de\u0301cran-2022-01-19-a\u0300-08.27.49-1024x501.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Capture-de\u0301cran-2022-01-19-a\u0300-08.27.49-300x147.png 300w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Capture-de\u0301cran-2022-01-19-a\u0300-08.27.49-768x376.png 768w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Capture-de\u0301cran-2022-01-19-a\u0300-08.27.49-1536x751.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Capture-de\u0301cran-2022-01-19-a\u0300-08.27.49-260x127.png 260w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Capture-de\u0301cran-2022-01-19-a\u0300-08.27.49-50x24.png 50w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Capture-de\u0301cran-2022-01-19-a\u0300-08.27.49-150x73.png 150w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Capture-de\u0301cran-2022-01-19-a\u0300-08.27.49.png 1648w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a>The visibility of content and actors in each layer results from the complex interactions that link social network users and media to each other. Thus, the digital space is not a smooth surface that equally exposes everyone to all sources of information. The production of information, its visibility, and the way it inhabits different parts of the web depend on the way journalists, politicians, and new voices from the web construct and shape the information circuits.<\/p>\n<h3><b>A Self-Organising Order<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>The structure of the upper stratum, composed of primary news sites, is organised according to the authority that various \u2018media\u2019 acquire. This can be measured via the recognition network that journalists produce when they quote each other in their articles.<br \/>\nAnalysis of the topology formed by 20,992 hypertext links exchanged between the articles of our body of 421 French media sources reveals the structure of information producers. Whether the commentary is positive or negative, when an article cites a source through a hypertext link it is giving credit\u2009\u2013\u2009<i>i.e.<\/i> authority\u2009\u2013\u2009to the cited site. This recognition is targeted and the measure of this credit distinguishes between the citer and the cited.<br \/>\nGrouping sites that quote each other into a same \u2018block\u2019 using a dedicated algorithm<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">(2)<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">The stochastic block model (SBM), Peixoto TP. <a href=\"https:\/\/link.aps.org\/doi\/10.1103\/PhysRevX.4.011047\">Hierarchical block structures and high-resolution model selection in large networks<\/a>. Physical Review X. 2014 March.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> yields a division of the media by citation links according to the credit that media groups grant one another.<br \/>\nThe visualisation below shows various media groups gathered according to the profession\u2019s criteria for legitimacy, as well as the flow of credits between groups. It reveals the existence of four media <i>continents<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>La visualisation ci-dessous donne une repr\u00e9sentation des diff\u00e9rents groupes de m\u00e9dias rassembl\u00e9s en fonction des crit\u00e8res de l\u00e9gitimit\u00e9 mis en \u0153uvre au sein de la profession et figure les flux de cr\u00e9dits entre groupes. Elle r\u00e9v\u00e8le l\u2019existence de quatre continents m\u00e9diatiques.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><strong>The French media wheel<\/strong><br \/>\norganised according to the distribution and direction of hyperlinks between articles<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_12810\" style=\"width: 1020px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-16-57-17-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf.png\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12810\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-12810 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-16-57-17-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1010\" height=\"836\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-16-57-17-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf.png 1010w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-16-57-17-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf-300x248.png 300w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-16-57-17-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf-768x636.png 768w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-16-57-17-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf-176x146.png 176w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-16-57-17-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf-50x41.png 50w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-16-57-17-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf-91x75.png 91w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1010px) 100vw, 1010px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12810\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><i>Blocks obtained via the SBM method.<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Four Continents<\/h3>\n<p>We can thus distinguish, at the highest level of this classification, between the \u2018mainstream media\u2019, \u2018opinion journalism\u2019, and \u2018counter information\u2019. Peripheral to these is the specialised press (which we do not explore here).<\/p>\n<h5>The \u2018mainstream\u2019<\/h5>\n<p>The most striking observation is that the French media form a particularly unequal hierarchical system. Most of the hyperlinks in the media ecosystem point to the mainstream media block. On the other hand, the main French press, radio and television media (Le Monde, Le Figaro, Europe\u00a01, BFM TV) composing this block, with large audiences, only give credit selectively (<b>see figure\u00a03<\/b>).<br \/>\nThe professional practices and norms observed by journalists in newsrooms explain how the French media system regulates itself by exercising a form of control over the entire ecosystem: mainstream media are highly disciplined when handling information from the counter-information space. Typically, when evaluating questionable information, fact-checkers use screenshots to refer to a questionable source rather than explicitly quote and link to it.<\/p>\n<h5>Opinion Journalism<\/h5>\n<p>Opinion journalism covers the second set of high-level continents: it includes websites with strong political viewpoints. At the margins of mainstream media, opinion journalism is divided into two distinct subspaces: one on the right (Causeur, Valeurs actuelles, Atlantico, etc.) and the other on the left (Mediapart, L&#8217;Humanit\u00e9, Le Monde diplomatique, etc.). Newer politicised media is often exclusively digital and exerts critical pressure on the dominant media continent. These publications are sufficiently integrated into the dominant media landscape to receive links from both the right-wing and left-wing traditional media.<\/p>\n<h5>The Counter-Information<\/h5>\n<p>The counter-information space shows the most striking pattern of connectivity, as it receives almost no links from the rest of the ecosystem, but quotes extensively from the media in the other spaces. Counter-information sites are peripheral in the information ecosystem, because they cite mainstream media but receive nothing in return. Deeper analysis of the counter-information space reveals three sub-blocks that we have labelled Parallel Universe, Revolutionary Right and Identitarian Right. It is striking that this block of automatically detected (by the aforementioned SBM method) counter-information is very similar to the one identified via a manual analysis by Le Monde fact-checkers to assess the reliability of information sources according to the profession\u2019s criteria.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><i>Citation flows between major categories of the wheel<\/i> <\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Clusters-espace-public-en.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-13075\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Clusters-espace-public-en.png\" alt=\"Citation flows between major categories of the wheel. Source: m\u00e9dialab, Sciences Po\" width=\"1200\" height=\"672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Clusters-espace-public-en.png 3516w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Clusters-espace-public-en-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Clusters-espace-public-en-1024x574.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Clusters-espace-public-en-768x430.png 768w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Clusters-espace-public-en-1536x861.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Clusters-espace-public-en-2048x1147.png 2048w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Clusters-espace-public-en-260x146.png 260w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Clusters-espace-public-en-50x28.png 50w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Clusters-espace-public-en-134x75.png 134w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a>A Hierarchy of Social Network Visibility<\/h3>\n<p>This mapping reveals a highly hierarchical French media landscape, which contrasts with the typically horizontal representations of site networks. This asymmetry in hypertext links is compounded by a very unequal distribution of content visibility from each continent.<br \/>\nThe mainstream media attracts the vast majority of the attention of online users, as shown by our measures based on URL shares on Facebook and Twitter. In the French case\u2009\u2013\u2009and unlike the situation in the US\u2009\u2013\u2009the peripheral position of counter-information sites in the media ecosystem is not counterbalanced by significant audience success.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><i>Distribution of the attention and reactions generated on social networks by the content produced in the 11 blocks and 4 continents, on Twitter and Facebook<\/i>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/space_space_baseTruefbk2.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12814 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/space_space_baseTruefbk2-1024x512.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/space_space_baseTruefbk2-1024x512.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/space_space_baseTruefbk2-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/space_space_baseTruefbk2-768x384.png 768w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/space_space_baseTruefbk2-1536x768.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/space_space_baseTruefbk2-2048x1024.png 2048w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/space_space_baseTruefbk2-260x130.png 260w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/space_space_baseTruefbk2-50x25.png 50w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/space_space_baseTruefbk2-150x75.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/b>Activism Versus Visibility: the Moderation Premium<\/h3>\n<p>Is the French press becoming more right-wing? Are new actors \u2018stretching\u2019 the ideological distribution of the media landscape? To assess the ideological \u2018bias\u2019 of news sources in a systematic way, we calculate an \u2018ideological score\u2019 for 368,000 Twitter users in France. Each individual is positioned in a latent ideological space (see figure below) depending on his or her connection to French members of parliament and senators who have an active Twitter account<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_3');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_3');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_3\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">(3)<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_3\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">cf.<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/ftp\/arxiv\/papers\/2107\/2107.12073.pdf\">1<\/a><\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script>.<br \/>\nThe second dimension of this space is easily interpreted and correlates strongly with the right\/left economic dimension as defined in the Chapel Hill expert survey<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_4');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_4');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_4\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">(4)<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_4\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Bakker R, Hooghe L, Jolly S, Marks G, Polk J, Rovny J, Steenbergen M, and Vachudova MA. 2020. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chesdata.eu\/2019-chapel-hill-expert-survey\">2019 Chapel Hill Expert Survey.<\/a>\u201d University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Distribution of the ideological score of users on Twitter<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_12816\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-04-13-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf.png\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12816\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-12816\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-04-13-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-04-13-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf.png 713w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-04-13-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf-300x223.png 300w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-04-13-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf-196x146.png 196w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-04-13-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf-50x37.png 50w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-04-13-preprint-IC2S2-Uncovering-the-structure-of-the-French-media-ecosystem-2107-12073-pdf-101x75.png 101w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12816\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reading note: The second dimension distributes parties and Twitter accounts along the right\/left dimension. The coloured circles correspond to the average position of representatives of the 10 main parties.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This enables an extrapolation from the scores to all the media URLs shared on Twitter to account for the distribution on the right\/left scale of the visible informational content.<\/p>\n<p>We performed a simple experiment: we divided our population of accounts into 9 equal-sized groups from the most left-wing to the most right-wing. A raw count of the volume of URLs shared by users from each ideological grouping shows a strongly bimodal distribution that reveals the hyperactivity of users located at the extremes of the political spectrum (blue histogram in the figure below). But if we weight this number of tweets by the number of followers of these accounts, it appears that the shared URLs generate a modest number of views. The estimated exposure is much higher at the centre of the political spectrum, where the modest activity of the accounts is largely compensated by their very high visibility (salmon histogram in the figure below). Social networks, and mainly Twitter, can thus create a \u2018distorting prism\u2019 that impacts the political-media landscape<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_5');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_5');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_5\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">(5)<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_5\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Bail (Chris), <a href=\"https:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/books\/hardcover\/9780691203423\/breaking-the-social-media-prism\"><i>Breaking the Social Media Prism. How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing<\/i><\/a>, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2021.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script>. The activism of Twitter accounts located at the extreme masks and silences the more moderate Twitter\u2019s accounts.<br \/>\nL\u2019activisme des comptes Twitter situ\u00e9s aux extr\u00eames contribue \u00e0 masquer et \u00e0 rendre silencieux les comptes Twitters plus mod\u00e9r\u00e9s.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Ideological distribution of informational content shared on Twitter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-08-32-pour-cogito-helene-naudet-sciencespo-fr-Messagerie-Sciences-Po.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12818\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-08-32-pour-cogito-helene-naudet-sciencespo-fr-Messagerie-Sciences-Po.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-08-32-pour-cogito-helene-naudet-sciencespo-fr-Messagerie-Sciences-Po.png 800w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-08-32-pour-cogito-helene-naudet-sciencespo-fr-Messagerie-Sciences-Po-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-08-32-pour-cogito-helene-naudet-sciencespo-fr-Messagerie-Sciences-Po-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-08-32-pour-cogito-helene-naudet-sciencespo-fr-Messagerie-Sciences-Po-219x146.png 219w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-08-32-pour-cogito-helene-naudet-sciencespo-fr-Messagerie-Sciences-Po-50x33.png 50w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Screenshot-2022-01-20-at-17-08-32-pour-cogito-helene-naudet-sciencespo-fr-Messagerie-Sciences-Po-113x75.png 113w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>This moderation premium appears in another mapping (see figure below) showing all the domains shared on Twitter that are located in the centre of gravity of the Twitter accounts that shared their URLs<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_6');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_6');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_6\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">(6)<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_6\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Cointet, J.P., Morales, P.R., Cardon, D., Froio, C., Mogoutov, A., Ooghe, B. and Plique, G., 2021. <a href=\"http:\/\/statistique-et-societe.fr\/article\/view\/823\/878\">De quelle (s) couleur (s) sont les Gilets jaunes? Plonger des posts Facebook dans un espace id\u00e9ologique latent<\/a>. Statistique et Soci\u00e9t\u00e9<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script>. While a great diversity of strongly politicised media is apparent on both the right and left, we are clearly not in a situation of structural asymmetry, as is the case in the United States<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_7');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_13029_1('footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_7');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_7\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">(7)<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_7\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Benkler Y, Faris R, Roberts H. <a href=\"https:\/\/oxford.universitypressscholarship.com\/view\/10.1093\/oso\/9780190923624.001.0001\/oso-9780190923624\">Network propaganda: Manipulation, disinformation, and radicalization<\/a> in American politics. Oxford University Press; 2018<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_13029_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script>where the far right has \u2018detached\u2019 from the rest of the media. In France, the centre continues to attract most of the visibility and authority.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><i>Immersion of information producers in the latent ideological space<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<pre><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-15-at-17-28-35-La-structure-de-lespace-informationel-francais.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-13034 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-15-at-17-28-35-La-structure-de-lespace-informationel-francais.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"602\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-15-at-17-28-35-La-structure-de-lespace-informationel-francais.png 602w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-15-at-17-28-35-La-structure-de-lespace-informationel-francais-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-15-at-17-28-35-La-structure-de-lespace-informationel-francais-233x146.png 233w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-15-at-17-28-35-La-structure-de-lespace-informationel-francais-50x31.png 50w, https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-15-at-17-28-35-La-structure-de-lespace-informationel-francais-120x75.png 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px\" \/><\/a><\/pre>\n<pre>Sciences Po\u2019s medialab director <a href=\"https:\/\/medialab.sciencespo.fr\/en\/people\/dominique-cardon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dominique Cardon<\/a> focuses on the connection between new technologies and social, political, and cultural technologies. He specifically studies forms of sociability, production, and dissemination of knowledge, and public expression via new media: social networks, blogs, wiki, etc. He specifically analyzes the political dimensions of digital technology. Finally, he seeks to uncover how algorithms are impacting us.\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/medialab.sciencespo.fr\/en\/people\/jean-philippe-cointet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jean-Philippe Cointet<\/a>, Associate Professor at the medialab, develops digital methods for the social sciences. He specializes in the analysis and visualization of bodies of text. His empirical work leads him to work in various fields: scientific communities, media, social networks, online commentary, political speeches, etc.\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/medialab.sciencespo.fr\/equipe\/pedro-ramaciotti-morales\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pedro Ramaciotti Morales<\/a> is a researcher in computational social sciences at m\u00e9dialab, where he focuses on the analysis of social networks, using computer science and applied mathematics methods. Within the \u2018European Polarisation Observatory\u2019 of CIVICA, he analyses the opinions structuring social networks in Europe to deepen understanding of phenomena such as polarisation, the influence of algorithms, and informational dynamics.<\/pre>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_13029_1();\">Notes<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_13029_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_13029_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_13029_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Notes<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_13029_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Jean-Philippe Cointet, Dominique Cardon, Andre\u00ef Mogoutov, Benjamin Ooghe-Tabanou, Guillaume Plique, and Pedro Ramaciotti Morales, 7th International Conference in Computational Social Sciences, 2021<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_13029_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">The stochastic block model (SBM), Peixoto TP. <a href=\"https:\/\/link.aps.org\/doi\/10.1103\/PhysRevX.4.011047\">Hierarchical block structures and high-resolution model selection in large networks<\/a>. Physical Review X. 2014 March.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_13029_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_3');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_3\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>3<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">cf.<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/ftp\/arxiv\/papers\/2107\/2107.12073.pdf\">1<\/a><\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_13029_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_4');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_4\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>4<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Bakker R, Hooghe L, Jolly S, Marks G, Polk J, Rovny J, Steenbergen M, and Vachudova MA. 2020. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chesdata.eu\/2019-chapel-hill-expert-survey\">2019 Chapel Hill Expert Survey.<\/a>\u201d University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_13029_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_5');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_5\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>5<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Bail (Chris), <a href=\"https:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/books\/hardcover\/9780691203423\/breaking-the-social-media-prism\"><i>Breaking the Social Media Prism. How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing<\/i><\/a>, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2021.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_13029_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_6');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_6\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>6<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Cointet, J.P., Morales, P.R., Cardon, D., Froio, C., Mogoutov, A., Ooghe, B. and Plique, G., 2021. <a href=\"http:\/\/statistique-et-societe.fr\/article\/view\/823\/878\">De quelle (s) couleur (s) sont les Gilets jaunes? Plonger des posts Facebook dans un espace id\u00e9ologique latent<\/a>. Statistique et Soci\u00e9t\u00e9<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_13029_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_13029_1_7');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_13029_1_7\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>7<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Benkler Y, Faris R, Roberts H. <a href=\"https:\/\/oxford.universitypressscholarship.com\/view\/10.1093\/oso\/9780190923624.001.0001\/oso-9780190923624\">Network propaganda: Manipulation, disinformation, and radicalization<\/a> in American politics. Oxford University Press; 2018<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_13029_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_13029_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_13029_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_13029_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_13029_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_13029_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_13029_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_13029_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_13029_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_13029_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_13029_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_13029_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_13029_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_13029_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Dominique Cardon, Jean-Philippe Cointet, Pedro Ramaciotti Morales, m\u00e9dialab Following an initial study conducted in 2018 in collaboration with Sciences Po\u2019s School of Journalism and<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,332,293],"tags":[193],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13029\/?lang=en"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/?lang=en"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/?lang=en"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3\/?lang=en"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?lang=en&post=13029"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13029\/revisions\/?lang=en"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13141,"href":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13029\/revisions\/13141\/?lang=en"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12834\/?lang=en"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?lang=en&parent=13029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?lang=en&post=13029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?lang=en&post=13029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}