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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
interactivity. We shall here temporarily conclude that the model of Citizenside can help
Agence France-Presse to move in that direction.
Finally, AFP can still count on its own history, reputation and credibility to provide news
generally considered exact. Its ways of working can be seen as its label, especially at a
time when unverified news pollute newsrooms and affect misinformed individuals.
While new key players have a tendancy to depict the ‘imagined worlds’ denounced by
Arjun Appadurai (1996), international news agencies have to stand out because of their
reputation for quality. For so long, they have focused on facts, not on opinions; they
have to continue to do so. They also have a proven reputation for their ability to
operate across different international time zones; this remains a strength. For instance,
AFP is present in 165 countries, has 2900 contributors of some 80 nationalities 78 . No
actor can pretend as much, except its rivals, Thomson-Reuters in particular. And that is
where the final challenge lies: between agencies, should there be competition or
agreements? In the past, agreements were signed to reduce costs (1859) or to
organise the cover of given territories (1909) 79 . Those and others, all managed to
impose international news agencies as a powerful news cartel, profitable for its leading
members. Similar cooperations within the close future, for the good of each of the main
news agencies, could give food for thought, although present times rather accentuate
competition and AFP does not seem to be in the best place in this regard.
Meanwhile, AFP and other news agencies can succeed in the digital era by producing
« news you can use », as Ulf Hannerz (2004) pointed it out, in an optimistic mode:
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« […] much of the foreign news seem more immediately relevant, in a fashion, like
“news you can use”. We cannot take for granted, then, that as globalization in all its
varieties intensifies, foreign news reporting will automatically grow with it. Instead, we
will have to be continuously aware that the latter is vulnerable to contemporary
pressures. […] But I believe we can still assume that if they have only so much time a
day to set aside for being satisfactorily informed in a general way, as a kind of everyday
ritual […] the majority of people will tend to expect that they can rely on the mainstream
media to offer them what they need. » (Hannerz, 2004, 25-26).
Despite the hard times it has been through in recent years, there are reasons for
Agence France-Presse to keep optimistic. Like any traditional media, it has to find out
how to survive in the digital age. Yet, the basic principles involved are not really new. It
has to update measures needed to maintain its traditional reputation; this imposes
reactivity and sufficient resources. AFP can survive by maintaining its model of news
services. The recent Arabic revolts are a case in point : at one stage, AFP had bureaux
in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia. But, to remain fully visible, the agency mainly needs to
occupy roles which impinge directly on new audiences. With the Internet, these change
from year to year —if not by month. Since at least 2007, one has to be seen on major
social networks. In this context, we suggest AFP and other news agencies need to
reactivate and nurture contract of all kinds. They must constantly follow novel trends
78 According to AFP website : www.afp.com (consulted on March 19th, 2011).
79 A wider range of observations about those agreements is provided by Michael Palmer (1980, 2011).
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