France Media Research Questions

Describe French Television (standards)
From what I found, France uses a color TV standard called SECAM, which stands for Sequential Color With Memory. Development for this system started in 1957, and it was officially introduced in 1967. There are 625 lines of resolution, and it is broadcast in 25 interlaced frames per second.

Describe the types of programming
There is many different types of programming on French television, from a French music channel to the news. Many shows that are now being broadcast here in the United States got their start in Europe, like many of the current reality shows. Shows like American Idol, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and Deal or No Deal all had their starts in Europe.

Describe the means of programming support
From what I found, French programming gets their money mostly from licenses and advertising.

Regulation
When it comes to French broadcasting regulation, there are three main actors. The government actually designs the broadcasting policy, drafts the laws and issues decrees to implement said laws. Parliament passes broadcasting laws and controls the funding for public broadcasters. The High Council for Broadcasting grants licenses to private broadcasters, appoints the heads of public broadcasters, and oversees the programming activities of all broadcasters.

Compare French News to U.S. News and identify the major international n news agency
French News is structured very similarly to U.S. News. They have the most important things that are going on at that time at the top of the broadcast, and then move on to more local stories, depending on where you are in France. Obviously, the stories are going to be different, unless it is an international story, that involves major countries. They also do sports, but it mostly consists of soccer, something that is pretty much foreign here in the United States. I found that the major international news agency is the AFP, or the Agence France-Presse.

What are the major newspapers?
The major newspapers in France are: Le Canard enchaîné, Courrier International, Les Échos (deals in economics), L'Équipe (deals in sports), Le Parisien, and La Tribune. The two free newspapers are the Metro and 20 Minutes.

What are the most popular magazines?
Some of the popular magazines that I found are: L'Express, Le Monde Diplomatique, Le Temps, and VSD.

Watch a sample of French Television and make an observation about the programming/advertising, etc. In what way is it similar/different than U.S.?
One of the shows I watched on French Television was the German version of Deal or No Deal. It was funny because I didn’t understand anything they were saying, but I was still able to follow the program because I am familiar with the American version. They took just as many commercial breaks as they do here as well. I noticed that there are far fewer channels in France than there are here, probably because of licensing issues and so on.

Watch a sample of an international service such as CNN and comment on the coverage.
I watched one news program on France5 (I believe) that was similar to MSNBC. It had the scrolling bars at the bottom with stock information, and it was all about stocks and major news events.

Obtain a copy of one of the major newspapers and compare it to the Star-Ledger or NY Times.
I picked up a copy of La Tribune, and it is structured like a magazine. You know how the Star Ledger is broken off into separate sections? Well, La Tribune is not like that. Every section is separated, but not in the way that the Star Ledger or the NY Times is. Also, La Tribune has color on almost every page, whereas the Star Ledger does not.