CURRENT AGE: 19
FINDING TRUE VIEW OF SUBURBAN LIFE
PHOTO GALLERY
There is an old fable called “The blind men and an elephant”. Six blind men trying to comprehend an elephant. Each man feels a different part of the elephant (the tusk, the tail, the ear, the leg) and consequently draws a completely different conclusion from the others. In the end, no one is right, because each narrow perspective fails to perceive the whole truth.
This, according to Luc Bronner, a reporter for Le Monde, is similar to the problem the French media have in their coverage of the Parisian suburbs. He admits “In France, the main difficulty for journalists is the fact that we focus on crime affairs and we don’t want to understand what’s happening behind the crime. …We often forget to check, to understand, to analyze, and to describe what the matter behind these kinds of subjects is.”
But getting the whole truth is an arduous task. Bronner explained that suburban residents are distrustful of major institutions such as newspapers, and thus journalists. In his coverage of the 2005 and 2007 riots, he went to the suburbs numerous times in order to establish solid networks for information. Even when he found people willing to talk, “They will say, ‘OK, I’ll talk but don’t write who I am.’”
In the case of the rioters, Bronner says most of them were “children, I mean between 12 and 18 years old… most of them cannot explain what they were doing…I only could say they were destroying everything.”
As Bronner points out, it’s difficult to understand an area without regular contact. This proved true for most media organizations in their attempts to cover the unrest. Few had ventured there before, much less assigned to them as a designated beat. In fact, when Bronner had first proposed making the suburbs his regular beat, his supervisors were skeptical that he would even find enough material to report on.
To keep a regular presence in the suburbs, Bondy Blog was formed by the Swiss magazine "Hebdo" during the 2005 riots. It focuses on concerns and conditions of the suburbs with the goal of making residents’ voices heard. Founder Serge Michel believes its success is that it surprised many: “Young people in the suburbs don’t only burn cars, they can also write and report. And their stories are good.”
Faïza Zerouala, 25, a writer for Bondy Blog, says such an organization was imperative given the mainstream media’s lack of knowledge. “They were completely ‘What’s happening? [What] are people doing … revolting?’ Whereas it is known since a very, very long time that in suburbs there are some problems.”
Aladine Zaiane, 23, another Bondy blogger, says the media was ignorant in other ways, too. He said some claimed that people of African heritage could not be expected to integrate into cities because they had come from villages and huts. “Fifty years after the immigrant wave, you still have people who say these kinds of things,” he said.
Part of the problem, according to Michel, is the lack of diversity within the media. He says that in general, the French media are made up of staff much older than the population, resulting in a disconnect with their readers, especially in the suburbs.
Michel’s hope is that “the Bondy Blog will become instrumental in teaching journalism to people who were not supposed to be taught journalism, and then help to diversify the staff of the traditional media.”
The suburbs have embraced Bondy Blog. When it was founded, it was treated as bigger news than even the riots, Michel said.
Steady coverage is necessary for a complete picture, said Bronner, who is recognized as a reliable source for information in the suburbs. “Journalists often write bad stories about suburbs, [then] they try to balance with nice stories, and I think it’s wrong. Because neither nice stories nor bad stories are credible. …The best answer is to be near the reality.” Until then, the French population only gets a slice of the story.
Editor's note: Photographs for this package were taken by Indianapolis Star photographer Kelly Wilkinson and Randy Johnson, Randy Johnson Photography.
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