The most influential French women in the media and on Twitter

L’Argus de la presse |Groupe Cision, French business intelligence company, today unveils the results of its barometers* around the most quoted French women in traditional media and on Twitter during Q3 2017 in three categories: politics, corporate management and TV channels. POLITICS: Agnès Buzyn and Muriel Penicaud, the most influential female politicians This first barometer reveals the results of the women members of government most quoted in the media and on Twitter. This one highlights, from July 1 to September 30, 2017, the share of voice of ministers and secretaries of state during this period.

For this 3rd quarter, female politicians generated a record volume of hits since the launch of this barometer. Indeed, Agnès Buzyn, Minister of Solidarity and Health, is the most quoted female politician in the traditional media, with almost 12,000 quotes, and the 3rd most quoted female politician on Twitter, with almost 111,000 tweets mentioning her. Appointed in May 2017, the Minister announced numerous measures that did not leave the French indifferent: the entry into force of eleven compulsory vaccines for children, the price of a pack of cigarettes at €10 per tier by 2020 and a “generalizable” third-party payer during 2018. Her flagship measures have been accompanied by controversy, which has only served to heighten the media profile of the Minister, judged in particular for her conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical laboratories. Another Minister, another controversy: Marlène Schiappa, Secretary of State for Equality between Women and Men, made news in July 2017 when the Atlantico website published an article entitled “Les filles bien n’avalent pas!” (Good girls don’t swallow!). That’s the title of one of Marlène Schiappa’s books…” and devoted to the books the young secretary had allegedly published. The article in question, surtitled “La reine des salopes” (“The queen of sluts”), shocked the twittosphere, which elevated her to 2nd place among the most quoted female politicians on the social network, with almost 133,000 tweets.

But this quarter, it’s Labor Minister Muriel Pénicaud who tops the list of most-quoted female politicians on Twitter, with nearly 143,000 tweets citing her. In July, the Minister made headlines when she announced her intention to double the number of apprentices going on Erasmus “by 2022”. From September onwards, the hot topic of reforming the French labor code put the Minister at the heart of the news this autumn, with nearly 40,000 tweets citing her in September alone.

BIG BUSINESS: Delphine Ernotte tops the traditional media and Twitter charts

The results of the study below concern the women running the largest French companies most quoted in the media and on Twitter. This one highlights, from July 1 to September 30, 2017, the share of voice of women executives among the 750 largest companies in France.

In the traditional media and on Twitter, Delphine Ernotte, Director General of France Télévisions, topped the list of most quoted female executives in the third quarter of 2017, with 1,717 occurrences citing her in the traditional media, a very high result compared to previous quarters, and with over 8,600 quotes on Twitter. The ousting of David Pujadas from presenting France 2’s 8:00 p.m. news on May 17, 2017 prompted a huge number of reactions, including in September when Delphine Ernotte spoke out in a lengthy interview for Society magazine to give her own version of events. This interview was subsequently picked up by numerous media outlets in the press and on the web. The France Télévisions CEO’s comments on David Pujadas were not the only ones to attract attention. Her highly critical assessments of Canal +, Vincent Bolloré and, above all, Cyril Hanouna, expressed in the same interview with Society, were also widely commented on, particularly on Twitter.

Nathalie Balla, CEO of La Redoute, came second in the ranking of most cited women executives on traditional media, with 235 mentions, and came third on Twitter, with 691 contributions.The news about her company explains this result: on August 31, the Lafayette Group announced its intention to take a 51% stake in the capital of La Redoute, which caused a thunderclap in the fashion and luxury sector. Nearly half of all contributions on Twitter during the third quarter of 2017 relating to Nathalie Balla concerned this event.

Stéphane Pallez, head of La Française des Jeux, is the second most-quoted female executive on Twitter, with over 1,000 mentions. His tweets in connection with France’s bid for the Olympic Games (support for the French delegation Paris 2024, announcement of the partnership between FDJ and the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, support for women’s sport) were widely shared.

Also worth noting is the fine performance on traditional media of Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner, General Secretary of Publicis, cited 92 times in the third quarter of 2017. This was partly due to her appointment, on August 24, to head up the Group’s CSR and the Women’s Forum for Economy and Society, a forum based in Paris, of which Publicis is a majority shareholder.

DTT HOST: Anne-Sophie Lapix in pole position among traditional media and Elise Lucet the most influential host on Twitter

L’Argus de la presse has also carried out a study around the most quoted female DTT channel hosts in the media over the third quarter of 2017. This one highlights, from July 1 to September 30, 2017, the share of voice of female DTT channel hosts in traditional media and on Twitter.

The results of the barometer for this 3rd quarter of 2017 take on an unprecedented character due to the absence of Enora Malagré, who no longer officiates on Touche pas à mon poste and, as a fair consequence, is no longer counted in the top of most cited female hosts. The young presenter, who had been at the top of the barometer from the outset, thus relinquishes 1st place to Elise Lucet, who becomes the most-quoted media woman on Twitter, with almost 58,500 tweets. It’s been a quiet summer for the journalist and host of Cash Investigation. But that was without counting on the September 26 broadcast of the first issue of the 6th season of her news magazine entitled “Travail, ton univers impitoyable”. The investigation, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at the world of work, reveals what goes on behind the scenes at two emblematic companies: Lidl France and Free. The widespread promotion of the broadcast of this investigation in the midst of reforms to the labor code did not leave the twittosphere indifferent.

In the traditional media, Anne Sophie Lapix tops the list of most-quoted presenters, with almost 4,000 hits. The presentation of his first newscast on the France 2 channel, replacing David Pujadas who had been at the helm of the program for almost 16 years, could not go unnoticed.

The results of this 3rd quarter 2017 are quite interesting on the political side as they reveal a rather different media treatment of the labor reform than that of the El Khomri Law in 2016. Indeed, in 2016 the law bore the name of its minister and thereby erased the personality of the Minister of Labor, who failed to establish herself in the media. This year, the labor bill does not bear Minister Muriel Pénicaud’s name, allowing her to personally support the reform and assert her style and personality in the media, while coming top of the most-quoted female politicians on Twitter. On the audiovisual front, the departure of Enora Malagré, who was constantly at the top of the list of most-quoted TV hosts, leaves room for other personalities. For this 3rd quarter, Elise Lucet is at the top, particularly on Twitter, thanks to unprecedented media coverage of the first episode of her news magazine Cash Investigation. Despite this unanimous media recognition, the host will have to contend over the coming months with the new Touche pas à mon poste columnists, who already seem to be winning over the hearts of the French.

These barometers will be updated on a quarterly basis to track the media coverage of these personalities.

*METHODOLOGY

The barometers were carried out by Argus de la presse over the period from July 1 to September 30, 2017.
The “women executives” panel is made up of women holding a general management position in the top 750 companies established in France in terms of sales.
The “media” panel is made up of women presenters on DTT channels in the access prime-time and prime-time slots.

These barometers were compiled from scans of all French-language media: press (8953 press titles), audiovisual (3170 radio broadcasts and 2800 television broadcasts), web editorial (14437 websites) and Twitter.
The distribution of votes corresponds to the presence of keywords (names of individuals) searched for out of the total volume of documents.

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