At 12h30 on 31 May 2012, close to 24 hours after the group Anonymous published a video showing the highlights of a party at the Desmarais’ estate honouring Jacqueline Desmarais and bringing together major political and economical actors, a large number of Quebec media reported on the issue. Gesca, Radio Canada, Le Devoir, 98,5 FM, Huffington Post Québec, Journal Métro, CTV, and several blogs considered this news story worth covering.
The IFO tried to look at how media owned by the Gesca media group, property of the Desmarais family, framed this issue. 24 hours after the video went viral, the frame used to cover the latter seems to be a blind spot. Media belonging to Gesca at that time, like Le Soleil, La Presse or Le Nouvelliste didn’t publish any articles on the subject.
Does the owner really not have any influence on his media’s content? How can we explain the silence of Gesca journalists while the entire Quebec press covered the story?
It is important to note that the publication of our analysis has led to an article in the Journal de Montréal entitled “A curious oversight: No coverage of the video in Gesca’s daily newspapers” (Title translated from French. Original title: “Un oubli qui fait jaser : Les quotidiens de Gesca n’ont pas parlé de la vidéo”).
References:
The IFO did not contribute to the Wikipedia article related to the issue. However, it clearly explains the course of the events.
Images:
Journet, P. (2012, May 31st). L’opposition se questionne sur la vidéo d’Anonymous à Sagard. La Presse. Spotted at https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/politique-quebecoise/201205/31/01-4530520-lopposition-se-questionne-sur-la-video-danonymous-a-sagard.php
Moalla, T. (2012, May 31st). Le grand luxe des Desmarais. Le Journal de Montréal. Spotted at https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2012/05/30/party-desmarais
Huffington Post Québec. (2012, May 30th). Anonymous publie une vidéo de l’anniversaire de Jacqueline Desmarais. Huffington Post Québec. Spotted at https://quebec.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/05/30/video-desmarais_n_1557309.html
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