“This is not a Miss France competition, but the first women’s weightlifting championship. First impression: attractive! » Posted on a TikTok account, these comments are astonishingly anachronistic. But in the upper right corner of the image there is a reassuring logo: that of the National Audiovisual Institute (INA). And the comment of a very current journalist is added to that of the reporter who covered the event for the program “Stade 2”, in 1984, and places these remarks from another time in their time.
“I’m glad I was born in 2004,” reacts Léa in comments. “Thank you INA for allowing us not to forget! “, enthuses Nathanaël, also 20 years old, under the same video. These two are part of the several million people who follow the content of the public establishment, known for its archives on social networks.
Promote archives by adopting social media codes
On TikTok, some videos have up to 5 million views. The account has more than 460,000 followers and 8.5 million likes. On Instagram, 1.3 million people follow the institute, 4.1 million on Facebook. Figures that are all the more impressive as each platform to its users. “We know that our audience is on average 32 years old, but that it is younger on TikTok, more feminine on Instagram, older on Facebook,” underlines Antoine Bayet, editorial director of the INA.
The archive videos edited by the editorial staff were viewed a total of 1.7 billion times in 2023 (by nearly 10 million users), compared to 80 million views in 2015. “We should pass the 2 billion mark this year,” smiles Antoine Bayet. He has reason to rejoice: in the space of ten years, the establishment born after the reform of the ORTF in 1974, initially designed to preserve audiovisual archives, has transformed into a unique heritage media of its kind.
A matter of form as much as substance, which allows the institute’s videos to find a place in the very competitive landscape of social networks, according to Marie-France Chambat-Houillon, professor of information and communication sciences. . “By making playful use of archives, interacting with its community, and working on the hook of its videos, the INA manages to capture the attention of Internet users,” she emphasizes.
Around twenty journalists to put the news in perspective
However, until the beginning of the 2000s, the institute only had the vocation of archiving and serving audiovisual professionals – by ensuring legal deposit, contributing to research or selling video images. ‘archives. The year 2006 marked a significant turning point: the INA opened its website and for the first time offered content intended for the general public.
“It was the beginning of the promotion of archives, we were still far away at the time from being able to call it a media, specifies Antoine Bayet. At this stage, editorialization consisted of bringing out the archives on anniversary dates. » We had to wait until 2015 and the recruitment of a first journalist for “media” development to really begin. In 2020, confinement caused an audience peak for their videos, whose success has continued to grow since. From now on, 25 journalists contribute to feeding the heritage media daily.
In fact, the range of formats offered has expanded considerably. “Every day, we identify three current topics that we could put into perspective thanks to the archives,” explains Clément Vaillant, assistant to the editor-in-chief responsible for social media writing. It happens that the librarians find nothing usable and that the subject falls by the wayside, but sometimes the resources are rich and allow in-depth investigative work.
“To address the debate around end of life for example, we sought to trace how television had taken up the subject over the years, since it began to talk about it in 1978,” underlines Clément Vaillant. To do this, in addition to the audiovisual archives which they use to illustrate their remarks, journalists rely on archived press clippings. “Our objective is to give the public all the reading keys to understand today’s debate,” describes the head of the social media division.
“We must show everything, even the horrors, contextualize them, explain them”
Other media are also taking over the archives. For twenty-five years, Jean-Noël Jeanneney has presented the program “Concordance des temps”, broadcast every Saturday morning on France Culture. The former boss of Radio France uses sound archives – provided by the INA – to shed light on current events. He says he has “always had a personal interest in the archives, which are so rich”. Secretary of State in the early 1990s, he also contributed to the establishment of legal deposit, compulsory for radio and television broadcasters since 1992.
Today, the historian takes a very positive view of the public establishment’s use of these millions of hours of archived programs. “There are so many lessons to be learned from it – including extracts that seem inaudible today as our perception has changed, he insists. It’s even essential: everything must be shown, even the horrors, contextualized, explained. The INA does it well, and distributes it well. »
A common heritage in a world that lacks it
It’s also this distanced look that Thomas, 36, appreciates. For several years, he has consumed the content offered by the INA via Instagram. Videos “entertaining and informative”of which he finds the tone “relevant, without taking itself too seriously, or falling into the pitfall of “it was better before””. He is joined by Nathanaël, sixteen years his junior, a TikTok subscriber and particularly fond of the “sidewalk microphone” format.
In these videos, INA journalists reproduce dated interviews to highlight the evolution of passersby’s responses to questions such as “should women work? » Or “do you believe women who say they were raped? ». “The answers are sometimes shocking, but they allow us to see the evolution of society,” describes Nathanaël.
It was his father who, in 2015, introduced him to the INA. “It’s good that he has access to this on social networks, appreciates Roland, retired from IT. It’s always a gateway to something else, and it allows us to exchange. » An observation shared by researcher Marie-France Chambat-Houillon, for whom “providing access to archives and contextualizing them allows the creation of a collective memory.” In a society eaten away by its fractures, it seems that the INA has managed to create a commonality. Public service mission accomplished.
———-
The INA in six dates
1975. The National Audiovisual Institute was born from the breakup of the ORTF and was entrusted with the conservation of television and radio archives, the production of creative programs, research and professional training.
1992. The legal deposit of television and radio, just made obligatory, is entrusted to him. The Inathèque de France, which manages this mission, was launched in 1995. In its centers, nearly 25 million hours of programs are made available.
2006. The launch of the INA website (ina.fr) makes more than 100,000 television and radio documents accessible to the general public for the first time.
2012. The legal deposit of French Web media is officially entrusted to the INA. To date, the Institute has archived more than 17,000 websites.
2015. Journalists are beginning to enter the INA, enabling its development on social networks.
2020. The INA launches Madelen, its video on demand offer.