Over a year since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, many cities have cultural scenes that are beacons of empowerment, expressing defiance, creating a unified force, and to inspire change. From Ukrainian orchestras to punk rock bands to radio broadcasters, playing and listening to music are seen as acts of resistance, as well as means for comfort.
In this past month of November, 2023, the Marsh family from Faversham, England, released a Christmas single “If That Day Comes Round” to support the efforts of the International Red Cross on both sides of the Gaza-Israel war. Known primarily for musical parodies that have “gone viral”, the family stated that “we had nowhere to put our anger and horror and sadness, except in a song.” To respond to the devastation of war and the humanitarian crises, this family is using music as a platform to inspire social change and a vehicle for activism.
In 2016, public rallies occurred across the United Kingdom as responses to Brexit. Feelings of fear, anger, and confusion, fueled a common need to "do something", be proactive in some way, or display some sense of power, which led to public outcries of their personal beliefs. Mekons, a British/American punk-rock/alternative-rock band responded differently. Within days of the Brexit vote, they premiered a musical response entitled Fear & Beer: A Hymn for Brexit. Lyrics include: “Come with us, O’ Come along / There’s something going wrong / Tomorrow morning I must work / I know that you’ll be gone…. Deep and Still / Blood on the Water / Things Unsaid, Hold Them in Our Hands / Now Behold the Visible Other / Phantoms Stalk the Land…” An artistic composition created not as a call to action, but to comment on the anger and uncertainty of the future.
Merely one day after the Brexit vote, London musician Michael Solomon Williams put out a call online to see if anyone would be interested in coming together to create a musical response to Brexit. The reaction was so immediate and beyond expectations that within days, plans were under way to make a global video, featuring a song, Human Kind, that Solomon Williams had composed specifically as a response to Brexit. This was then followed by a concert featuring an array of world-class artists from a variety of genres, countries and cultural backgrounds. Hundreds of singers from musical theatre, pop, jazz, folk, opera, chamber and community choirs came forward plus orchestral players, concert soloists, jazz musicians and many more artists from around the world.
The same year, thousands of people poured into the streets across a divided United States to express their frustrations and their fears over the election of a new president, Donald Trump. Demonstrators gathered, marched, and rallied, continually for days, blocking highways and bridges, and clashing with police. Many display signs, “Not my President” and “We are better than this” and “No to racism”. Fueled by fear, anger, disbelief, and isolation, thousands upon thousands of people reacted in the only manner in which they felt they could.
Musicians reacted differently. American singer-songwriter Sara Bareillis, prompted by National Public Radio, wrote a powerful piece, entitled “Seriously”, as a fictional mouthpiece for President Obama. Lyrics included: “Let’s start with hope / I threw it in the middle like a skipping stone / The ripples won, son of a gun / Some would not have thought so / But I stand here Commander in Chief / And I take that seriously / But along the way / A rogue ripple turned tidal wave / In reaction to what I tried to do / A rebirth of a nation’s hatred / Red, white, and blue. Is black in there too?” and “Let’s talk of fear / Why, I don’t bring it in here / It’s a dangerous word / It spooks the herd / And we all bleed in the stampede / Seriously.”
Award-wining Broadway composer, Jason Robert Brown, immediately recorded a poignant composition entitled “Hope”; with lyrics: “I come to sing a song about hope / In spite of everything ridiculous and sad / Though I’m beyond belief, depressed, confused and mad, well, I got dressed / I underestimated how much that would take / I didn’t break, until right now / I sing of hope, and don’t know how… And so I sing a song about hope / Though I can’t guarantee there’s something real behind it / I have to try to show my daughters I can find it / And so today, when life is crazy and impossible to bear / It must be there / Fear never wins / That’s what I hope / See, I said hope / The work begins.”
Cabaret singer-songwriters Ann Hampton Callaway and Michele Brourman resurrected a song from the previous year, “Love and Let Love” sending the message “Live and let live / Love and let love / Trust the hand that made exactly who we are / Ev’ry creature on this earth / The moon and ev’ry star above / They’re saying love and let love…”
These are examples of musical responses to division and resentment, inspired by political outrage, presumably to offer solace and reflect upon those that listen.
Certainly, one can look back at many historical events, from countries around the world, where music has been an implement to effect change, a prevailing means of expression, a creative reaction to discord, and a means to heal. In the United States, one can look at virtually all significant historical events – the Civil War in the 1860s, World Wars I and II, the Great Depression, Kennedy assassination, Vietnam War, 9/11 -- and examples of music responses invoke a myriad of artists through the ages such as Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder and Bono.
Artists seek inspiration in order to create their art. It is a given that during times of strife and friction, the events that create or add to the troubling environment become that inspiration for many. Artists, generally speaking, are compelled to create; and musicians/composers work in a universal language that can be understood beyond the origins of the lyrics. It is also generally understood that music can mobilize, heal, and reflect upon society.
But what motivates artists to create in order to respond to an event? What is their intent or need? Is it to create understanding and reconciliation for him/herself or for their audience? Is it to have a greater impact beyond their need to create? Do artists feel it essential to express their own frustrations or for a greater cause such as creating a movement? Artists connect themselves emotionally, creatively, and intellectually to an event. Are these musical responses merely a personal reaction expressed through one’s creative outlet, or is there a conscious intent to effect social change?
How do arts managers and educators understand the motivations and therefore, nurture those artists and their drives and impulses? How do we support the platforms needed to develop their art in times of dissension? And what can we learn from these artistic processes to aid in the development of meaningful creativity. Some have argued that arts managers and organizations have a mandate to support this creativity, as an effort to hold up a mirror to society. Others have posited that unless mission drives a political agenda, it is inappropriate for arts managers and organizations to intercede.
Through interviews with those that create/compose in these times of strife and uncertainty, I intend to learn about creative motivations and intentions; and to explore the appropriateness of management and organizations to make use of this creativity; and potentially to develop or encourage avenues suitable for the ultimate goals of the artist.

This research is part of a major European project called MeDeMap (https://www.medemap.eu/). The aim of the project is to evaluate the democratic roles of media in Europe nowadays.

The debate about information pluralism – a guarantee of a well-functioning democracy – is not new. It refers to the issues of freedom and independence of the press, of the sufficient production of various opinions in line with the different communities of readers, listeners or viewers [5]. Beyond some differences between US and European traditions, the concepts of pluralism and diversity are quite established in media studies literature [7]. While pluralism refers to a normative orientation and democratic role of journalism, diversity is understood as its measure, i.e. the heterogeneity at the level of various production elements [6]. On this basis, theoretical definition of pluralism includes different elements [9]: sources (the range of content providers), content (the diversity of information types or issued opinions), exposure of individuals to alternative viewpoints and news feeds, variety (the number of news topics covered in a given time period), balance (the distribution of these topics between those that focus attention on the front page and those that are much more isolated) and disparity (the differences in journalistic treatment of the same news topic). Recent work adds other elements, such as the informational richness and added value of online content [8].

Beyond the information characteristics, media pluralism has been traditionally seen as determined by market and ownership concentration of media outlets negatively impacting their editorial independence and, hence, their diversity of opinions [4]. Despite this generally accepted idea, to the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical evidence of causes and consequences, or more generally relationships, between different production context and organization and the characteristics of the produced news. For instance, we cannot say, without a large-scale and an in-depth study, that there is a direct link between media’s sources of revenue (e.g. advertising) or media ownership and, for example, the spectrum of the subjects covered by this media or that actually interest the public.

However, what is known is that the industry-level economic sustainability of media has a direct impact on and is particularly important for maintaining information diversity and pluralism and ensuring that news organizations have the necessary resources, editorial independence, and incentives to produce a wide range of content and serve as watchdogs of democracy. For instance, without economic sustainability, media outlets may prioritize profit over journalistic values, which poses a risk to the quality and diversity of information available to the public.

Moreover, prior research demonstrates [3] that low diversity and lack of pluralism in supply economic models result in price competition prevailing over differentiation, leading to lower prices and profitability. This could lead to bankruptcies and shutdowns, particularly amongst smaller and more vulnerable companies. The French media market already demonstrates such concerning indicators of multiple takeovers (e.g. Rue89 and L’Obs), cessation of print versions (e.g. France-Soir or CNews), and definitive closures of numerous media outlets across diverse market segments (e.g. L'Expansion, Minute, …). In order to reduce costs, media outlets may need to limit their resources for journalism and news production. For instance, one potential outcome is that detailed and expensive content authored by staff members may be replaced over time by wire service articles, leading to a higher likelihood of plagiarism and associated nearly non-existent production costs. In the French media industry, such trends are also already much in evidence [7].

Moreover, the media market structure appears to contribute to a reliability perception and trust among the public. This trend is reflected in the low rankings for trust in the French media characterized by a high score of concentration. According to the Reuter Institute's measurements, the proportion of people who trust the media in general is declining, with an average of 30% in 2023. The level of trust in regional and local newspapers is higher since they are less affected by media concentration in terms of ownership. This general trend is not limited to printed media and their digital versions but extends to various types of players, including online information providers, such as pure players, TV, and radio.

Therefore, lack of diversity and convergence in media supply could have significant adverse effects on industry performance and society. This includes the lack of information diversity, profit erosion and reduced information quality, domination by few industry groups, and diminished media independence. In order to evaluate the capacity of the media industry to assure its democratic role, it is thus crucial to assess the diversity of the existent supply models and underlying competition structure within and between different types of national media (press, TV, radio, digital players).

This is the purpose of our paper. By complementing the official public reports (Euromedia Ownership Minotor; Reuters Institute; …) providing some aggregated information on the media industry and recent research on the media ownership and ultimate proprietors [10], market concentration and present dominant groups [2], forms of financial and political (in)dependence [10], we provide a systematic, detailed and large-scale study of the supply pluralism bringing together the current types of media: press, online information providers, such as pure players, TV, and radio.

This paper relies on an original dataset of 240 French media comprising a variety of broadcasting channels, such as TV, radio, and online media (including both podcast, pure players and online version of legacy media), as well as print newspapers. It covers all national news media outlets and selected regional and local media outlets. For each media the detailed information is provided for the following structuring supply characteristics: channel of distribution; periodicity; geographical target audience; ownership structure and transparency, including ultimate proprietor; revenue streams; audience and audience share; news production standards; media thematic category; political orientation; membership in journalistic or industry organisation and the legal status (public service media, non-profit media and commercial private media).

This data was collected using the secondary independent sources with support and close collaboration of the French regulator (ARCOM: Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique), official audience provider (ACPM: Alliance pour les chiffres de la presse et des médias) and national team of Media Pluralism Monitor. In the literature, there are scarce empirical analyses on the industry-level supply structure that use such a substantial sample size due to the difficulty in gathering data [1].

On the basis of the collected data, providing the information for the supply structure of the representative French media, we construct and analyze two complementary diversity indicators. The first indicator aims at the identification and evaluation of the diversity drivers and uniformization vectors in the supply characteristics in the cross-media panel. The second, complementary, indicator focuses on the detection and description of the types of media introducing and driving diversity in the French media landscape. This study relies on the combination of the multivariate analyses and econometric regressions. It enables the identification of media supply characteristics that critically contribute to pluralism and diversity both globally and in respective media categories (i.e., press, online information providers, TV, and radio). It allows to assess media diversity and pluralism in an original and new perspective; and makes possible to identify the distinguishing vectors of differentiation on a global scale and within each media category. Furthermore, the obtained results at the national level will be compared with other European countries in order to open the discussion on the place and role of the French media in the overall European democratic landscape.

At the current stage of our work, the data collection is finished and we start the data analysis. For this reason, we cannot present the final results of this study in this detailed abstract, but they will be available at the time of the conference.

[1] Casadesus‐Masanell, R., & Zhu, F. (2013). Business model innovation and competitive imitation: The case of sponsor‐based business models. Strategic management journal, 34(4), 464-482.

[2] Dejean, S., Lumeau, M., & Peltier, S. (2023). Une analyse de la concentration de l'attention par les groupes médiatiques en France.

[3] Ghemawat, P. D. (1991). Commitment - The dynamics of strategy. Free Press.

[4] Helberger, N. (2008). From Eyeball to Creator-Toying with Audience Empowerment in the Audiovisual Media Service Directive. UCLA School of Law.

[5] Hiller, R.S., Savage, S.J., Waldman, D.M. (2015). Market structure and media diversity. Economic Inquiry, 53(2), 872–888.

[6] Karppinen, K. (2018). Journalism, pluralism and diversity. In Journalism. De Gruyter, 493-510.

[7] Lyubareva, I., & Rochelandet, F. (2021). From news diversity to news quality: New media regulation theoretical issues. In Digital and social media regulation: A comparative perspective of the US and Europe (pp. 117-142). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

[8] Lyubareva, I., Rochelandet, F., Haralambous, Y. (2020). Qualité et différenciation des biens informationnels. Une étude exploratoire sur l’information d’actualité. Revue d’économie industrielle, 4, 133–177.

[9] Napoli, P.M. and Karppinen, K. (2013). Translating diversity to Internet governance. First Monday.

[10] Ouakrat, A., & Larochelle, L. (2023). Le pluralisme des médias en contexte numérique (Doctoral dissertation, Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom; Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies; European University Institute; Irméccen).

Un des défis majeurs du développement culturel est aujourd’hui, à partir d’une offre territorialisée, de savoir générer avec les parties prenantes de l’environnement (augmenté), de la proximité considérée dans ses différentes dimensions (affective, relationnelle, éthique, processuelle,…). L’enjeu est de permettre l’appropriation des propositions notamment pour les habitants des territoires concernés, par la double logique d’accès (1) aux œuvres constituées (démocratisation culturelle) et (2) aux situations permettant leur expression artistique (démocratie culturelle). Dans ce contexte, pour tendre vers ces objectifs complémentaires, il s’avère nécessaire d’avoir recours au paradigme des droits culturels des personnes. En effet, ceux-ci sont définis comme « les droits d’une personne, seule ou en commun, de choisir et d’exprimer son identité, d’accéder aux références culturelles, comme à autant de ressources qui sont nécessaires à son processus d’identification. » (Meyer-Bish, 2010). L’activation de ces droits - qui n’existent pas a priori - devrait permettre de générer des effets au moins à deux niveaux : (1) au niveau macro pour dépasser des enjeux diffusionnistes de la démocratisation culturelle et d’ainsi tendre vers la citoyenneté culturelle, notamment en réactivant les ressources culturelles des territoires investis qui peuvent être invisibilisées, oubliées, dénaturées et (2) au niveau individuel, pour révéler les ressources endogènes des personnes, leurs patrimoine intérieur, qui restent souvent tapies dans leur inconscient car prétendument sans valeur. Dans ce contexte, la culture est appréhendée comme « recouvrant les valeurs, les croyances, les convictions, les langues, les savoirs et les arts, les traditions, institutions et modes de vie par lesquels une personne ou un groupe exprime son humanité et les significations qu'il donne à son existence et à son développement. » (Déclaration de Fribourg (2007), art. 2.a). Les droits culturels postulent en effet que chaque personne est porteuse et productrice de culture. Il s’agirait ainsi de valoriser, d’éveiller la culture intrinsèque et de faire lien avec les ressources cultures en présence (culture extrinsèque). Cette dynamique à l’œuvre repose sur trois dimensions interdépendantes et complémentaires en formulant l’idée que les droits culturels désignent le droit de chaque personne :
- de composer, de choisir, de vivre son identité culturelle, dans la diversité de ses modes d’expression, d’en changer, de se référer à des communautés culturelles et de modifier ce choix,
- d’avoir accès aux ressources culturelles (éducation, information, arts, savoirs et savoir-faire, patrimoine, institutions, langues...) nécessaires à son développement et à sa communication avec autrui,
- de participer à la vie culturelle : création, contribution et coopération.

Afin de confronter ces enjeux conceptuels à une réalité agissante, nous allons analyser la dynamique culturelle que déploient les Centres Culturels de proximité des Etoiles au Maroc. Le premier est né à la suite d’attentats perpétrés le 16 mai 2003 par des jeunes d’un quartier périphérique de Casablanca (Sidi Moumen). L’enjeu alors porté par le créateur de ces centres, Nabil Ayouch (réalisateur de cinéma) est de permettre aux jeunes de ces quartiers d’investir un espace d’inclusion par des pratiques artistiques, pouvant déboucher sur un parcours de professionnalisation. Nous interrogerons ainsi comment avec le déploiement aujourd’hui de six centres, une académie dédiée aux métiers de la culture et une plateforme permettant les pratiques artistiques en ligne, ce modèle s’inscrit dans une perspective d’innovation artistique, culturelle et sociale fondée sur les droits culturels afin d’activer des contributions larges de ce qui « fait culture ».