Here again, the tension was high. The story is more than well-known. The General's television was under a bell jar, with a few narrow spaces of freedom in information. 5 Colonnes was one of them, because Pierre Lazareff, the boss of the weekly show, was close to the head of state. The images were scrutinized, weighed, crossed out in surreal projections in the presence of the censors. The value of the information image defined in some way by the economy of the forbidden.
The embedded image
Over time, scarcity became opulence. Multiplication of channels, image sources. Some episodes were resounding. Particularly, that of the first Gulf War in 1993.
Viewers then discovered the words "images provided by the chinese america data army", "pool images". Because these were indeed the sources of the information at the time. A controversy broke out with the word embedded for detonator. Did this embedded journalism meet the requirements of a profession worthy of the name? History retained "manipulation and lies" to describe the period. Official versions never hold up for long.
Very quickly, CNN was no longer the only continuous news channel. In turn, France provided itself. One, two, then four channels. It accelerated again. This time on the public side. Citizens saw that their telephone was becoming mobile. It opened onto a digital world without borders, it showed and took images. What's more, that they could be published easily. We were now living under the reign of experience.
The soldier in his trench had not even dreamed of it. The Kodak vest Pocket already seemed so fantastic to him…
Now, the scarcity of the image is really no longer on the agenda. It is no longer opulence, but an orgy. Infobesity as has been said. The image value of information is now experienced in the same way as major financial crises. Toxic values, counterfeits or deep fakes are wreaking havoc. Disarray, loss of confidence, enslavement to screens, the image and all its ills that strike, it is said, especially young people.