In June, 5.6 million publications on the Olympic Games were collected by Visibrain – a web monitoring platform – and the communications agency Image 7. In their previous monthly report, the one about the month of Maythey counted 3.5 million.
While the overall dynamic is increasing, French-speaking countries are paradoxically seeing a decrease in the number of occurrences mentioning the Games. Analysts estimate that the volume of French-speaking messages mentioning the Games has dropped by 17% compared to the previous month, due to the dense political news of recent days in France.
It must be said that the surprise dissolution of the National Assembly – raising the prospect of the National Rally coming to power – has somewhat inflamed social networks, X (ex-Twitter) in particular.
“On this platform, the activist conversation and the “live” monitoring of the multiple twists and turns of the last few weeks have partly overshadowed Paris 2024, which receives three times fewer mentions (5.2 million) than current French political topics (17 million),” comments the barometer.
Declining interest
Yet the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is scheduled for July 26. Less than a month before an event where the entire world will have its eyes fixed on the country, the main stakeholders do not seem particularly impressed. A report by Ipsos, dating fromApril 2024already reported 53% of French people saying they were interested in the event. A value eight points below that obtained in October 2023.
The Image 7/Visibrain barometer goes into more detail about the publications and identifies “questions that persist about the opening ceremony (53,000 mentions) but especially about the state of the Seine (40,000 mentions)”. The Olympic Games Organizing Committee (Cojo) and the Paris City Hall have in any case communicated, this Thursday, July 4, on a “compliant state” of the river with bathing standards.
But it is the Olympic torch relay that attracts the most attention on the networks, with 70,000 mentions. An interest that contrasts with the media coverage of the event. The barometer points to “the quasi-indifference of the national media” to this subject.