3 stations in one? Wow!

Thursday May 14, 2009

Our group was scheduled to go see the France 24 international news station located in the outskirts of Paris. France 24 is a true news hub that broadcasts its programs over the airwaves and over the internet. France 24 is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the public-funded holding company. The channel counts 520 employees including 260 bilingual journalists representing 35 nationalities and  over 1,000 correspondents throughout the world. We were given a tour around the station to see the newsroom of the three stations broadcasting in English, French, and Arabic. This multimedia newsroom is a completely digital and provides high quality video on the internet, cable, and even iphones. 

Although the station is subsidized by the government, they claim to not be biased. They are an independent news station that is able to broadcast freely without any interference. This was a big concern since being subsidized could have jeopardized their integrity. It is very interesting to note how this industry works especially with a subsidy which may be the solution to the tanking industry in the US. 

Once we got home, it was time to continue my mission of going to see more sights in Paris. I headed to highest place in the city where the Sacre-Coeur Basilica sits on. It was a beautiful church where you could see all of Paris. The street you need to take to get to the top is full of shops and tourist places. A major thing to be aware of is scams. I know of two people on the trip who were scammed. A vendor selling wristbands ran off with someone's change and another lost a bet gambling on a scam. You should be very careful when going through the area and be smart about possible scams.