in France, unprecedented media coverage

Who will win the US presidential election, Donald Trump or Kamala Harris? The vote in the United States, Tuesday November 5, 2024, will be scrutinized around the world. Attention to this election is boosted by the personality of the candidates, and by the unprecedented number of issues and implications of the choice of one or the other of the candidates.
Indeed, a second Trump presidency or a Harris presidency would have different consequences on crucial international subjects: war in Ukraine, situation in the Middle East, climate change, etc.

The American election has long been of interest in France, but this 2024 edition is attracting even more attention. The verbal and physical violence of the campaign, the personality of Donald Trump, the withdrawal of Joe Biden and the rise of Kamala Harris are all elements that made the headlines in the media in France.

Follow our live broadcast on Monday, November 4 dedicated to the American presidential election

The American presidential election widely followed in France

Tagaday, the first media monitoring platform, has carried out an exclusive study of the coverage of the American election by the French media. It is based on a selection of 3,000 written, printed and online press publications, as well as 5,400 different programs on 410 channels and TV or radio stations. Articles appearing in several editions of regional print publications are only counted once.

All mentions of the names of personalities are counted, regardless of the manner in which they are spoken about, in a good, bad or neutral manner.

Since January 2024, the American campaign has multiplied the reasons to make people talk about it: Super Tuesday, Donald Trump's legal affairs, Joe Biden's renunciation, assassination attempt against Trump… So many events which have justified intense media coverage . Here is the weekly volume of content related to the American election recorded by Tagaday since the 1^is January 2024:

Last week, 14,224 pieces of media content were recorded: the start of the home stretch was already of unprecedented intensity.

Compared to the previous elections of 2016 and 2020, Tagaday notes a sharp increase in content produced in 2024. Comparing the period from January to October to each election, 2024 presents 80% additional content compared to 2020: 195,993 contents in 2024 compared to 109,128 in 2020. In 2016, Tagaday recorded 77,405 pieces of content.

Donald Trump omnipresent, Kamala Harris at the finish

Since 1^is January 2024, Donald Trump was present in more than 218,000 pieces of French media content. This places him at 3^e rank of the most publicized personalities in France this year, behind Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal. He is notably ahead of current President Joe Biden, in 5th position in the Tagaday ranking.

Over the period 2020-2024, over the course of controversies and trials, Donald Trump managed to make himself almost as visible in the French press as Joe Biden: 592,888 contents for Donald Trump against 616,268 contents for Joe Biden. yet exposed on major global issues as President of the United States.

Kamala Harris, under the radar until June, benefited from the effect of her inauguration to overtake Joe Biden. But she has been less exposed than Donald Trump, including in recent weeks:

Tagaday notes that over the period from 1^is January to October 31, 2024, French media published 195,933 pieces of content on the American presidential election, and 257,403 on the European elections which were held in June. With the upcoming coverage of the Trump-Harris duel and its aftermath, the American elections could therefore surpass the European election in coverage. A notable sign of the place occupied by American politics in the media landscape in France.

Tagaday specifies that 88% of content related to the American presidential election comes from audiovisual or online media, and only 12% from the printed press.