“I had no ambition to become a presenter, at least not so soon!”
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INTERVIEW – Since July 18, the young journalist has hosted the 12-3 p.m. segment on weekdays on the info channel. A brand new role that could mark the start of a promising career.
“Solenn Riou is courageous and proves that talent does not wait for the number of years”, assured a few weeks ago Fabien Namias. If the deputy director general of LCI is full of praise for the journalist, it is because she represents one of the great promises of the channel. Arrived last September to present a column in the morning, Solenn Riou, 28, volunteered to go and cover the war in Ukraine. She stayed there for more than six weeks.
This summer, Solenn Riou becomes the joker on the info slot from 12-3 p.m. on weekdays, usually presented by Claire Fournier and Julien Arnaud. She will hold this new role until Monday, August 22. Then will become a holder in turn on weekends, between noon and 3 p.m. as well. This rapid ascent, of which the young presenter says to herself “proud”enthusiasm: “I want to work harder”. In the continuity of our summer series, Solenn Riou, full of spirit, details her astonishing career and shares her vision and the challenges of the role of information joker.
LE FIGARO. – How did you approach this summer?
Solenn RIOU. – A little stress but above all a lot of desire and work! I love discovering new positions. After having been chief editor, multiplied the reports on the ground and the editorial work, I was eager to discover this role. I invest a lot in it. I see that we deal with all the subjects on a daily basis.
Beyond the unexpected, does the news remain dense in the summer?
Admittedly, they are different from the rest of the year, with notably less politics, but they remain very busy: forest fires, drought, heat waves… At LCI, we also deal with a lot of subjects around Ukraine. . The news, which is constantly changing, is followed closely by our reporters in the field.
How do you cover a three-hour slot on a news channel?
You have to be very well organized and know how to manage your time. Preparing three hours of airtime, with debates, reports and newspapers, cannot be done in a snap of the fingers. With experience, it certainly goes faster but for me, a beginner, it requires a lot of concentration. I arrive at least six hours before going on air. Thanks to the teams and the editor-in-chief, I feel very supported, but the plurality of research requires me to do some intellectual gymnastics!
What is the responsibility of the joker vis-à-vis the viewer?
The first requirement, which of course concerns all presenters or journalists, is to inform accurately. Constantly verify information. For the record, I’m afraid of doing wrong so I’m a bit excessive and can check basic information up to three times! We all have our little excesses but it is better that it is in this sense. Even on set, I’m always on the lookout. It is perhaps for this requirement that we have a good reputation at LCI.
“I volunteered to go to Ukraine”
Solenn Riou
What memories do you have of your first time in this position, on July 18?
I was lucky to have the year-round editor-in-chief at my side. He was very supportive and guided me well. I was scared but, in the end, I have a good memory. All the same, I understood that three hours of non-stop airtime could be tiring. Even though I knew I wasn’t going to twiddle my thumbs, I came out exhausted (laughs).
Can a joker add a personal touch to his newscasts?
Above all, you have to stay consistent with the channel’s editorial line. Without overdoing it, we can still bring our personality. This is what makes a viewer identify better with one time slot or another. With this we unite an audience and try to raise the audience. As a joker, I try to stay rather factual, not to try to impose too many different things. My only personal touch would be my smile. I try to be on the air like I am in real life. I hope this brings more.
What audience watches the summer segment of 12-3 p.m. on LCI?
Certainly not the Augustians who are on vacation! (laughs) It’s difficult to answer, especially since the 12-3 p.m. time slot is faced with the television news of TF1 and France 2. Since it covers the middle of the day, I would say that it is intended for a public that does not work, probably old or relatively young. For this last scenario, I try to play on my young age to try to attract this type of viewers. That he can identify and understand that each subject can be interesting.
Read alsoWho are the TV news jokers for summer 2022?
Do you exchange with Julien Arnaud and Claire Fournier, holders whom you replace?
No, I haven’t had the opportunity to meet them. When I arrived, Julien Arnaud was already joker on the 20 hours of TF1 and Claire Fournier on vacation. I didn’t want to disturb them. Thanks to my past experiences, especially in management, I already knew a bit what it was like to be a presenter without having ever presented (laughs). I did not hesitate to seek advice from the editor of the installment. He was able to explain to me some workings of the 12-3 p.m. but there was no specificity or trap!
What differences do you notice between journalism on set and on the ground?
Doing these two exercises is always fun because you never get bored. But we don’t feel the same fatigue. The one on the ground will be physical and mental. We leave for three or four weeks in Ukraine and have to be active seven days a week, with duplexes which sometimes start at 7 am. We get up, we eat, we sleep, we live around the conflict. On set, the rhythm is different. We start at 6 a.m. and finish at 3 p.m. The real nuance is on the subjects. On set or at home, I am constantly on my phone watching the alerts, monitoring all the news all the time: economy, politics, health, climate… In reporting, we focus on one and the same subject.
How did you decide to leave for Ukraine?
I hadn’t done land in a long time. My last experience dates back to the demonstrations of the yellow vests. I really wanted to go back. Since my arrival on LCI last school year, I had a fairly light column during the morning which disappeared when the war in Ukraine began. So I presented mini-focuses around the conflict. This is where the idea of offering my services came to me. I told myself that there would be a need for relief because from the beginning LCI sent a lot of teams. They thought about it and then gave me my chance.
“Between Ukraine and Russia it is also a communication war”
Solenn Riou
Tell us about your experience in the field.
It was really interesting and enriching. At first, we were shooting in areas to the west, which were more secure, and gradually our team moved closer to the south towards Odessa, Mykolaiv and the villages close to the front line. It took a lot of rigor to exercise our profession in safety. Covering this hypermediatized war from the field gave me a need to transmit, to tell what I saw with my own eyes. We are witnesses, we report facts through reports and meetings. And LCI really gave us space to express ourselves. Our duplexes were made up of two or even three follow-ups to tell our stories.
How do we tell a war in the contemporary era?
With time and rigor to offer accurate stories. Between Ukraine and Russia it is also a communication war. On the ground, we absolutely have to watch out for fake news. We are frequently confronted with false information circulating, making it difficult to sort out the true from the false.
What was your course ?
I practiced athletics at a high level. This allowed me to obtain a scholarship after the baccalaureate in a university in the United States. After three years, I was forced to stop because of an injury. That’s when I thought about going into sports journalism. When I returned to Paris, I joined the CFPJ (Centre for training and development of journalists, editor’s note) on a work-study basis. From 2017, I wrote freelances for several newsrooms such as CNews, LCI, Bein Sport, RMC Sport… I understood that information interested me more than sport. After a contract as editor at LCI, I joined CNews to work on news and the morning. After two years and the feeling of having done the trick, I called LCI again, which welcomed me with open arms.
At the start of the school year, you become the holder of the 12-3 p.m. weekend. What was your reaction to this announcement?
I felt great pride. I am given three hours of airtime, it’s a lot of responsibility. But I’m not resting on my laurels, on the contrary I want all the more to work well, to prove myself to show the management of LCI that she was not mistaken and was right to trust me. I didn’t particularly have the ambition to be a presenter, at least not so soon! So there is a big issue here that I hope to address!
Do you have other projects in parallel?
I focus primarily on the weekend segment, which includes two days of preparation on Thursday and Friday. When I’m a little more accustomed to the presentation, I could help if necessary for reports, go back to the field… I like to diversify and LCI seems to encourage me in this multidisciplinary approach. In the future, I may make myself available on weekdays to cover longer assignments.
SEE ALSO – “We had to find tips”: the detail that Julien Arnaud hid from viewers during his interim at “13 Hours”
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