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This paper uses French Discourse Analysis (FDA) to examine the concept of deference. Applying the concept to media discourse enables us to observe the mechanism that underlies the naming of current events covered by the media as well as the asymmetry between agents (journalists vs. the public). This asymmetry explains the trust the public places in news discourse and establishes a distinction between specialized and folk discourse. However, the concept of deference must be reviewed in light of the devices made available online by the media, which undermine the traditional distribution of speech roles in society. Far from rejecting the concept, we propose to include it within the analysis of media discourse through the use of actual examples.