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The golden age is over: in the media, political figures must now choose between audience and time, because the media are not protected from the financial pressures that are affecting the entire economy, and because the interest for politics is experiencing a serious decline in society. Paradoxically, we are witnessing both an increase in the volume of political coverage in the media and a contraction of the place of politics in the popular media. Consequently, one part of the population is more exposed to politics than before, while another part is less exposed. A change has become necessary. Regulations must change in order to put an end to the artificial limitation and excessive uniformity of electoral periods. More use should be made of the new technologies that make it possible to go around financial constraints. Last but not least, public figures should give greater importance to politics rather than to politicking, and strive to help make sense of the visible whereas the media have to pay closer attention to the hierarchy of French public concerns.