The social structuring of the French internet audience

This article examines the social structuring of the audience of the 500 websites and applications generating the most traffic in France. The analysis focuses on unpublished data from Médiamétrie’s ‘Audience Internet Global’ panel, which uses dedicated software to measure the browsing practices of a panel of 25,000 individuals aged 2 and over, representative of the French population using internet. The article highlights the three key variables that explain the distribution of the digital audience: gender, age, and the social position of internet users. While inequalities in access to internet and digital skills have been well documented in the specialist literature, this research highlights a less frequently studied dimension of the digital divide: inequalities in internet users’ browsing habits. Rather than evoking a ‘third-generation’ digital divide, the article posits the existence of a structural homology between digital space and ‘real’ social space.