AFP, Occurrence, and 20 French media groups work on accurate crowd numbers

AFP has partnered with research and consulting firm Occurrence and 20 French media groups to ensure that it accurately reports on the number of people gathered for demonstrations.

Occurrence uses two elevated sensors to trace a virtual line that counts each demonstrator on the ground, while manual spot counts reinforce the method. This will be used for the first time to count the number of people at the public sector demonstrations in Paris on 22 March 2018.

The 20 French media groups included in the partnership are AFP, France Inter, RTL, Europe 1, Franceinfo, RMC, France Culture, BFMTV, CNews, France 2, Médiapart, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Le Parisien, Les Echos, Libération and La Croix, with regional and department media represented by the UPREG regional press union.