John Lichfield, a former British journalist from the Independent journal, expressed surprise on May 8, 2020, on the news website Politico. He shared a feeling of "strange defeat" that now pervades public opinion. He pointed out the failings of the Government in the management of the Covid-19 crisis. "How did we get here? " asks the journalist. In the USA and the UK governments' blunders were more serious and the means deployed less important. However, a large part of the public opinion remained favorable to the decisions of their governors. Of course, the defiance is not new. The Covid-19 crisis comes at a time when many factors are already disrupting the way the French receive and interpret public discourse: fragmentation of opinion, suspicion of so-called "expert" discourse, the technological revolution leading to the transformation of the ways in which judgments are formed... But the crisis has catalyzed these factors and exacerbated their effects. Calls to change communication, to renew the practices of leaders' dialogue with citizens, have become a key measure even of government performance. Faced with the brutality of the looming economic and social crisis, the response must be swift, efficient and unambiguous. To accompany the exit from the crisis, communication must fully play its role as a catalyst of the founding principles of democratic life: dialogue with citizens, transparency and accountability.

Under the direction of Thinkers & Doers and conducted by the Government Information Service, this applied research's objectives are to identify existing solutions with the help of experts, to define a new theoretical and practical framework, i.e. a new matrix for public communication, its conceptual basis and its operational mode.