We are just a day from the European elections, and I am enjoying the hospitality of an old Castle in the suburbs of Luxembourg City. I am eager to find out the results of the ballot. There is a computer in my room, but like many old machines, it is just impossible to have it properly work on a newer system. The first site I try freezes the browser. I have brought my laptop with me, but I cannot have it log on the wireless system. I will not have an informational quick fix this morning over the Internet. I have to explore more traditional media: I still can give a try to radio and TV. Radio is ruled out: you have to know the news channels are if you do not want to be drowned in poor music and stupid commercials. My guesswork is then narrowed to TV. I am enchanted with the diversity of the channels I find. I pick the Germans, the Belgians—I am amused to watch a TV that is in fact no more than filmed radio, an astute way of dealing with local communities broadcasting—and the French. After a little search, I finally reach the French Public TV. I still have to wait for the commercials to inflict their low-key messages on me until the socialist speaker, Benoit Hamon, appears. He is obviously chocked by the defeat of his party—the first figure I grab is its meager 13,5% in the Parisian area. It takes me a quarter of an hour to get the full figures (and the total 16,5% of the socialist party in the country). Surfing of the different channels, I also get some news from the Belgian results. I have to wait until 8AM—fortunately, I am not in a hurry this morning—to have a more complete picture. If I had been on the Internet, in less than 5 minutes, I would have got all the figures I needed, at a time convenient for me. If I had been home, too: I would have listened to the radio while taking off. One thing though is to be said for traditional media, is that at the same time, I hear from the Lebanese elections and the death of Omar Bongo. More than I asked for, but definitely good to know.

I reckon a medium is only good in its context. If you are in familiar settings, radio is convenient a versatile. TV is efficient but limited in any context. The Internet is perfect, but the risk is to know—well and fast—only about what you want to hear from. Fast, efficient, unopened to surprise.

As a columnist, I should also say a word about the written press: in the US, I would have found the Washington Post (the one newspaper I read) at my door in the early morning. However, I doubt that even the Post would have paid much urgent attention to the European elections. In France, I would have had to wait until noon, when the mail is delivered or to go and buy a newspaper somewhere. Whatever the medium, you still have to go by national contingencies.