I've decided today to compare and contrast how the budget was reported last week (in the Herald AM) and the front page of today's Irish Independent, to show how the fallout of the budget has been handled by the country's newspapers.
Last week on Wed 15th of October the Herald AM ran with the headline "What are you looking you so pleased about?", with an accompanying picture of Brian Lenihan holding the controversial budget and smiling. The front page also has bullet points outlining some of the main points outlined in the budget, e.g "Families face €2bn in new tax" and the most controversial point: "Over 70s lose medical cards". This is the main story as obviously the economic crisis is the most important event at the moment and the budget has been brought forward by a number of weeks for just this reason. The Herald as a newspaper is clearly displeased with the measures laid out in the budget and so the paper has printed a headline deriding the Minister for Finance's content appearance.
Nearly a week later, and the country is in chaos. The Irish Independent today prints a picture of Finian McGrath, a Fianna Fáil backbencher who has decided to resign over the continuing 'medical cards fiasco' which is eroding Brian Cowen's Dáil majority, and a larger photo of Gardaí arresting a student in UCD protesting Brian Lenihan's arrival at the college over the €600 increase in college registration fees - a move which I discern as a smokescreen for the arrival of actual college fees. The headline reads "Independents on brink of abandoning Cowen" with a sub-heading that says "Others likely to follow", indicating the possibility of further bad news for the Taoiseach. On both of these papers there are no BP1s, which has been largely the case for the past week as this Budget has created a fallout which is consuming the country with outrage, anger , resignations, protests, denials, and generally a crazy political debate amongst anyone who has an opinion in this country (and a lot of us do).
Apart from the papers I heard a very impassioned and moving speech from the actress Brenda Fricker on Newstalk 106, outlining her outrage at the government over the over-70s medical cards decision... She pretty much summed up the feelings of hundreds of thousands - everything from bewilderment to incredulity to outrage, anger and disgust.
More on everything in the week to come.
Public Interest Side Note: Explorations in Journalism
Defined by some as:
1. The well-being of the general public; the commonwealth.
2. The attention of the people with respect to events.
3. Values generally thought to be shared by the public at large.
The concept of 'public interest' is closely related to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's central political concept of 'general will', which refers to the desire or interest of a people as a whole - General will is what the body politic (community of citizens) would unanimously do if they were selecting general laws and were choosing/voting with full information, good reasoning, unclouded judgment (bias and emotion can cloud judgment), public spirit, and attempting to discern the common good.
People have argued against this (using words such as 'metaphysical' and 'pluralist') but this is as close as I can get to a good definition!
1. The well-being of the general public; the commonwealth.
2. The attention of the people with respect to events.
3. Values generally thought to be shared by the public at large.
The concept of 'public interest' is closely related to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's central political concept of 'general will', which refers to the desire or interest of a people as a whole - General will is what the body politic (community of citizens) would unanimously do if they were selecting general laws and were choosing/voting with full information, good reasoning, unclouded judgment (bias and emotion can cloud judgment), public spirit, and attempting to discern the common good.
People have argued against this (using words such as 'metaphysical' and 'pluralist') but this is as close as I can get to a good definition!
Journal 4: Interviews
I've chosen to discuss Noel Gallagher's interview in the Irish Times' 'The Ticket' on Friday October 3rd 2008. I think 'The Ticket' has a particularly good record of interviews and I enjoyed reading this, particularly as Noel has recently been in the news after being attacked in Toronto.
The interview leads with the headline "I thought I'd been stabbed" which grabs attention straight away. I had imagined this would be a casual interview as the Gallaghers are not known for being polite and humble, and this is certainly the case. However the interview benefits from not being too serious and keeping a laid-back attitude at the beginning, before moving on to more serious matters.
Brian Boyd allows Noel to speak freely without, it seems, interrupting with too many questions or qualifiers - it seems the interview has been conducted almost like a casual conversation. By allowing him to talk, we find out much about Noel that persistent questioning may not have revealed - such as only being able to manage "three songs a year" and having "all the cocaine in the world".
I feel the interview is presented simplistically: with headers for each topic of conversation, such as 'On Songwriting' or 'On Irishness'. If we then read the paragraph or so that follows, we can see that the interview was handled very casually, with plenty of bad language and candid opinion (such as "I like Radiohead - until Thom Yorke starts singing.").
This interview works so well because there is no need to explain or qualify anything Noel says, except for opening with a quote that relates to his injury in Toronto. By allowing him to speak, Boyd runs the risk of going off on a tangent (undoubtedly he did) but he still gets the interview broken down into a few simple topics and lets Noel Gallagher say what he likes about that topic. It is a simple and interesting way of handling, writing and presenting an interview.
The interview leads with the headline "I thought I'd been stabbed" which grabs attention straight away. I had imagined this would be a casual interview as the Gallaghers are not known for being polite and humble, and this is certainly the case. However the interview benefits from not being too serious and keeping a laid-back attitude at the beginning, before moving on to more serious matters.
Brian Boyd allows Noel to speak freely without, it seems, interrupting with too many questions or qualifiers - it seems the interview has been conducted almost like a casual conversation. By allowing him to talk, we find out much about Noel that persistent questioning may not have revealed - such as only being able to manage "three songs a year" and having "all the cocaine in the world".
I feel the interview is presented simplistically: with headers for each topic of conversation, such as 'On Songwriting' or 'On Irishness'. If we then read the paragraph or so that follows, we can see that the interview was handled very casually, with plenty of bad language and candid opinion (such as "I like Radiohead - until Thom Yorke starts singing.").
This interview works so well because there is no need to explain or qualify anything Noel says, except for opening with a quote that relates to his injury in Toronto. By allowing him to speak, Boyd runs the risk of going off on a tangent (undoubtedly he did) but he still gets the interview broken down into a few simple topics and lets Noel Gallagher say what he likes about that topic. It is a simple and interesting way of handling, writing and presenting an interview.
Journal 3: The 5 W's (and H)
Thursday 6th October
The Irish Independent
The 5 W's (being Who, What, Where, When, and Why?) and H (How?) are the topic of discussion this week. The Indo today runs a story on Brian Lenihan not forcing "banks to pass on cut", referring to the European Central Banks's 0.5pc cut in interest rates to mortgage holders.
This is an immediate identification introduction, where the government and the European Central Bank (and later the Irish banks and the Financial Regulator) are immediately mentioned in the opening sentences of the article. There is only one quote used in the front page of the article. Each small paragraph is only made up of one sentence, making the article seem very precise.
Who: The second word in the first line, the government, is here clearly stated (in case you didn't know who Brian Lenihan was in the headline). "Irish banks" and "European Central Bank" are both mentioned in the first paragraph.
What: The story is mentioned straight away, in the headline: "Lenihan won't force banks to pass on cut" and in the first paragraph this is stated again but with more detail.
Where: This is an Irish story making the headlines of an Irish newspaper, concerning the Irish government, so the story is... Irish, probably Dublin-based, with a small sentence at the end of the first page article concerning US and European based banks.
When: This general news story about the economy is making front page news everywhere so any story will be as up-to-date as possible. It does refer to the €400bn bank bailout of last week, however.
Why: The economy has gone up in smoke, therefore this will be the main headline, for a few days to come at least! Also, everyone is looking to the government for answers.
How: The government in this instance is the instigator of this article, by not forcing the banks to pass on the cut in interest rates to their customers.
The main point of this article is clearly to inform the public (many of whom have mortgages) that this cut of interest rates may or may not be passed on to them, depending on the whim of their particular bank. It informs the public that the government will not take action on this, by quoting a 'spokesman': "At present, the department does not give instructions to the banks." It would seem to me that the Irish Independent is basing its story on a single quote from a spokesperson...
Journal 2: Broadsheets and Tabloids Part Deux
Tuesday September 30th 2008: Today I've chosen the Irish Times and The Irish Independent, to compare the nation's 2 biggest (in my opinion) broadsheets and see how they report current affairs.
Main Headline: 'Crisis deepens as US Congress rejects $700bn bailout deal' - a headline sure to send stocks plummeting if they haven't heard the news already. An Irish related sub-headline reads 'Government steps up plans to protect Irish banks' which perhaps softens the blow. The story deals first with the ISEQ dropping €6.5 bn off the value of shares and the reaction from the government and financial regulator, and proceeds to report about the American bailout deal. This is clearly the biggest story of the moment therefore it gets the main position above the fold, along with a side story labeled 'Cowen is confident economy can make strong recovery', which is self-explanatory.
The BP1 leads with an interesting story (perhaps to draw attention away from the economic crisis) about a Maoist government in Nepal that has named a girl aged 6 a living goddess. The first few sentences explain the situation, history and method of choosing this girl as a living goddess, including quotes from an official source in Kathmandu. This human interest story may attract religious readers as well those interested in Eastern affairs, with the Western economy going to pot...
The Irish Times
Masthead: A Health supplement to assist parents with teenagers, along with 2 related articles; first on a rugby player talking about men's health, then the education of rugby in Blackrock secondary school. Perhaps this is the Irish Times reminding us that 'health is better than wealth' as our recession progresses further?Main Headline: 'Crisis deepens as US Congress rejects $700bn bailout deal' - a headline sure to send stocks plummeting if they haven't heard the news already. An Irish related sub-headline reads 'Government steps up plans to protect Irish banks' which perhaps softens the blow. The story deals first with the ISEQ dropping €6.5 bn off the value of shares and the reaction from the government and financial regulator, and proceeds to report about the American bailout deal. This is clearly the biggest story of the moment therefore it gets the main position above the fold, along with a side story labeled 'Cowen is confident economy can make strong recovery', which is self-explanatory.
The BP1 leads with an interesting story (perhaps to draw attention away from the economic crisis) about a Maoist government in Nepal that has named a girl aged 6 a living goddess. The first few sentences explain the situation, history and method of choosing this girl as a living goddess, including quotes from an official source in Kathmandu. This human interest story may attract religious readers as well those interested in Eastern affairs, with the Western economy going to pot...
The Irish Independent
Masthead: 'Brains and Beauty' a celebrity related article, and a piece about Paul Newman, the actor who died recently. While differing from the Irish Times, the purpose is still to draw readers' interest, as only the financial papers and the financial section deal purely with the crisis; the Independent still wants to interest readers in other news.
Main Headline: 'Meltdown Monday' - an admirably succint way of revealing a doom-laden article, almost like a tabloid. The Independent has become more tabloid shaped to attracct readers, yet keeps the credentials of a broadsheet in the style it reports. The paper posts a page-by-page index of the crisis beside the main picture, with news, an editorial, analysis and opinion pages listed. This would make the paper seem more focused than the Irish Times. However the two papers deal with the story in a very similar fashion on the front page, in the same format as mentioned above. This is the only story adorning the front of the Indo, there is no BP1 - again making the paper seem more dedicated.
Journal 1: Broadsheets and Tabloids
This is my first posting for Journalism Yr 1 in DIT, where I'll be going through the front pages of different papers each week to see which stories are making headline news and why they're there.
The Evening Herald: 23rd September 2008
Masthead: Fashion and GAA. The Herald is a Dublin newspaper so it has a story about the Dublin GAA team in the masthead to grab attention, especially as the GAA final has just finished. Fashion is there, I imagine, to grab female readers' attention.
Main Headline: There is no BP1 (Bottom of Page 1) story on this day, just the headline:
"Apprentice TV Star 'Hit man in front of wife'", with a picture of the assailant. Violence is often an attention grabber, particularly on a slow news day, and the parties involved are on our TV screens almost nightly so the story is given more import.
A quick description of the story in large bold print is made under the headline clearly and informatively, while the main body of the text deals with the incident and quotes from parties involved. There is no fold so this story covers most of the front page.
The Evening Herald: 23rd September 2008
Masthead: Fashion and GAA. The Herald is a Dublin newspaper so it has a story about the Dublin GAA team in the masthead to grab attention, especially as the GAA final has just finished. Fashion is there, I imagine, to grab female readers' attention.
Main Headline: There is no BP1 (Bottom of Page 1) story on this day, just the headline:
"Apprentice TV Star 'Hit man in front of wife'", with a picture of the assailant. Violence is often an attention grabber, particularly on a slow news day, and the parties involved are on our TV screens almost nightly so the story is given more import.
A quick description of the story in large bold print is made under the headline clearly and informatively, while the main body of the text deals with the incident and quotes from parties involved. There is no fold so this story covers most of the front page.
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