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IT’S A BRAVE person who would try to predict the direction of journalism in an online world. That was the introductory remark of one of four media figures who spoke this week on news journalism and the internet at a conference in Dublin.
The Institute of International and European Affairs hosted the presentations which explored the business and journalistic challenges facing news outlets as consumers of news go online in search of stories and information.
What follows here is a brief introduction to each of the speakers at that conference to give you a sense of some of the questions raised. Each speaker has kindly provided the text of their speech/presentation so that you can read in full by clicking on the links provided.
Noel Curran, Director General of RTÉ, spoke of the large part of his day which he spends trying to figure out how to make RTÉ work as a business model. While he referred to the challenges posed by recent “editorial mistakes” and “rapid technological changes”, Curran said that he felt the uncertain time faced by all media is also an exciting one.
He said that RTÉ would need to take several approaches to the challenge – constant innovation, increased multi-skilling of staff, more flexibility in news delivery, sharing of RTÉ content with other outlets and monetisation of its digital products.
To preserve the broadcaster’s journalistic integrity, Curran said RTÉ would have to repair any trust issues the country has with RTÉ as “quality and trust” becomes increasingly important in a crowded internet market. He said:
I would argue that far from being diminished, professional high quality journalism, and public service journalism in particular, has rarely been more relevant or more necessary than it is today.
Kevin O’Sullivan, Editor of The Irish Times, spoke of his own outlet’s embracing of the consumption of news through digital platforms. He said:
Through our various digital platforms we are in the process of transforming operations to serve a growing, discerning online audience. The old hierarchical model of ‘we will tell you the news’ is over.We are becoming a telling presence within the realm of social networking – acknowledging the new power of individuals and ‘the new plasticity of info’.
Brian Fallon, CEO and co-founder of TheJournal.ie, presented his thoughts in a slideshow presentation which you can see by clicking here.
He said that he was “optimistic” about the future of journalism in the online news world, citing the move online of both news consumers and the admittedly slowly-growing spend of advertisers online.
However, he estimated that the future revenue from online advertising and some subscription models will increase, allowing online newsrooms to expand. He also cited the flexibility afforded by online for open and collaborative journalism, by new multimedia tools through which stories can be told in new ways and the engagement of the online audience with social and mobile media.
Changes in public policy are vital to assist the transition online, he argued, saying defamation reform for user-generated content is needed. He also argued for more open access for journalists to courts, government data sources and RTÉ.
Ann O’Dea, CEO of SiliconRepublic.com, said she believed that “high quality reportage may turn up in places we might not expect”, in reference to the Huffington Post website’s first Pulitzer win for journalism last year. She highlighted the need for news businesses to adapt their products to a move online:
Management has a huge responsibility here in my view. The survival of quality journalism will depend greatly on management’s ability to adapt their business models, to constantly learn and embrace new platforms and new technologies.
Alternatively, you can watch the presentations on video:
(via IIEA1/Youtube)
(via IIEA1/Youtube)
(via IIEA1/Youtube)
(via IIEA1/Youtube)
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Getting my results in a few hours.. God help me
Good luck!
Best of luck Paul hope it goes well for you.
I’m in the same boat Paul! Best of luck, I hope you’re happy with your results :)
Best of luck to you both
God would have mercy…the leaving cert. won’t.
Whatever the result Master Quinlan, you’ll eventually get to your destination. Worse case scenario, you’ll just take the scenic route.
I have a bit getting her results today too. hope you all get what you want. my other girl did hers two years ago did not get enough points for Radiography, but one year of science under her belt and she got radiography in London, has year one of three done and dhe loves it. There are always options to get the courses later on in life or via another course. good luck to you all.
Come back to us, Paul and tell us how you got on! Good luck.
Hi, I am a radiographer, it is a very rewarding career. Good Luck to your other child today.
to HRH Brummie! my post was aimed at you :-)
She loves it, done her placement in Kings college hospital. very busy course and she loves it, second daughter is set to follow too. great career choice alright. thanks for the tweet.
@Liam – spot on – I like that; “the scenic route”. Plenty of people have taken this route with absolutely no regrets and some even stay on the scenic route. Far too much emphasis on what has been seen for too long as a “typical” route of LC, college, job.
It’s becoming less and less typical….
@GardaTraffic had this to say….
“if you are are one of the 58 thousand today, good luck and just remember, the cliffs of Moher never took an exam and look how popular it is” (https://twitter.com/GardaTraffic/status/631387189893591040)
True and it’s great craic – more fun-filled college days, more skills learned, more experiences of different areas which you will always get some benefit from, the scenic route is a great choice! I hope nobody is disheartened if they find themselves taking this path today
Got what i wanted so am ecstatic to say the least! Thanks for the well wishes.
the world is your oyster. it always was this only helps.
Thanks Moll hope all went well for you! :)
Just remember the LC is most certainly NOT a measure of your true intelligence. Points do not always equate to smarts.
The irony is that those who get high results “think” they are the intelligent ones, while those who score low “know” that intelligence is measured in more ways than just academics!
Good luck to everyone receiving their results today. I hope you all get what you hope for and if you don’t, even though you might not realise it today, it is not the end of the world. You are a hell of a lot more than what a state exam says you are.
Although my daughter got great results last year, they weren’t enough for her first choice university and she spent a lot of the day in tears. In many ways it was a blessing in disguise as instead of moving to the UK, she is thoroughly enjoying her course at Trinity College, Dublin and has thrown herself into college activities and is presently in India with an educational charity. We get the benefit of having our daughter at home and we are enjoying her university career as well! There are always options – good luck to everyone today.
I got my results thirty years ago and still well remember the stress of waiting for them. My sincerest well wishes to all concerned.
I love my country and I’m proud of Gaeilge, but the language needs to be taken out of the category of a compulsory subject. Irish is just not used anymore, except in obvious places. There is no benefit to knowing it whatsoever.
I was away travelling a while back and while on the bus to another destination, I was sat next to a fellow Irishman. Me (23) and the other guy (mid 50s) were talking about the Irish language. I was going on about it being taught wrong, no use for it after school etc. and that’s why I couldn’t speak it. He said to that there is a use for it. That it was my responsibility to practice and speak my mother tongue, it’s part of our identity. That it is our duty to appreciate it as we are even lucky to still have it. To finish his point he said he regretted not being fluent in Irish and wishes he didn’t leave it so late. Maybe it was the fact that I was away for a prolonged time that made what he said impact me more. But if some lad on Dublin Bus said this to me I probably would have ignored him. Anyway, now, whenever I’m around friends or in the shops, I almost always say a bit of Irish. You get a shock reaction at first but it always ends in smiles and a chat about the language. Even if they’re another nationality I say thanks or goodbye and they know how to respond sometimes. In the case of the older generation you sometimes get to learn a phrase you never heard before and get a story or two. I encourage everyone to give it a go. it’s a bit weird at first but even if it’s just a thanks in the shops, you’d probably make that shopkeepers day (believe me when I say that, used to work in retail).
..that’s all very well. Why you need Irish to study Mech Eng though, escapes me -or, take the posts above, Radiography – and that’s why Irish as compulsory should be abolished. It’s being used as a stick. Why not teach people to love it, instead ?
Liam, I disagree.
It might sound counter-intuitive, but the reason we have compulsory subjects is to give people some choices in life.
One might say “there is no benefit whatsoever” to learning English literature – the novels, plays and poetry – but some people develop a real passion for this and go off and study it in college – a passion they might not have developed if they didn’t have to study it in school. @John Moylan – you say Irish shouldn’t be compulsory because we don’t need it for radiography? I assume you are also in favour of abolishing compulsory English literature study, since it does not help people study radiography either?
Definitely, the average person has no use for most of the maths they learn for Leaving Cert maths….but if you want to go into a career in engineering or something like that, you need to have that maths background. So the compulsory studying of it give you more options when it comes to decision time.
And I would say the same for Irish. Studying it for the Leaving Cert (and leaving aside the debate of how it is taught) gives people a base to work from if they want to use Irish after school. Most people don’t, but some people do. I will give myself as an example. I definitely would have dropped Irish at 15 if I had the choice, because I struggled at it. But I got a good teacher for the LC, got much better at Irish, kept learning it after school – now I am fluent and Irish will be the language I raise my children through. I wouldn’t have had that choice to the same extent if I didn’t have to keep learning it for the Leaving Certificate.
Wouldn’t envy anybody opening the envelopes this morning. But if you don’t get what you want it’s not the end of the world.
My son is getting his results today. Best of luck to him and everyone getting results today.
If you didn’t do well, hard luck it’s just a memory test . It doesn’t define you…..
If you did well, wow well done . What an amazing achievement!
Either way In a matter of time . You will just be another full time journal troll ha
13 years later and still having “dreams” about today. Good luck everyone ehos getting their results today, and don’t forget no matter how you do its not the end of the world. Finishing school is an achievement in itself.
The results ONLY reflect the amount of Uni places – veterinary complains they are deluged with bookworms bent on white coat science labs, not labouring over cattle? The systems a joke – don’t be overwhelmed by peer perceptions in youth; overwhelm them by your insight and adaptability to the fluidity of the big picture – flexibility and solid work get you everywhere, as does taking the thrills and spills of life in your stride.
Best of luck to everyone getting their results today. Am I to understand from that article that we have better academic Russian than Irish? If I’ve read that correctly, what does that say about how our national language is being taught?
That’s a bit simplistic – from previous years, analysis of such results show that the overwhelming majority of those who take Russian grew up with the language – this isn’t true for the irish language across the majority of the country.
…actually Tony, it tells you exactly about the state of the language: we didn’t, don’t grow up with it. That we don’t use it, that it’s not familiar, and effectively out-of-use to the majority. That’s some achievement for the years and cost of teaching it…………
The Irish system is complicated and sometimes may not seem fair, but the most important thing for Leaving Cert class 2015 to remember is that whatever the results are, it is the way you went through, that is important. It is the knowledge and experience you gained that will help you pursue your way of life. Remember, if the results are great – congratulations, if they are not -congratulations, you have yet another opportunity to pursue your goal and creatively find a different way – this will help you grow even further. If you want to become an engineer or a doctor and found yourself with 3 points too little to study in Ireland, you can still look for options abroad, which may be a life changing experience and a blessing in disguise. E.g. you can study medicine i Poland and end up saving one year.
Other options are fine, but I don’t think I will have time to find out what I need before Colleges start in September.
Hurry up, you can still apply e.g. to study medicine and related disciplines in Poland with Medical Poland. E.g. Copernicus University’s Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz with Medical Poland run an open day this Thursday, 5pm.
Over 70% of those taking honours Russian got an A1. Can that be right? should Russian not follow the same bell curve as all other languages, or are they marked easier? Just asking as it seems to give them an advantage points wise.
To go a little further there should be an investigation by the dept. of education as 70% getting A1 is a gross distortion of statistical possibilities.
Even probabilities, my bad.
“The SEC says that results this year are “broadly in line” with last year across the board.”
This is said EVERY single year! There’s a reason why – and that reason is highlighted by the large percentage of appeals where results get upgraded.
For any student that feels aggrieved about any particular result, they should DEFINITELY appeal.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/leaving-cert-appeals-have-18-higher-grade-rate-1.1955439
“Nobody who sat ordinary level in Classical Studies, Italian, Physics & Chemistry, Construction Studies, and Japanese received an A1″. True, but it’s also probably true that no one sat that combination of subjects, unless you meant “Classical Studies, Italian, Physics & Chemistry, Construction Studies, OR Japanese”. Simple grammar, guys; get it right.
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