Category: Social & Cultural
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TheLiberal.ie: Copyright infringements and Sock Puppets
This article first appeared in Village magazine, April 2017 edition Ardee District Court was delayed. The courtroom was packed, as it often is on a Monday morning after a busy weekend, with fresh arrests to be processed. Solicitors shuffled papers, Guards gathered in twos and threes in quiet conversations, and towards the back, concerned families […]
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Media looking at tribunal looking at media
This article first appeared in Village magazine, March 2017 edition The Disclosures Tribunal – or the Charleton tribunal, as it may come to be known – got of to a surprisingly quick start, with Supreme Court Justice Peter Charleton making an opening statement on Monday 27 February, only eleven days after the first draft of […]
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Real News: You Get What You Pay For
This article first appeared in Village magazine, February 2017 edition “Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.” That quote is usually attributed to Albert Einstein. But being a journalist, I decided to check it out. It turns out it has also been linked at various times […]
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In which Denis gets himself sued
This article first appeared in Village magazine. Perhaps the strangest event on the Irish media landscape last month was prompted by Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan’s publication of a report into media ownership in Ireland, commissioned by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) grouping in the European Parliament. The report itself – by Belfast […]
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Fake news and audio online: 2016’s lessons for moribund media
This article first appeared in Village magazine, December 2016 edition At the beginning of 2016, the two expected major new issues in media circles were 3D/VR immersive technologies, and podcasting. A lot has changed since then. Virtual reality/3D is still in the earliest stages of development – and may not ever evolve beyond a gimmick […]
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An Open Letter to Ninetynine Assembled Citizens
An edited version of this article first appeared in Village magazine. Dear Ninetynine, This wasn’t meant to be an open letter. I had planned simply to write to you using the contact form on the Citizens’ Assembly website. But when I rang the Assembly office, I was told you don’t get to see all those […]
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Copyright Reform: A pyrrhic victory for old media
An edited version of this article first appeared in Village magazine, October 2016 edition. Outline proposals for a modernised Irish copyright regime announced by enterprise minister Mary Mitchell-O’Connor at the beginning of August are now dead in the water, following the publication of draft directives by the European Commission in mid-September. The European plans, championed […]
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The bottom half of the internet
An edited version of this article first appeared in Village magazine. Not too quietly, but without a great deal of fuss, NPR (National Public Radio), the American public radio network, killed commenting on its website in mid-August. In a statement announcing the change on 17 August, the network explained that an analysis had revealed that […]
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Proposed new internet surveillance laws flawed
An edited version of this article appeared in Village magazine, July 2016 edition Justice minister Frances Fitzgerald’s proposal to expand Irish surveillance and interception laws to include social media and email accounts, coming only weeks after a row over interception of journalists’ communications by GSOC, is ill-advised and unlikely to achieve its stated aims, a […]
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Murdoch on the radio
An edited version of this article appeared in Village magazine, July 2016 edition Rupert Murdoch’s proposed move to buy up the Wireless Group (formerly UTV’s non-television assets) as June drew to a close has livened up the Irish radio market with the introduction of a sharp new player. With a cash offer of 315p per […]
