Media – Slugger O'Toole

Last Call for Jeffrey? Step up and play.

Ian Clarke on January 23, 2024, 8:29 am

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Over the course of 2023 I had 4 pieces published by Slugger on the challenges facing Sir Jeffrey Donaldson in getting his party back into government in Stormont. To recap, my line on all 3 was that he needed to face down the old Paisleyites in the DUP by claiming victory from his negotiations with HMG and using that claimed victory to lead a realignment of mainstream unionism into something currently lapsed voters can embrace. I seriously hope this is …

Free press crucial for transformative justice in Venezuela: a talk with Luis Carlos Díaz

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on November 1, 2023, 2:33 pm

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Luis Carlos Díaz, an accomplished journalist from Venezuela and deemed a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was a guest keynote speaker at an event organised by the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) at Ulster University, Belfast. A conversation was facilitated by Juliana Poveda Clavijo and Cristal Palacios Yumar, both PhD researchers at the university. Professor Brandon Hamber (John Hume and Thomas P. O’Neill Chair in Peace) introduced Luis Carlos Díaz, informing the audience of his co-authorship of nine books …

Constructive journalism is ‘pressing, urgent, and needed everywhere’: inaugural B° Future Festival

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on September 21, 2023, 9:54 am

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The Bonn Institute hosted an inaugural, two-day B° Future Festival for journalism and constructive dialogue, held in the city’s LVR LandesMuseum. The first day for registered delegates was conducted mainly in English and discussed various dimensions of constructive journalism — such as focusing on human experiences and solutions, trauma-informed interviewing, community engagement workflows, and the business case for newsrooms. The second day was opened up to the general public, with a long list of information and practical sessions at various …

Is it now the case that music and politics don’t mix?

Ian Clarke on September 14, 2023, 7:46 am

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I was going to write this piece a couple of weeks ago when the hysteria over the Wolfe Tones at Feile had settled down. But it didn’t. So I didn’t. Then last week it was worse than ever with their appearance and apparent triumph at the Electric Picnic Festival. But probably better timing for me. Leaving aside the embarrassing spectacle of thousands of young people singing along to a dirge in tribute to sectarian terrorism, it raised a bigger question …

As the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement approaches, the immediate outlook is uncertain. But reform is in the air

Brian Walker on April 2, 2023, 1:14 pm

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As the Great Anniversary approaches, unionist opinion in its supporting press is in turmoil over whether or when to return to the Assembly. Worryingly there is talk of being resigned to loyalist violence in the event of a border poll. Opinion is tilting against accepting the Windsor Framework. Its gaps and deficiencies are forensically taken apart in the Belfast Telegraph by Sam McBride. In the Newsletter, the voice of sceptical unionism, the editor Ben Lowry comes down against the Framework …

Misinformation, harms and the dangers of online censorship – join the Battle of Ideas on Saturday #imaginebelfast

Soapbox on March 24, 2022, 8:00 am

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For those who harboured hopes and continue to believe that the online exchange of information and ideas could be a boost to knowledge and debate, and even fuel a more enlightened society, questions around misinformation and harm raise important questions as to how the online experience might be defended and developed – as a site of potential liberation as it was once envisaged, and hopefully still can be. Whatever your view, these issues are surely worth discussing. Which is exactly what we’ll be doing this Saturday at the Belfast Battle of Ideas.

Personal reflections on Kenneth Branagh’s ” Belfast”

Brian Walker on February 4, 2022, 8:33 pm

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As the First Minster was announcing his resignation, I was being transported to the same world fifty three years ago, by Kenneth Branagh’s film Belfast in the company of my grown up daughter, her English husband and my young granddaughter, sitting all together in an almost empty London multiplex. Branagh dedicates the film to “those who stayed, those who left and those who were “lost.” We are among the second. For the past 50 years, I’ve led a two centred …

Challenges mount for our daily newspapers

Ian Clarke on March 15, 2021, 12:42 pm

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Recently the official, independently audited daily sales of the UK and Ireland’s daily newspapers was published for the period July-December 2020. Not unexpectedly they made very uncomfortable reading for editors and proprietors as overall the UK daily regional press sale had fallen by a record 19%. Obviously, the impact of Covid-19 had a major impact on this period, but publishers will take no comfort from that as once lost, it is rare for readers to return, no matter the circumstances. …

Irish government’s Covid 19 framework represents an important shift of pace…

Mick Fealty on September 21, 2020, 5:46 pm

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It’s interesting how the framing of the Covid crisis is beginning to subtly change. There seems to be a realisation that this is going to be long war, not a short campaign. The news of two new Covid deaths in Northern Ireland is carried by most major titles… Both victims were aged between 60-79. One of the deaths took place in the Newry, Mourne and Down council area, and the other was in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon. A further …

Northern Ireland’s future demands new energy and ideas from the BBC

Brian Walker on August 7, 2020, 11:06 am

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Denis Bradley writing in the Irish News The atmosphere that has been nurtured on BBC Radio Ulster and Foyle since the peace process has driven away more voices than it has attracted. Only the most vocal of our politicians are regulars. Most clerics avoid it like the plague. Key personnel in many of our most important institutions never appear, most likely out of fear. Many do not feel equipped to partake in an atmosphere that is not always conducive to …

How does our press emerge from lockdown? Part Four: Has the paywall dice got any spots?

Ian Clarke on June 21, 2020, 10:18 am

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I hadn’t planned even to write the third installment of this series but now, here is the fourth! Events of the past few weeks have been playing on my mind and I think it’s worth sharing. Recently, those of us who follow the Belfast Telegraph on social media will have noticed that it was actively promoting the fact that its “premium articles” would soon only be available to paying subscribers. Hugo wrote an article in anticipation of it happening a …

Anti-racism must not become a new form of cultural oppression

Brian Walker on June 13, 2020, 3:21 pm

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Laurence Oliver’s Othello ( 1965) Although from today we in England can create our own family bubble of different households, it’s still not too late to enter the lockdown confessional. I am not for a moment about to challenge the central aims of Black Lives Matter, or persistent discrimination at work or even what seems to me to be the intractable problem of race as an identifier of knife crime suspects in stop and search. I hope I’m sensitive to …

From Northern Ireland to the US, from 1968 to today, the camera is a powerful catalyst for change

Brian Walker on June 5, 2020, 6:31 pm

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The horrific image of policemen in Minneapolis caught in the act of slowly choking George Floyd to death has prompted the thought : how different would have been the course of the Troubles if they’d been waged under the eyes of 24/7 live news coverage and video cameras with sound on mobile phones? Would a whole race of citizen journalists, citizen terrorists and citizen security forces have been created all videoing each other like crazy? Might violence amounting to …

If I had to do lockdown again, I would cut back on media…

Brian O'Neill on May 23, 2020, 8:33 am

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In my younger years, I used to backpack around the world. One time I met an Australian girl who mentioned that she never consumed any news at all. This has always stuck in my mind. I was amazed and asked her was she not worried about missing out on anything important? Her insightful reply was that if it were important enough people would tell her. She gave the example of 9/11. The day after 9/11, someone said to her ‘Did …

“Journalists have always had to have integrity”

Paul Gosling on May 11, 2020, 8:01 am

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The media are at a crossroads, with fears over the future of some of Northern Ireland’s best known newspapers. Existing trends favouring social media over print newspapers have been accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis, with additional financial pressures from a collapse in advertising revenues. This is an appropriate moment to reflect on the future of the media and on ethical responsibilities on journalists working in a post-conflict society. The latest Forward Together podcast from the Holywell Trust features an interview …

Normal People depicts an Irish generation to appreciative millions that is at last growing up normally

Brian Walker on May 5, 2020, 4:57 pm

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Irish pornhub or a touching rite of passage? Critics are divided and that may be an age thing. But there’s no doubt that the TV series based on Sally Rooney’s rather minimal novel about the relationship between Sligo teenagers is a smash hit. This boomer old enough to be their grandparent is still getting over the fact that a drama about relationships set in a C21 Irish high school and small town has not a hint of Girl With Green …

How does our press emerge from lockdown? Part three: Regional Sunday Newspapers

Ian Clarke on May 5, 2020, 8:35 am

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I hadn’t planned a third instalment of this series as frankly I have little to no interest in the local Sunday newspaper market these days. Certainly my days of buying five or six Sundays that would see me through to midweek are long gone and, apart from a quick browse of the football sections (usually when I’m in Costa or Nero for an afternoon coffee) there’s not a lot on the front pages of our local Sundays to entice me …

With Paywall in Place, has the Tele Lost its Welly?

Hugo on May 4, 2020, 7:05 am

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Ten years ago, the Belfast Telegraph received a prestigious UK Award for Digital News Service of the Year. This was followed by multiple awards for website of the year, huge growth in on-line readers, and a new platform for digital debate that attracted thousands of comments. But with the installation of a new paywall on 19 May, are these achievements now at risk? Will the free and open voice of liberal unionism be silenced to all save a minority of …

SDLP suggestion for saving the press welcome, but publishers must dig deep too

Ian Clarke on April 23, 2020, 8:48 am

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Earlier this month I uploaded two articles here asking how our local press might emerge from lockdown and sharing my concerns about the ability of some of them to do so. Since then the future of regional and local newspapers all over the UK has become a pretty hot topic, with staff being furloughed at most papers and others even indefinitely suspending publication. Local journalists – including quite a few very good ones of my acquaintance – have been tweeting …

How does our press emerge from lockdown? Part two: Regional Daily Newspapers

Ian Clarke on April 15, 2020, 10:36 am

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Last week wrote of our local weekly newspaper sector and of the need to save them. I also said that I thought a lot of them COULD be saved if the will is there. But what of our three dailies? There may be less scope there for a happy ending in a sector that across the British Isles has been in freefall for over a decade. Up until the end of the troubles, the picture here was a simple one. …