4 6 March 2016
MEDIA
F
romthepointofviewofthemedia,oneofFeb-
ruary’sbiggeststoriesalmostgotlostinthe
electionchaos.OnFriday,February19th,one
weekbeforepollingday,thenewspapercircu-
lationguresforthesecondhalfoflastyear
werepublished.
Inonesense,thestorywasabitofanon-story:news-
paperscontinuetosellfewerandfewercopies–the
roughly40percentcollapseofsalesthatwe’veseen
overthelastdecadeorsowascertainlyacceleratedby
Ireland’seconomicimplosion;butwhateverrecovery
somebodyoutthereisenjoying,it’snotbringingnews-
papersbackintoourlives–theyweredownafewmore
percent.
Thatshouldbethestartingpointofanydiscussion
abouthownewspaperscoveredthegeneralelection.
Thismayindeedhavebeen,asseveralcommentators
suchasOliverCallanhavesuggested,themostsensa-
tionalist,themostbiased,themosttrivialnewspaper
coverageofanelectioninthehistory of theState.
Maybe.Whatever.Therecanbelittledoubt,though,
thatitwasthemostirrelevant.
You can shout all you like about how much the
journalismoftheIrishdailypressgetsreadonline.
“We’vegotmorereadersthanever(nowifwecouldonly
getthemtopay)”isacommonrefrainintheshrunken
corridorsofthepress.Thefactisthatmostofthose
readersarenolongercommittedtogettingtheirnews
andviewsfromanygivenpaper,butrathertheydipin
andout,oftencritically.
Isuspectthatonthedaythosecirculationgures
werepublished,morepeoplesawasocial-mediapost
fullofmockery,outrageorbemusementattheIrish
Independent’slatestfront-pagedenunciationofSinn
Féinthanactuallypaidforaphysicalcopyofthatpage.
SinceImerelysawanimageonmyphone,Istillhave
noideawhatGerryAdamswasplanningtodowithmy
pension.
Isthereaconnectionbetweenthepress’shysteria
thistimearoundandthesteadywitheringawayofits
relevance?Isuspectasmuch.Liketroubledchildren,
thelessattentionwepaythem,theloudertheyscream.
Election seasons havealwaysseenjournalistsat
theirmostpompousandself-important:inthebetter
classofnewspapertheconsequenceisanobsessive-
compulsivecommitmentto‘fairness’.Icanremember,
backinthe1990s,ateamintheIrish Timesnewsroom
dedicatedtomeasuring(literally,likewithrulers)the
coveragegiventoeachpartyinageneralelection,with
variousformulaetoadjustfortheunfortunatefactthat
allcolumninchesarenotcreatedequal.
Otherpapers,ofcourse,takeadifferentapproach.If
there’sonethingwecansayforcertainabout,say,the
Indo’snotorioustreatmentofthiselection,it’sthatthey
gotustonoticehowimportanttheyare.
Onceyouunderstandthedesperationofthepress’s
attention-seekinginitsmuch-reducedstateofhealth,
it’seasiertounderstandwhy,forexample,theRegency
Hotelshootingmanagedtodisplacetheelectionfrom
The roughly 40 per cent
collapse of newspaper sales
over the last decade should
be the starting point of
any discussion about how
newspapers covered the
general election
Less, but still,
relevant
During the election campaign the
mainstream media confirmed their bias
against the real left and Sinn Féin
by Harry Browne