I’ve been on Twitter for fourteen years now. Or I was, until last Halloween. My first experience of the site, the one that hooked me, was watching the Portraitgate story unfold in real time as a group of people on Twitter unpacked the story as RTE tried to memoryhole it. The last straw was the… Continue reading Exit X
Road Art 2
Clocha na hÉireann Located in Gleann Cholm Cille, Co Donegal, Clocha na hÉireann is a stone map illustrating the 32 counties of Ireland. It was commissioned in 2016, marking the entenary of the Proclamation of the Republic in 1916. Each stone is carved from stone native to the county it depicts, and in most cases… Continue reading Road Art 2
Mastodon For Migrants
So you’ve finally had enough of the Birdsite? It’s time to leave, but Threads isn’t doing it for you, and you can’t find a decent guide to Mastodon? Well read on. I’ll keep it simple. I won’t talk too much about instances or fediverses. Just follow these steps. 1. Join mastodon.ie Go on, I’ll wait.… Continue reading Mastodon For Migrants
Road Art 1
Ghost Horses From The Bog The four Ghost Horses From The Bog, by Lynn Kirkham, made from bog oak from the Bog of Allan. There are several equine themed public sculptures near my home outside Kildare town, but this is my favourite. It captures the essence of horse and motion. Through the Percent For Art… Continue reading Road Art 1
Housing, Europe and AirBnB
A while back, Irish and other news outlets reported that Irish efforts to tackle the housing crisis by restricting short-lets such as AIrBnB ran into an EU roadblock. You can read a typical report on the story here. So I decided to send a request to the EU Commission under the Aarhus convention access to… Continue reading Housing, Europe and AirBnB
Caledonia
The thing about independence movements is they lead to single-issue parties. All other differences are put aside as everyone agrees on the One Big Issue. This is why a war of independence is often followed by a civil war as all those differences resurface. Scotland is having one of those moments where the One Big… Continue reading Caledonia
Chill Out
I’ve been thinking again about the Mastodon experience for journalists. Mastodon isn’t Twitter. You’re not the main character over there. And the moderators actually moderate. Don’t be the guy walking into a quiet pub demanding they turn on the TV News at full volume. You’ll get barred. Sit first. Listen. Learn. Twitter trains people to… Continue reading Chill Out
New Media Rules
Like many others, I’ve spent the weekend finding my way around on Mastodon, as Twitter goes from being a hellsite to a place you suspect may soon literally burn to the ground because they fired the guy whose job it was to stop the servers overheating. If you’re interested, you can find me at https://mastodon.ie/@faduda.… Continue reading New Media Rules
Martian Robots
Journalists and radio producers love a talking head. No matter what the issue is, it feels good to be able to identify the person at the head of the group who has a strong opinion about it, either for or against. This is why an organisation like Martian Robots can get ahead. All it takes… Continue reading Martian Robots
Fanboys
It is often said of sports journalists that they are sports fans. This, the argument goes, makes them reluctant to criticise and challenge. I think anyone who said that doesn’t know many fans. Fans often engage critically. On the other hand, fanboys (and girls) are uncritical – and often defensive. But the real trouble is,… Continue reading Fanboys