Every foreign TV report of the Eighth campaign Cottage and sheep in the distance. Saint Patrick’s Day parade. Church spires. Farmer with a border collie. Keith Mills. Leo Varadkar’s socks. Nuns. Pantibar. Fintan O’Toole. Closing shot of sunset behind Hapenny bridge. Things you won’t hear during the Eighth campaign “And joining us now is [Insert… Continue reading The Eighth
Tag: journalism
“What’s the going rate?”
Ideally, you decide your rate. Realistically, it’s a negotiation. Most of us start as pricetakers. If we’re lucky, we end up naming our price. We should all strive to reach that point. So what’s your rate? One way to decide is to work backward. Pick a gross yearly income target. Say €36K, more or less the… Continue reading “What’s the going rate?”
Bump, Slump, and Subs
Facebook doesn’t want to be a publisher, and it really doesn’t want to be a news publisher, so it should come as no surprise their reaction to accusations they spread fake news is to kill all news in the “newfeed”. This brings us back to a long-running argument. The future of journalism is not in hunting… Continue reading Bump, Slump, and Subs
Justice “administered in public” and data protection
A few weeks ago, a message appeared on a Facebook journalism court from a reporter, who had just been told he would not be allowed advance notice of district court cases any more because of “data protection” issues. I was curious to learn more, so I sent in a Freedom of Information request to find… Continue reading Justice “administered in public” and data protection
The Charleton Report
As possibly the only journalist in Ireland to have covered two Garda tribunals of inquiry in their entirety, I should probably say a few words about what will probably come to be known in shorthand as the Charleton Tribunal. For starters, although I’d be glad to do so, it’s deeply unlikely I will cover a… Continue reading The Charleton Report
The Trouble With Algorithms
There’s a notion going round that not only should Facebook not interfere with the newsfeed to stop Fake News, but it is incapable of doing so. This is absolute nonsense. I follow maybe 300 people on Facebook. I regularly see updates from about a dozen. Sometimes, that’s because people haven’t posted recently. But usually it’s… Continue reading The Trouble With Algorithms
What’s the worth of a a freelance?
A while back, someone posted to a freelance journalism group in Facebook looking for some advice on rates/ They’d been told by a published that they paid “standard rates”, and naturally, this raised the question, what are the standard rates? So I answered in part as follows: There is no such thing as a standard… Continue reading What’s the worth of a a freelance?
Public interests
I see enough bad news about the news business (the latest ABC figures, for example) so I thought I’d post these words, from Mr Justice Max Barrett on court reporting and privilege recently, on why court reporting matters. Court reports are not just of interest to the public; they meet a great public interest. In… Continue reading Public interests
Information wants to be free
Or at least, I want information to be freed. And thanks to the new Freedom of Information Act 2014, signed into law today, it just got a little more free in Ireland. Now there are a lot of caveats. Not all officialdom falls under its terms, there are exceptions for things like commercial sensitivity (which… Continue reading Information wants to be free
Freelance Forum: All you need to know
There are only only six days to go until Freelance Forum Autumn 2014. Have you reserved your place yet? Freelance Forum is a regular one day event designed to keep freelance journalists up to date with the latest developments in their industry. Aimed at writers and photographers, and hoping to cover print, broadcast and online,… Continue reading Freelance Forum: All you need to know