Groundhog Day for media
AS the various political parties and independent TDs continue to jockey for position in the race to form the next government, the wider media industry can be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu.
Not just because the media has been down this road before in terms of its election coverage but because some of the proposed reforms and initiatives aimed at helping and supporting the wider media industry appear to have evaporated following the dissolution of the 32nd Dáil.
For the duration of the last government, many working in the business end of the Irish media industry were offered glimmers of hope that here was a government, sometimes aided by the opposition, which was finally addressing some of the more pressing financial and structural challenges facing the industry.
And, for a while, it seemed like progress was being made.
As far back as 2016, for example, former Fianna Fáil spokesman for communications, Timmy Dooley worked hard to secure cross-party support for the Independent Broadcasting Bill, which recognised the importance of the independent broadcasting sector. Dooley was also in favour of an advertising tax on the likes of Facebook and Google as a way of funding other parts of the media ecosystem, including newspapers and broadcast media. This was necessary, he said, “to sustain high-quality journalism in Irish public life” at a time when fake news on online platforms was destabilising western democracies.
While Dooley’s interest in the problems facing the media industry were laudable, votegate and his failure to get re-elected in the recent General Election put an end to any hopes of his proposals going any further.
Some hopes also rested on the former Minister for Communications, Denis Naughten, who held the reins for much of the time the long-awaited Broadcasting Amendment Bill was winding its way through the Oireachtas. Like Dooley, Naughten also recognised some of the wider challenges facing the media industry and was open to the idea of trying to come with some solutions. Unfortunately, Naughten exited stage left following the controversy over meetings he held with the leading bidder for the National Broadband Plan.
Enter Richard Bruton, who took over from Naughten in October 2018. Despite giving the initial appearance of being more preoccupied with more pressing issues such as climate change, Bruton finally managed to publish the long-awaited Broadcast Amendment Bill in August 2019, much to the elation of the independent broadcasting sector which had been pushing for its introduction for nearly eight years.
Bruton also went further than his predecessor by announcing, in December 2019, the establishment of a Commission on the Future of Public Service Broadcasting under DCU’s Professor Brian MacCraith. He also signalled that a new Media Commission, to replace the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, was on the cards.
But then the not so small matter of the General Election intervened and all bets were off. Now there are widely-held fears in the broadcasting sector — which has experienced more false dawns than the England football team — that we have arrived back at square one again.
If the recent manifestos published by the different political parties in the runup to the election are anything to go by, these fears are probably well justified.
While the concerns of the broadcasting sector, particularly RTÉ and its future, have dominated much of the debate surrounding the media industry over the last four years, behind-the-scenes lobbying for a much-needed overhaul of the punitive and draconian defamation laws, and a possible reduction in the Vat on newspapers, were also starting to make some progress. But not enough by mid-January and, again, it may be back to the drawing board on this front.
With the benefit of hindsight, however, now might be the time for any new government to step back and take a more holistic view of the media landscape and all its complex moving parts.
One of the worst aspects of the different reports that have been commissioned, the Oireachtas committee deliberations and the different bills published, is the shocking lack of joined-up thinking when it comes to both policy and strategy. This is also evident in the manifestos of the different political parties and it doesn’t bode well for the future of the industry.
The harsh reality is that the media industry faces many complex commercial and structural challenges, all of which need to be addressed. Tinkering away on the fringes or addressing the needs of one part of the industry is all very well, but it is ignoring the much bigger and much more important picture. Unfortunately, time is running out.
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Golden Bake, the Irish manufacturer of puff pastry products, has won the annual Love Irish Food Brand Development Award for 2019.
For its efforts, the Dublin-based company wins a €75,000 advertising campaign with OOH company Exterion and a €10,000 bursary from the creative agency Owens DDB, which goes towards creating and developing the advertising campaign. In addition, it will receive a €5,000 bespoke product sensory research package from Innovate Solutions.
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One of the highlights of the annual advertising calendar, the Media Awards, is back again this year on March 12 in the RDS in Dublin.
A total of 285 entries were submitted to the awards, which celebrate excellence and best practice in media buying, planning and research as well as the media brands and people who make up the industry. This year’s chairman of the judging panel is media industry veteran Peter McPartlin.