Traditional media help get the Covid message out

TRADITIONAL media have led the way in getting crucial information to the public about fighting the spread of Covid-19.

New figures obtained by the Irish Mail on Sunday reveal the Government has spent more than €20m on media advertising since the beginning of last year.

Almost all of this spend has been allocated to inform citizens about public health measures, restrictions and various business and social welfare supports.

The bulk of the spending has been with print and broadcast media. Since the beginning of last year to date, the Government has spent almost €10m (€9,736,893) on advertising with the country’s national and regional TV and radio stations.

During the same period it has allocated just over €7.5m (€7,503,636) with national and local newspapers.

The Government has spent under €2m (€1,833,237) advertising with online publications, while a further €1,501,253 has been allocated for video and radio adverts.

The figures were confirmed by Taoiseach Micheál Martin in response to a parliamentary question from Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín. In his response, Mr Martin confirmed a total of €16.9m was spent getting the Government’s message on Covid-19 to the population across all media, print broadcast and online, in 2020.

He said the 48 Covid campaigns ‘played a vital role in communicating the various strands of the pandemic’.

The Government’s campaigns also utilised popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TokTok and Snapchat.

Commenting on the figures, Mr Tóibín told the MoS: ‘The need that existed for the Government to communicate regularly and widely with all sectors of society during the crisis proves the need for a strong and diverse media, now more than ever.

‘It is interesting that for a challenge of this scale the Government has had to mobilize the so called “traditional” media to get its message through.’