A real Irish Sunday?
This is not a novel observation of the Sunday Times (it’s a bloody obvious one in fact) but this weekend’s edition, as so often, showed just how clumsy the Irish content is grafted on.
There were the usual references and articles that are quite obviously served up to the British readership. A piece about “the military” was about the British armed forces. An article on what you pay for your broadband was purely about the British market. Then again, it’s a British paper. Should we expect their Irish sub-editors to nitpick through every article and localise the references?
But there are times when you wonder why they don’t at least make some kind of effort. Most notable this week was how one editorial dealt with the Irish Labour party, while the other (on the EU constitution) demanded: “Come on, Mr Brown: give us the referendum your party promised.”
Give it to “us”?
Again, it’s British. What should we expect? The Sun and the Mirror do the same. But what continues to surprise is how easily the Irish can live with this. A cultural legacy from once being part of Britain, perhaps, or maybe a by-product of our proximity to an influential neighbour. But I wonder if Ireland is unique in having become a media region of a foreign country - buying another country’s papers which then claim otherwise by clumsily stitching in some local content.
What’s the alternative on a Sunday?
Comment by Steve K | August 28, 2007 at 9:22 amNow there’s a question…
Comment by Shane | August 28, 2007 at 12:18 pmWell, you don’t really have to wait until Sunday to see this sort of clumsy melding.
Your chums in Metro do it everyday, one badly rewritten badly written press release after another.
The only comfort I draw from it is from the fact the UK press releases are as poorly crafted as Irish ones.
Comment by markg | August 28, 2007 at 1:01 pmOh and don’t get me started on the Daily Eire Mail.
Comment by markg | August 28, 2007 at 1:01 pmI live in Canada. It’s even worse here. The US papers don’t even try to localize.
Comment by Ronan OD | August 29, 2007 at 3:06 pmRonan, Are they bought as secondary purchases alongside the Canadian papers, or as the main daily paper?
Comment by Shane | August 29, 2007 at 3:22 pmDoes anyone choose to buy the Sunday Times based on the quality of its Irish coverage? Or, put it another way, wouldn’t someone that stopped buying it because it was too Brit-centric sound a bit silly?
Only the main section, the Sport and a couple of columns in the Culture even bother trying to localise.
In the Culture, AA Gill’s review of (British) TV is sandwiched by a column on Irish media and a column on Irish radio.
The only reason I buy it is for its Sport and Culture sections and some feature-news. I leave my daily news to the (Irish) daily papers.
Oh, and I buy it because I’d rather slash my eyeballs with razor blades than read the Sindo.
Comment by dealga | August 30, 2007 at 9:40 amDealga, The reasons why people buy it must vary, and readers know it’s a British paper, but it’s still interesting to see how a) it sells itself as Irish and b) how sloppy it carries through on that promise.
Markg, You make good points, although I would argue that Metro is less choppy in how it knits the Irish and British.
Comment by Shane | August 30, 2007 at 6:09 pm