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YESTERDAY Alan Crosbie, head of an Irish newspaper company, made a speech that was highly critical of “new media” – ie, that terrible thing you’re reading off a screen right now. The general idea was that newspapers produce quality information, and the internet produces “a tsunami of unverifiable data, opinion, libel and vulgar abuse”.
The rise of new media risked “abandoning that most precious resource, information, to chaos.” New media has the “capacity to destroy civil society and cause unimaginable suffering.” The rhetoric seemed more reminiscent of a North Korean press release than the conference on media diversity where Mr Crosbie was speaking. He even blamed new media for “those English riots.”
Perhaps, like North Korea, the company that Mr Crosbie heads feels under siege. Many older news companies are threatened as print sales and ad revenues decline, and the shortfall is difficult to make up online. There’s suffering in information era alright, though it’s the news companies, not society, that are feeling it.
Thankfully, many “old” media companies (to use Mr Crosbie’s categories) are adapting to the digital era, and developing effective ways to leverage their trusted brands, professional experience and talented journalists and editors. They’re mastering social distribution, opening up comments and discussion threads, developing loyal online followings, and opening up new revenue streams.
The alternative to this is to go bust, or agitate for free government money, as Mr Crosbie did. At the very least, the old media giants should spend their time understanding the new media environment rather than vilifying it. It’s an environment with very solid fact checking, that’s just as reputation-aware as the newspapers. It’s disaggregated, responsive, and fast.
New Media: Democratic and Careful with Facts
For example, when the Independent published the mistranslated ‘Magda’ story, it was mainly new media sources – TheJournal.ie, Broadsheet.ie – that reacted as the fact checkers and published the first Polish reactions. (On the radio, the John Murray show also helped correct the record.)
When the SOPA Ireland legislation appeared, it was these same outlets that published pieces that spread public awareness about the new law. It was through new media that an anti-SOPA campaign banded together and collected tens of thousands of signatures, and through new media that thousands of people alerted Ireland’s TDs that internet censorship was not a good idea.
In olden days, the entire Stop SOPA Ireland campaign would have been lucky to get a single letter on the Irish Times letter page. And that would have been it. That’s the time that Mr Crosbie longingly harkens back to.
Ireland’s New Media Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Let’s stop and look at the rest of this dangerous new media environment.
In my experience, it’s pretty damn good. I get better context on Ireland’s debt, housing market, and property skullduggery from NamaWineLake than the business pages of the broadsheets. For discussion and reporting on politics, there’s politics.ie, which has broken many political stories over the past few years, as has TheJournal.ie in the past 12 months. We’ve also got great reporting via Freedom of Information requests from thestory.ie, and reliable fact checking on the fuzzy facts spewed out by official Ireland from Maman Poulet. Similar fact checking continues on Twitter every day, driven by reporters, economists, and others.
For technology and startup business, there’s the newspaper of record for that sector, Silicon Republic, as well as several smaller tech sites. For areas like fashion and beauty there are blogs like What She Wears and beaut.ie.
It’s true that there’s a lot of mulch out there among the good tweets . But new media companies are solving this problem – it’s exactly what Dublin-based Storyful does. Our startup, NewsWhip, tracks which stories are spreading the fastest through the social web – it’s a democratic news filter edited by a billion people, deciding what to share on Facebook and Twitter.
New Media: Better at being Correct
New media sources will not destroy civil society and cause unimaginable suffering. And as TJ McIntyre points out in his IT law blog, they did not enable the London Riots. A detailed, data-driven Guardian study found that the riots were coordinated by text messages and private instant messages. Twitter was used to co-ordinate the cleanup.
Once again, a misconception (“Rioters on Twitter”) is corrected by data-driven new media. The Guardian has embraced a Digital First policy, and its future looks strong. In mid-2010, the Guardian was making an annual £40 million in online revenue – and that’s eons ago in new media terms. The Atlantic magazine recently announced that its online revenues were now exceeding its offline revenues.
Another great thing in new media – you can check all of what I’ve just said. Click on the hyperlinks, follow through. And if I got anything wrong, you can point it out in the comments.
It’s hard for the people with the printing presses to accept that they can’t any longer control the information we get each day. It’s particularly hard to imagine that their product – a daily fact sheet of what happened yesterday – might be just a temporary product of the information distribution technology of the 18th to 20th centuries.
There’s a lot to compete with online. But there’s only one solution to the problem – it’s not punitive legislation geared at new media. It’s producing a better new media product. I wish them good luck doing that.
Paul Quigley is co-founder of Newswhip.com.
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I would say the most common answer will be ‘at a dance!’
My parents met at a dance. My mom said she was attracted to my dad because he looked like Gene Pitney, my dad said he was attracted to my mom when he found out she didn’t drink so he knew she’d be a cheap date!
Tinder
Mom went to the Enchantment under the sea dance with the new guy in town that her father ran over. But my father,who was very shy, tried to ask her himself but it wasn’t happening,until he saw the school bully getting all aggressive on my mother. One punch and he knocked him to the ground. And so my mother went to the dance with my father instead.
Great Scott !
My mother picked my fathers keys out of the bowl or so they say, I’m sceptical enough though coz my father definitely isn’t the romantic type.
Cousin?
My aunt did the same thing, divorced her husband and married the owner of the keys. It was common knowledge they they were swingers.
Though I have no idea where my parents met, dad was an acquaintance of moms husband and while her husband was in prison they became friends. She divorced her husband, it was a very amicable break up.
They lived on the same road but never met until the day my dad knocked my mam down with his bike and the rest was history.they were married for over 40 years when my dad passed away.
Club Crystal, Main Street, Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo 1974.
My folks met at a dance in the Garda Rowing club Chapelizod on an icy winters night. Him and his friend drove my mam and her friend home, he asked for her number but with no pen handy he scraped it into the ice on the car. Mam thought she’d gotten away with it but Dad was smitten and took the number down as soon as he got home! Still smitten 34 years later :-)
My parents met at mass. Apparently much planning went into seating arrangements so they could sit near enough each to shake hands at the sign of peace. My dad asked her on a date to play squash-it was acceptable in the 80s. :)
My parents are from the same street. So I never asked them. Always felt it would be a stupid question. Maybe there’s some juicy, interesting car-chase story in there, so maybe I should ask. But it’s small-town West Cork. Who am I kidding? :)
Met at Dance > Ride > Pregnant > Married
All young ones think that nobody ever fell in love before them…
My father was a Garda, and my mother was a secretary. They met when Dad called into the office where Mom worked to issue a summons for after-hours drinking on her boss.
I’d rather not know to be honest
My dad saw my mum pass by on the school bus. His friend saw my mum and said “have a look at your one there in the blue dress”. When my dad saw her he smacked his mate and said “she’s mine”. Problem was she didn’t want anything to do with him, luckily for my dad though his other friend was dating my mothers older sister and when they work dinner dance came around my dad convinced his friend to take him as his +1 and my aunt brought my mother. So then she ended up stuck with my dad for the night and he managed to charm her into a date. The rest is history, 40 years married now and happy as ever.
My parents met at an Old Wesley dance. On their first date he met her at the Adelaide hospital and asked for Nurse Weir. He was told “We don’t have a Nurse Weir …. we do have a Doctor Weir”.
Mind you she came downstairs to find him talking to her boss, who turned out to be my Nana’s cousin.
My parents meet at a dance… Surprise surprise..her friend had a car and offered him a lift home when she shared her chips he knew they were meant to be together ..
My patents met in Fort William in Scotland. He was in the RAF and she worked in the NAAFI on the base. She had gone there to work from Athy with her best friend I’m 1952. My father had been conscripted into the RAF and was from Inverurie in Aberdeenshire. I have a strong suspicion my life began there. I love hill and mountain walking and my favourite place to base myself in the Scottish highlands is Fort William.
My dad broke my mams toe by dropping a computer on it when they worked in the same office.
My parents met 44 years ago when my Mum was 18. She was hitch hiking for a lift down the country and my Dad picked her up.
They met in the top hat in dun laoire and on there first date me da sent his mate to say he was sick n then me ma seen him on a bus going to a football match.
My mother worked in the Irish Sweepstakes in Ballsbridge but worked Saturdays as a cashier in a cafe in O’Connell Street.my dad went there most Saturdays and thats where they first met.They were married for 39 years till my mum died.
Gus my nanny worked in the Irish sweepstakes also,wonder did they know each other!
Mine parents met in the gresham dance hall holloway road both from cork !! Xx
My parents met – wait for it… at a dance! He immediately liked her and later that night asked if he could drive her home. Would have been more romantic if he was the one driving and not his friend!
But something worked!
Knew each other from work for a few years but when my mom showed up at the Christmas party after losing twenty pounds my dad was suddenly all over her, as she puts it, “like white on rice”
Got her up the stick
The Catholic Church’s view on contraception I’d say.
My father was friend in college with my mam’s cousin. They all have friends in common but my mam and dad had never met. My dad and mam’s cousin made a party with college friends in my mam’s grandfather summer house behind their back. When news came about the mess the lads had made the next day my mam got asked by her grandparents (who were blind) to go with them and describe who was there and what was the level of damage. My mam open the door and said everybody names… everybody but my dad coz she didnt knew his name. My dad was so thankful coz all the rest of the lads had gotten into big troubles he ask her out to a dance as a thank you. My mam said no. My dad insisted in ask her for a date. She eventually said yes but only to walk in the park at midday before siesta. My dad was 23 and my mam was 17. They’ve been together ever since.
My dad was in army flew in to visit home saw my mom and deserted lol
My parents had a fairly run of the mill met-at-a-wedding meeting, my grandfather was matched with my grandaunt but ran off with my gran!
On a very drunken New Year’s Eve. It’s all a bit blurred.
Wish I had a good story to share. Lovely reading the peoples stories tho :)
They met 1957 banba dance hall Kilburn and were married for 49 years and 359 days
Yeah, mine meet at a dance too. No surprise there! Anything other than a dance must have been considered controversial back in the 70s!
Journal are testing how dumb and soft the nation has become! Who the hell cares! I cannot believe some people think the rest of the nation would like to know how their parents met!
How many fingers am i holding up??
Did cupid thump you rather than shoot the arrow at you.
Well I have enjoyed reading the comments Mister Tractor apart from yours of course.
How many fingers am I holding up? Just one, the middle one.
32 yrs ago today at a friends xmas party
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