Freshening Up The Sheet

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From top: Michael Taft; Dr Julien Mercille

The state of progressive media in Ireland is gloomy.

But that all may be about to change (a little).

Dr Julien Mercille writes:

I am informed by ‘sheet editors that a “beefed up” Broadsheet will evolve over the next few weeks boasting a slightly modified design, new columnists/writers and more cats other “exciting stuff”.  This will help fill an immense gap, especially as election 2016 approaches.

The state of Irish progressive media reflects the state of progressive independents in politics. There are projects here and there, individuals trying to do good things, but with a lack of unity resulting in scattered and dispersed endeavours that often go nowhere, or at least never reach their full potential.

The consequence is cynicism, frustration and apathy. It all looks so disjointed that people don’t know where to go, what to do and who to talk to in order to get organised to change things. Projects are started but often don’t move beyond a Facebook page.

Indeed, because of the weakness of progressive media, people too often end up on Facebook and social media. There you can read scattered commentary and see pictures of this and that and read people vent and argue and complain.

It’s clear that some feel very satisfied and excited at debating others and insulting politicians on Facebook. If you’ve spent five hours building graphics and pictures saying Joan Burton is an idiot, that must have been useful, no?

The truth is that this stuff leads nowhere. The only effect is to make the complainers feel good about themselves and actually spread cynicism further and more deeply.

Sure social media is effective to circulate ideas and organise meetings. But in terms of providing a regular source of analysis and opinion on current affairs, we’ve seen better.

One thing that never fails to amaze me is the quality and effectiveness of the progressive media in the United States compared to the appalling state of affairs here.

Broadsheet tries and will try harder to combine two things that are very difficult to achieve in any setting: 1) provide quality content that is 2) actually read and popular. Many other platforms do well on one of those, but not the other. A good quality blog that’s read by 14 people is a failure. And a website that has a million readers but contains only jokes is a failure as well. I think that combining Broadsheet’s reach with quality content might nail it.

It will be a necessary counter-weight to the mainstream media. Some of the latter is good, but much of it is either too uncritical of government or vacuous. The result is that progressive viewpoints have had a hard time making it through.

One thing that strikes me on a daily basis is how much commentary and reporting in the Irish press is simply empty. The problem is not even that I disagree with a viewpoint, it is that there simply is no viewpoint presented, or no point made, with articles completely lacking direction, or angle, or content. The result is that readers are just staring at the television or newspaper but getting nothing out of it.

Broadsheet may even be useful to journalists and producers working in the mainstream media. As a one-stop shop for progressive views, it will be an important resource to find quotes or interviewees or individuals who can appear on radio and television from among the cast of ‘sheet contributors.

For example, Michael Taft will have a weekly column on Tuesdays, starting tomorrow and focusing on the economy in plain and accessible language. I will stay on for Mondays, and look forward to reading all the congratulatory comments from my detractors.

And there will be other writers joining. The goal is to provide a broad range of progressive viewpoints.

Hopefully, the project will snowball and get people interested and talking together. So watch this space.

Julien Mercille is a lecturer at University College Dublin. Follow him on Twitter: @JulienMercille

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92 thoughts on “Freshening Up The Sheet

  1. fluffybiscuits

    Chompsky and Co – fair play for expanding the base of BS. It’s going to really make a difference in election time and if you can break stories you will be ahead of the game.

  2. MoyestWithExcitement

    Excellent news. The Journal, from what I can see, basically have a monopoly but they pander to racists and idiots far too much. There is a definite need for a less tabloidy alternative in independent media.

      1. Happy Molloy

        also those of a shinner disposition. and a lefty disposition. Doesn’t really matter what type of disposition, none of them seem to think to hard about anything

      2. MoyestWithExcitement

        Well. It’s the only high profile news outlet I can think of that isn’t a newspaper brand or tv station and it allows comments so that will and does bring out the cockroaches. It’s the only place for them to go. In fairness to The Journal, they do have good think pieces and decent copy. They have a decent amount of balance as well. You have Merceille write articles but you also have that fat bloke who hates poor people. It’s the comments section that skewers our perception of the place and it isn’t necessarily a fair reflection on the people that work there nor their intentions. In fairness, Broadsheet posts can have Journally comments sections. T’is the nature of the beast.

    1. Conor

      To be honest I don’t think they pander to the above! Unfortunately it’s the only mainstream online news site that appeals to under 35’s in Ireland. They’ve played the game, and they’ve ultlisted social media to become the dominate online news agency. I agree, the comments section is full of absolutle morons but they do have some decent opinion pieces.
      I won’t lie, I can’t stand it – but it’s still the first site I go to for the latest Irish news.

      1. MoyestWithExcitement

        Ah they definitely pander to racists. Not that they write racist copy but sensationalism and arguments generate clicks and cash. Who else would refer to a small group of racists that spoke at a neo nazi rally as a ‘party’ or talk about them at all? But, as I said above, they do provide a decent level of balance. There is definitely room for a more considered alternative though which is why this news from BS is great.

  3. Mayor Quimby

    It seems the writer is moaning that there circle jerk isn’t strong enough – “there’s not enough of an closed, biased media” rather than there aren’t enough new writers with a different slant on things

    Mercille’s articles are typical of the shallow click-baity articles one finds in the HuffPost rather thanmore considered material to be found in Mother Jones or The Atlantic

    1. Happy Molloy

      I’m inclined to agree, a lot of such writers, and readers, proclaim bias unless a publication agrees with everything they say, and endorses all of their criticisms.

      I’d prefer if broadsheet were to piss off all sides, that would surely confirm a lack of bias!

      1. meadowlark

        I’ve complained before about the bias and political prejudice in Irish news. I’d love an unbiased news source, but I do know that it’s effectively impossible.

  4. J

    “Broadsheet tries and will try harder to combine two things that are very difficult to achieve in any setting: 1) provide quality content that is 2) actually read and popular.”

    Dear Sheet Editors. A purge of the current contributors and daft Taft would be a good start ….

  5. Just sayin'

    That’s the death of the original Broadsheet.ie confirmed. Its probably well overdue that it stop pretending to be the same light-hearted website it was and admit that its now a semi-official voice of the “progressive left”, whatever that means.
    I found its columns by various failed and wannabee politicians a bit tedious but at least its now properly outed itself.
    I can stop reading it now for mild amusement and leave the “progressives” to rant about the state of everything. So long and thanks for all the fish!

    1. Happy Molloy

      I would share some of the same fears that this site will be less about the irreverent fun and more about the progressive left as you say but will try to remain optimistic.

      For the record, I’ll prob vote FG in the next elections but I am a fan of the social democrats, I believe in balance.

        1. Anne

          + One Happy Molloy added to the sh*t list.

          And to think I nearly flirted with him
          “For the record, I’ll prob vote FG in the next elections” Whhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyy like

          1. Anne

            And before ye do it, please don’t change poopy list to poo list.. It doesn’t have the same effect. :)

          2. Happy Molloy

            Cos I can’t wait for Leo to be taoiseach!
            And things aren’t as bad as reading stuff on the Internet would have you believe. Still could be better of course

          3. Anne

            “And before ye do it, please don’t change poopy list to poo list.. It doesn’t have the same effect. :) ”

            hehehehe

            Yeah, things are worse IRL Molloy and and go way with your baby.. You have a long ways to go to redeem yourself now.

    2. Medium Sized C

      ‘ “progressive left”, whatever that means. ‘

      Both progressivism and the concept of left-wing politics are well defined and well understood concepts which are quite effectively described in the first sentences of their wikipedia articles.

      1. Rob_G

        Ireland’s ‘progressive left’ parties are more ‘leftist-populist’ – for example, they all seem to oppose property tax, despite it being one of the most progressive taxes there is.

  6. Joni2015

    The problem is that broadsheet are trying to push a political agenda that I used to read in student newspapers.

    1. J

      It’s the omission of pertinent facts , misinterpretation of statistics, leaps in logic, and the peddling of a sloppy nationalistic disguised as socialist narrative that bothers me most about these posts on a Monday. To preserve my own sanity I may have to divorce myself from BS . *sighs* It was fun while it lasted. *sniffle* *sniffle*

  7. rotide

    Have to agree with mercille about social media. The irony is that’s where broadsheet gets most of its content.

  8. whatthefupp

    I suppose if you shout loud enough ,create a twitter profile, infer that your commentary is “quality content” you can convince a fair few dummies . I am in awe of the level of delusion that has married social media.

    1. Anne

      It (an edit) button wouldn’t work.. for instance, I could go calling you a miserable pr**k, you react, then I go back and edit it and say, see you, you’re a lovely human being.
      People will be wondering did someone p*ss on his cornflakes today.
      Or someone could have their punctuation all wrong, go back and fix it, then the boring c***’s comments about the punctuation looks even more boring.. or a comment about a spelling mistake mightn’t match up to any spelling mistake, or someone could delete their comments completely etc etc. Then you’d have comments about the editing of comments.

      Or you could just read over your gibberish before you click submit.

      1. Marklar

        Edit with a link to view the comment’s history sorts this problem out. I’m pretty sure all this takes is to enable a checkbox with wordpress.

      2. Fergus the magic postman

        Or somebody with another account they use for trolling, might accidentally post from their main account. The ability to edit might allow them to disguise this mistake.

        1. Frilly Keane

          Ah now be fair Rott
          That multiple log in carry on wasn’t called trolling back then

          Would anyone remember the original GAA Board on hypermart.
          No registation required….

  9. Clampers Outside!

    Yes! Great news BS, delighted to hear of this !

    I guess it won’t be long now before the RealBS, INLA-BS and OfficialBS set up their splinter group websites each dedicated to one BS regular, like…. Things that look like Ireland on ContinuityBS !

    2016 – Bring it!

  10. Fergus the magic postman

    Looking forward to seeing the results of this beefing up.

    Could this mean even more Wah! wah! left wing biased…wah…liberals….wha wah type comments?

  11. Declan

    I’d look forward to a beefed up broadsheet for the general election but I’m always suspicious of opinion related media/news. I know Julien is Canadian but he’s spent too long staring south to his southern brothers in Fox News and MSNBC. Give me the BBC and even our own beloved RTE over them any day.

    I really think there’s a cultural difference here and Julien is applying an American standard to an Irish problem. being cheeky, I’d say it’s an example of American cultural imperialism, they just want to see and hear the world through their own eyes and ears.

  12. miko

    It would be progressive if Mercille declared his political affiliation and party membership rather then pretend to be some unaffiliated geography lecturer.
    I’m bemused by his adoption of the word progressive when his political stance is more 1950’s East Germany.
    An an interesting analysis of his “research” by Marc Coleman here: http://marccoleman.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Merci-Mercille.pdf
    Even if Marc protests too much it’s clear that Mercille and his AgitProp don’t add anything to the political discourse of what the majority of people want – a modern, pluralistic liberal demoracy. Not a failed state like Greece that Mercille would have us be.

    1. Bonkers

      Lol thats the same Marc Coleman who wrote a book on the Celtic Tiger in 2007 entitled ‘The Best is Yet to Come’ where he predicted economic growth until 2020 at least. No economist was more wrong about the impending crash than Coleman yet you’re holding him up here as a some kind of paragon of knowledge? jaysis, if you’d listened to him you’d be broke now.

  13. DaithiG

    ” A good quality blog that’s read by 14 people is a failure. And a website that has a million readers but contains only jokes is a failure as well.”

    He basically just said that ye’re sh*t to yer face.

  14. Nice Anne (Dammit)

    So the acedemics are taking over the asylum?

    Fair enough. It’s jus strange that this message comes from a relatively new writer on the site. Does this mean that Julian is now the BS editor or the spokesperson for the whole team?

  15. Truth in the News

    Well, it will be nice to have an alternative view, other that what served up from
    the Dublin media, it would alter the cosy cartels that manuipulate and steer
    public opinion, and would be an incisive examination of the policy peddelars from
    various political parties, it certainly won’t suit Kenny, it would even threathen
    his much lauded “stability”…….Roll out the expanded website quickly.
    We also need to ask, whats Noonan doing running for election, when his age
    group aren’t allowed to be employed by the Census, a body that falls under his
    Dept’s remitt.

  16. Hellvetica

    Eh…what design?
    Broadsheet has always been a mess visually and editorially.
    Irish media is bereft of decent writing and articulate voices for sure, but we are also a long way from the traditional US blog system of bloggers actually being paid for writing, so I’d imagine it will still be quick cheap studenty visual gags that win the day.

  17. Gullah

    They both work at the advisory boards where I was asked why I use a food bank.
    Cool hopefullfy broadsheet will be more liable to share my analysis from the sharp edge of austerity, even have a column every 2nd week.
    Next one in class in the Irish media..in the spirit of open communication, listen to the proles….(it’s where they get most their ideas)

  18. Andy

    Why is Mercille talking on behalf of Broadsheet?
    I thought he was simply a contributor, no?
    Does he own equity or does he have an editorial position?

    But to the point, yes, another left wing propoganda/”progressive” website is exactly what da t’internet needs.

  19. is in the air

    I can’t wait for Julien’s systematic analysis of Moldovan politics. And here’s why the Irish media don’t want you to know about this.

  20. Donal

    Im happy that the ‘sheet is upping its game and looking forward to seeing what comes next. Irish media is probably more diverse and open minded than people give it credit for but it is settled in its ways and can be scared of its own shadow at times. Broadsheet has already done the state some service by keeping tabs on Redacted and other important stories when nobody else would.

    What I’m not so impressed by is that its Julian Mercille that is announcing this. I don’t agree with his politics or those of Ann Marie McNally but McNally is a clear sane communicator who makes people who disagree with her stop and think. Mercille is a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist who doesn’t bring any value to his subject matter and doesn’t challenge anyone. His articles are a collection of rants and random associations with no compelling arguments – he is basically just the flip side of Ian o doherty….

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