From top: A visual from the Newsocracy Conference in Limerick last Friday; Anne Marie Mcnally

Journalism as we know it and as it should be is in extreme danger in this country.

Anne Marie McNally writes

On Friday last I spoke at a conference in Dublin hosted by MEP Nessa Childers. The title of the event was ‘Newsocracy- Safeguarding Journalism and Exploring owner Influence’ and the theme was (obviously!) the relationship between media ownership and unbiased Journalism.

The panel was made up of representatives from media outlets and other agencies including Facebook, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, the National union of Journalists, academics from the field of communications, and journalists from various backgrounds.

By a country mile the overwhelming message from the speakers was that Journalism as we know it and as it should be is in extreme danger in this country.

Possibly the most worrying part of the day came when Professor Roddy Flynn from DCU’s School of Communications presented the findings of a research piece which examined the treatment of four of the biggest news stories of recent times across various media outlets.

Two of those stories centred around your favourite redacted personality with a penchant for litigation.One was the reporting of the Moriarty Tribunal findings and the other was the Siteserv/IBRC and Catherine Murphy story.

The results were interesting to put it mildly.

In relation to the Moriarty Report, a study of 140 articles published about the Tribunal in Independent News and Media (INM) titles and a further 227 in non-INM titles between March 23 and April 2, 2011, showed that, in general, INM titles were more likely to focus on Michael Lowry than on Denis O’Brien with the difference being reported as ‘statistically significant.’

Similarly in relation to the reporting of the Siteserv/ Catherine Murphy story, the study found that the frames used to report the story differed significantly between INM tiles and non-INM titles with the former tending to frame the story in the ‘abuse of privilege and right to individual privacy’ context while others chose the ‘public good’ frame more regularly.

Given that the circulation figures for INM titles far outstrip all others this is a worrying, if not surprising, reality in our news media and surely has repercussions for the democratic process if media is to truly be considered the Fourtht Estate of any healthy democracy.

We, of course, are also aware of the campaigns waged by INM titles on perceived ‘political rivals’ including Sinn Féin and Lucinda Creighton in recent times representing yet another worrying departure in news media in this country.

After Professor Flynn had dropped that particular nugget of academic proof on the difference in reporting based on ownership into the conference, the tone continued apace.

Daniel McConnell, the Political Editor of the Irish Examiner and former Irish Independent Political Correspondent, delivered a speech entitled ‘No Country for Brave Men’ which was a fascinating insider’s insight into the politics of newsrooms and the changing landscape of Journalism as a profession.

Daniel spoke about precarious working conditions for young graduates entering the profession and how even the type of reporting we receive on specialist subject such as the Courts, has become dumbed down by virtue of the fact that new entrants are very rarely trained into specialities and are more often than not just stuck on a beat that’s available rather than tailored to any particular skill set.

Gemma O’Doherty followed up in her now trademark fashion of burning the establishment to the ground in what was a cutting and incisive speech on the often toxic relationship between our National Broadcaster, politics and the issue of looming litigation and/or influence.

I had gone along to speak on the importance of Social Media in political campaigns and had always intended to make the point that despite my being an evangelist for Social Media, I still very much value and understand the importance of using the medium in harmony with traditional media.

I pointed out that during the so-called ‘constitutional crisis’ caused by Catherine Murphy’s speech it was only this online outlet, Broadsheet.ie, which stood by and held firm in the belief that Article 15:12 of the Constitution protected them to report the utterances of a national legislator in the national Parliament while every other (more adequately resourced) media outlet in the country cowered in the face of threats from the redacted one on high.

I know, having been in the maelstrom of that particular crisis, that it was not journalists who were the problem, it was overly-cautious legal teams wielding control over media outlets.

On that basis I’ll end this piece in the same way I ended Friday’s speech – it is not brave journalists we need – we have them – it is brave media outlets prepared to give voice to those journalists.

Anne Marie McNally is a founding member of the Social Democrats. Follow Anne Marie on Twitter: @amomcnally