Irish media angle on world events

Yummydaddy

There seems to be an increasing number of books by Irish journalists/writers writing about foreign political events and major world news events. I've read quite a few in the past few months.

Not sure if this is a new departure for Irish writers- but I think they are a good way of getting to grips with a foreign topic through Irish eyes. However sometimes maybe they are too focused on the Irish audience.

What seems strange is that the coverage by Irish journalists of these events in our newspapers has got less. The Irish Times has few foreign corespondents and I don't think the Indo and Examiner has any?


I am talking about books like Niall Stanage's excellent Redemtion Song about the Obama campaign ( http://www.libertiespress.com/ ) or the Carole Coleman book about the same topic I have not read yet ( http://www.theliffeypress.com/proddetail.php?prod=52-0 ) , and Mark Little's book New America which was good, but short and little bit too much jargon in it (http://www.newisland.ie/node/421)

and there are a number of books by Irish writers about the middle east. David Lynch's Divided Paradise is a good introduction to the Palestine/Israle conflict and even witty in parts! (http://www.newisland.ie/node/433) and I know RTE's Richard Crowley and Raymond Downes have written books about Palestine and Iraq as well, I read most of the Downes one and it is very good.

I'm just interested to know if people have read many of these books? Do they think that there is anything particularily worthwhile in a Irish angle on world events?

An if so, is the lack of foreign corrrespondents for Irish newspapers not a worrying trend? We`live in a global world as the financial crisis shows, so we need to have global news I think.

sceptre

Moving to News/Media. While it has a political aspect, it's wider than that so it's better-placed there.

mike65

RTE has more overseas correspondents now than ever, with permenants in Beijing and Washington DC, okay that doesn't sound like much of an advance on Brussels and London but better than was.

YOKO120

Irish media's view of the Palestine/Israel conflict is especially controversial at the best of times- with some saying it's too pro Palestinian. Especially during the most recent bombing of Gaza. Although there are many pro-Israeli writers in the Indo especially. Both Lynch and Crowley have been criticized for being too allegedly pro Palestinian. However that is a wider argument about can you be 'objective' when dealing with victims (which I think the people of Gaza were earlier this year for instance).

I think all Irish writing about foreign news events will be seen through an Irish lens- and Irish history and current politics will have an influence. It's just natural.

lostexpectation

most of them slathering and sickening

Serenity Now!

Yummydaddy wrote: »

There seems to be an increasing number of books by Irish journalists/writers writing about foreign political events and major world news events. I've read quite a few in the past few months.

Not sure if this is a new departure for Irish writers- but I think they are a good way of getting to grips with a foreign topic through Irish eyes. However sometimes maybe they are too focused on the Irish audience.

What seems strange is that the coverage by Irish journalists of these events in our newspapers has got less. The Irish Times has few foreign corespondents and I don't think the Indo and Examiner has any?


I am talking about books like Niall Stanage's excellent Redemtion Song about the Obama campaign ( http://www.libertiespress.com/ ) or the Carole Coleman book about the same topic I have not read yet ( http://www.theliffeypress.com/proddetail.php?prod=52-0 ) , and Mark Little's book New America which was good, but short and little bit too much jargon in it (http://www.newisland.ie/node/421)

and there are a number of books by Irish writers about the middle east. David Lynch's Divided Paradise is a good introduction to the Palestine/Israle conflict and even witty in parts! (http://www.newisland.ie/node/433) and I know RTE's Richard Crowley and Raymond Downes have written books about Palestine and Iraq as well, I read most of the Downes one and it is very good.

I'm just interested to know if people have read many of these books? Do they think that there is anything particularily worthwhile in a Irish angle on world events?

An if so, is the lack of foreign corrrespondents for Irish newspapers not a worrying trend? We`live in a global world as the financial crisis shows, so we need to have global news I think.

I've read Crowley's book. Way too monocular a view and takes no very little history of the region in question into account. Feels like a cash-in, to be honest.

I don't think he and other Irish authors deliver reportage from an Irish perspective (even with interviewing Irish emigrants to Israel for example) but from an observer's perspective regardless of where or what they're reporting.
A lot of newspapers take their foreign affairs content from the wire agencies. The trade nowadays is one large RSS feed. This is also evident in the British media. Just the way it is. Competition has been fierce and with the technology available, you'll find many editors will try to get away as much as possible with the mindset they don't need to send correspondents en locale.

little_miss_sun

Can't say I've read those books. But I know what you mean about the content for world news in papers getting smaller. I normally don't have time to read the daily's so I buy mainly the tribune and sometimes the independent. In both of these newspapers the sections have gotten smaller. I find the tribune's take on world news informative but short. They do post off the wall stories like the one below. It's a nice change as personally I'm sick of hearing about politics.

http://www.tribune.ie/news/international/article/2009/may/17/china-gets-its-first-sex-theme-park/