Ruairi Quinn - internet is now one of two major threats to the media

skelliser

“its inhabitants are unaccountable and live in cyberspace. . . a playground for anonymous back-stabbers

“The internet is now one of two major threats to the media, especially and essentially newspapers. Should all citizens worry about this? Would it really matter if the traditional press were to collapse under the strain, would the gap be filled by online media or social media? . .

“I personally think it would matter very much. I say this in spite of the shortcomings in the traditional media. Some of these have been dramatically exposed in the Leveson inquiry in Britain.”

Mr Quinn said the strengths of traditional media were its “high degree of reliability, accuracy, authority and a willingness to accommodate different points of view”.

Mr Quinn also said he would like to see “a discussion about how the powers of the Press Council and Press Ombudsman might be strengthened” and “how their remit be extended to cover online media”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0203/1224311177168.html

All this in the week the Irish Independent messed up a translation of a Polish womens interview which verges on incitement to hatred.
And it took people on the internet to spot this!!

Not to mention the Independent, amongst others triumphantly pushing the property boom at every opportunity.

Also Sean Sherlock, also of Labour is determined to sign a SI to the alarm of internet rights groups and the delight of the music industry.

It seems that Labour dont like a medium in which people can express and share their opinions to a wide audience.

What is it with Labour and free speech?!!

TeddyTedson

I don't live in Cyber Space, I live in town!

smash

Dear Ruairi,

The internet is media... it's new media you f*cking tool, traditional press has been dying for 10 years now.

Regards,
Someone with some cop on

chin_grin

smash wrote: »

Dear Ruairi,

The internet is media... it's new media you f*cking tool, traditional press has been dying for 10 years now.

Regards,
Someone with some cop on

Please please PLEASE send this via snail or email to him!

biko

The internet is better than the media!

Dyr

In my own estimation the bould ruari is a top grade bollix. Must be awful to a man/bollix like him to know that there is media out there that arent controlled through your oul' journo cronies.

eth0

Ruari Quinn: A forward-thinking modern Atheist.

44leto

I kind of agree with him, the internet is killing the print news and magazine media and I do not believe the online media is up to the mark of a good newspaper or magazine. But off course there is crap newspapers and magazines as well, which to be honest have a greater circulation.

One of the worlds leading Newspapers the New York Times is in serious trouble and it may not last much longer, I think we would miss these institutions when they eventually keel under the pressure of the internet.

skelliser

Bambi wrote: »

In my own estimation the bould ruari is a top grade bollix. Must be awful to a man/bollix like him to know that there is media out there that arent controlled through your oul' journo cronies.

this is how i interpet his remarks.

He doesnt like an unregulated internet.

smash

chin_grin wrote: »

Please please PLEASE send this via snail or email to him!

I'm sure if I sent him an email he'd set his computer on fire with the terror of it.

dlofnep

eth0 wrote: »

Ruari Quinn: A forward-thinking modern Atheist.

What has his religious (or lack of) views got to do with this? I'm an atheist, and I think he's a fúck-tard.

DrumSteve

Ugh, this gives me a headache.

Ruairi, if your reading this: Stick your newspapers up your bollix.

smash

44leto wrote: »

One of the worlds leading Newspapers the New York Times is in serious trouble and it may not last much longer

The New York Times are the most innovative of the lot of them, they have a top class, award winning mobile/tablet website that made history recently by avoiding the app stores through creating a real proper web app where you get the latest news on the go at your finger tips.

mikemac1

Mr Quinn said the strengths of traditional media were its “high degree of reliability, accuracy, authority and a willingness to accommodate different points of view”.

Bwah ha ha ha

Indo?
Sindo?
Sunday World?
Evening Herald?
Irish Daily Mail?

The rags outnumber the good papers in Ireland

Sunday World do a great sports section, I'll give them that

Logical Fallacy

“high degree of reliability, accuracy, authority and a willingness to accommodate different points of view”

lol.

_feedback_

Media? MEDIA?



I AM the media!


I OWN the BBC!



*jumps out window.

blue5000

chin_grin wrote: »

Please please PLEASE send this via snail or email to him!

minister@education.gov.ie

have fun spamming him up with new media rubbish

eth0

dlofnep wrote: »

What has his religious (or lack of) views got to do with this? I'm an atheist, and I think he's a fúck-tard.

I'm sure it earned him quite a few votes from a certain demographic that would very much disagree with this latest tripe and just like with Sean Sherlock I'm surprised he did. You'd expect some ould FF cabog to come out with this but not really anyone else


There will always be a demand for good journalism and people are willing to pay for it. All of the 'free' online stuff is funded on ad revenue which won't last forever either.

Temptamperu

hes an old man concerned about new technology, and he probably has his fingers in some of those old pies too.

Logical Fallacy

Temptamperu wrote: »

hes an old man concerned about new technology, and he probably has his fingers in some of those old pies too.

It is odd that he is having a reaction like this to new media shortly after the old media took his party colleague Jimmy Harte for a walk by the nose recently.

44leto

smash wrote: »

The New York Times are the most innovative of the lot of them, they have a top class, award winning mobile/tablet website that made history recently by avoiding the app stores through creating a real proper web app where you get the latest news on the go at your finger tips.

Is it free???just asking

I recently seen a documentary about the NYT " Page one inside the New york Times", I thought it was very good, it was a doco about the shrinking of this once great institution, but it was the internet that was killing it.

But these are the times, new technology has always killed old industry, but its not that the public has a lesser appetite for news its just we get it for free.

dlofnep

eth0 wrote: »

I'm sure it earned him quite a few votes from a certain demographic that would very much disagree with this latest tripe and just like with Sean Sherlock I'm surprised he did.

Er, that wasn't your intent. So perhaps you'd care to expand a bit more on why you felt the need to have a go at atheists?

Sent him this email, will expand on it and send another later on but have to type on my phone atm.

Dear Mr. Quinn,

it was with great amusement I read your comments regarding the threat the Internet is to the media. I am wondering if you are aware of the fact that the internet is in fact media and is commonly referred to as new media. The traditional press has been slowly dieing over the past decade and standards have dropped considerably.

To quote your own words, you stated that one of traditional medias merits was a “high degree of reliability, accuracy, authority and a willingness to accommodate different points of view”.

Funny you should say as such, especially considering the Magda article published in the Irish Independent earlier this week which is a fine example of the high degree of "reliability" and "accuracy" to be found in traditiional media.

Ironically enough it those "unaccountable anonymous back-stabbers" who "live in cyberspace" that pointed out the inaccuracies in the article. Had it not been for the Internet, there is a good chance that the article could have incited hate related crimes, the national media were up in arms with national radio stations dedicating hours of discussion to it.

The Internet seems to be something of an issue with Labour. Between Sean Sherlock's draconian legislation which sets out to limit the freedom of speech offered by the Internet in a bid to appease big business and your comments published today one could see a clear agenda on Labours part to serious limit peoples access to the Internet and with it free speech.


Yours,

Dublin_Gunner

chin_grin wrote: »

Please please PLEASE send this via snail or email to him!

It should be in a letter to the indo IMO.

Temptamperu

44leto wrote: »

Is it free???just asking

I recently seen a documentary about the NYT " Page one inside the New york Times", I thought it was very good, it was a doco about the shrinking of this once great institution, but it was the internet that was killing it.

But these are the times, new technology has always killed old industry, but its not that the public has a lesser appetite for news its just we get it for free.

Its not just we get it free, we also get it in a timely fashion, todays news today instead of tomorrow morning.

megaten

Guess I'm not voting labour anymore then.

smash

44leto wrote: »

Is it free???just asking

Yep

44leto wrote: »

I recently seen a documentary about the NYT " Page one inside the New york Times", I thought it was very good, it was a doco about the shrinking of this once great institution, but it was the internet that was killing it.

But these are the times, new technology has always killed old industry, but its not that the public has a lesser appetite for news its just we get it for free.

They'll easily make their money from banner advertising etc.

mikemac1

Al Gore invented the internet :cool:

Ruarí Quinn just can't compare to that politician

foxyboxer

Dear Minister Quinn,

PFO

Sincerely,

Me

tricky D

50 years ago: The media is the message
Today: the masses are the media

and politicians are still stupid

Volovo

I think the best source of all news/media is through the internet. The traditional media outlets just have to adapt to the changing world, get online and develop a decent user interface that people will want to use. Boo Labour

Ellis Dee

The Internet is a medium, and companies that were big in newspapers, magazines, radio and other traditional media long ago have, to varying degrees, recognised its potential and developed their presence in it. Steam engines were once the cat's whiskers, and then the internal combustion engine came along. It's called progress, development, technological evolution ...:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Ruari Quinn is talking through his hole (not for the first time) when he rabbits on about accountability. If the Government have never been able to make the small handful of people who own and run the media accountable and curb their influence on politics, the economy and, especially, politicians, he is pissing against the wind if he thinks he, the Government or indeed anyone will ever be able to shut up the multitudes of us who could never have their voices heard in any medium until the Internet came along. What chance would I have had even as recently as 20 years ago of having a letter containing some mild criticism of the kiddy-fiddler church published in the Indo, or the Irish Times, for example?:cool:

Quinn is as stupid as a buggy-whip manufacturer trying to ban the car industry. What he and Labour should do instead is develop a really good web site and allow everyone to have their say on it. That way he and his party may even find themselves gaining something they most desperately need - fresh ideas!:)

Brendog

Anonymous Back stabbers

Clearly Rick rolled numerous times...

ToxicPaddy

I think its amazing how much a bunch of short sighted idiots Labour have shown themselves to be lately..

If you look at Ireland, who are the major employers in this country??

Google, Facebook, Ebay, Amazon, Paypal, LinkedIn etc. These companies exist because of the Internet. How many millions of people use the Internet everyday?

Newspapers have been around for years and like all industries they need to adapt to changing times. If they can't they die. Simple as that. There is no reason a newspaper can't offer an online presence that's as good as a hardcopy. If anything it should reduce their costs as no longer do they need to print or distribute anything.

The same journalists can write the same articles, same photographers publish the same photos etc.

If this idiot spent his time promoting the idea of more online media, encouraging companies to build a better higher quality of online presence, the it would attract more readers, better quality articles, get a better feedback on articles etc.

If the internet is soooooo bad, howcome almost every politician has a website? Why? Because the current and future generations are and will use it more and more to do things like catch up on the news, express their opinions etc.

If this dinosaur is incapable of comprehending this, I think its time he retires with his generous pension and let someone who knows what they are talking about take over.

Idiots like this in power are one of the main reasons our government is the joke it is..

Duggy747

Labour - The party that doesn't like people using this baffling thing called the internet.

They're like some sort of over-protective parent that saw a news report about the dangers of the internet and decided to set fire to the family computer to protect their kids.

Does anybody in Labour actually have any...........ANY............iota of an idea of what the internet actually is and what it's used for? Is it just a big scary thing to throw random legislation at and hope it goes away?

Anyways, I prefer the internet for my news source since any misinformation is duely open to be corrected by somebody else rather than a print media downgrading itself to sensationalism and downright bullshìt to be more entertaining than factual and newsworthy.

StephenHendry

shocking comment from ruairi quinn. it seems his party went back in time the last few weeks with him and sherlock attacking the internet, social media etc.

token101

And this guy is the Minister for Education? He'll have us back using f***ing abacuses next the bald Luddite clown.

rasper

Don't forget these comments are from a class of people that have to take a Facebook course at the tax payers expense naturally , and also remember pat rabbitt saying " people were on the email to me straight away" a few weeks ago , knowledge economy

bleg

Remember this come next election lads.

Dempsey

Basically, the traditional media outlets are dying and the government are watching their tax income from this sector fall so they are trying to come up with a way to prop up the traditional media so they can have more influence and easily tax it or they'll want a way to regulate the internet more for their own benefit.

Ash.J.Williams

Considering RTE have been acting like a Orwellian propaganda machine lately i think we can declare traditional media as untrustworthy as the web.

the purple tin

Ruairi Quinn is a major threat to my patience :mad:.

General General

Old duffer, full of sh!t, moaning on about the way things seem to be going downhill, completely irrelevant views on the future, needs to lose a bit of weight & stop pretending that he is something other than a gravy train chancer.

Lone Stone

right, i actually voted for these fools and now i want to get them out of power. wtf is happening in this country i wouldnt be surprised if they tried to remove access to the internet.

Stiffler2

O $hit. The internet is killing news media !
Expect FG To bring in a new crapta law allowing media companies to censor social news on the internet so.

I was speaking to someone this evening who believes that what Ruairi Quinn proposes is a good thing. He made numerous reasons for why it should be implemented, raise the level of reporting standards, more informative and honest reporting, etc, etc...

Now let's be honest here folks this is about nothing other than control. By restricting access to the Internet and imposing restrictive rules upon it allows the government to effectively filter what we can see. Much like China, Quinn and his cohorts want to be able to restrict negative news stories concerning them being available to read. How many of our politicians can with a simple phone call have a story in a national publication hushed up? How many editors will make a quiet call to their friend in the dail to let them know of a story in them or in some cases just dump a story.

At this stage RTE seems to exists solely to tell us what a great job our elected representatives are doing. Listening to people like Joe Duffy toe the company line about how we should all shut up and pay our taxes is sickening.

PseudoFamous

blue5000 wrote: »

minister@education.gov.ie

have fun spamming him up with new media rubbish

Oh, god, how funny would his face be if he logged on to his official email address to find some rogue internites had signed him up to dozens of hardcore fetish newsletters?

tfitzgerald

This whole thread should be emailed to the prick anyone know his email adress

K-9

tfitzgerald wrote: »

This whole thread should be emailed to the prick anyone know his email adress

I'd say these are the type of comments he's getting at!

Got to laugh at the accuracy comments, if somebody thinks a comment on a site like this is inaccurate, you wont be long waiting to be told!

FinnLizzy

Right, like the rest of you, I was going into a fit of rage reading the quotes in the OP. I'm willing to give Mr. Quinn the benefit of the doubt and quote the entire part of the article regarding the media:

ONLINE MEDIA must be “prepared to embrace the same levels of accountability as traditional media”, the Minister for Education has told University of Limerick journalism students.

Ruairí Quinn said yesterday he would be worried if traditional media, such as newspapers, were to collapse against the threat of online and social media.

“The internet is now one of two major threats to the media, especially and essentially newspapers. Should all citizens worry about this? Would it really matter if the traditional press were to collapse under the strain, would the gap be filled by online media or social media? . . .

“I personally think it would matter very much. I say this in spite of the shortcomings in the traditional media. Some of these have been dramatically exposed in the Leveson inquiry in Britain.”

Mr Quinn said the strengths of traditional media were its “high degree of reliability, accuracy, authority and a willingness to accommodate different points of view”.

One of the big problems with the internet, he remarked, was that “its inhabitants are unaccountable and live in cyberspace. . . a playground for anonymous back-stabbers”.

Mr Quinn also said he would like to see “a discussion about how the powers of the Press Council and Press Ombudsman might be strengthened” and “how their remit be extended to cover online media”.

Part of the media’s job was to hold the most powerful in society to account but it must also “accept an appropriate level of accountability themselves”. Because the Defamation Act had removed huge financial risks for newspapers in printing apologies, he would like to see more printed where they were deserved.

“Where are the apologies? It’s inevitable the media make mistakes, the miracle is that they get so many things right under the time pressures in which they now have to operate. Why then, are there still so few admissions of mistakes . . . So few apologies by the media?

“What you get more often than not is something called a clarification. It’s always at the bottom of the page and written in deadpan English. So, if politicians are to be more frank with their admissions and their apologies, why not also the media? Done properly, this will enhance the media’s reputation rather than, as some would appear to think, damage it even more than the original error.”

From what I read, he may be trying to make a valid point, but expressing it so SO badly! And he is forgetting the fact that online sources are FAR more accountable than print media. What he should have been commenting on is flaming and hate speech, which is rampant in 'cyberspace'.

Jesus Wept

The Gubberment prefer to stab people in the front rather than with anonymity, there dacent like that.