That once upon a time in the media we didn’t realise the value of archives, of holding onto original programming and editions, never ceases to amaze me.
Of course, as the ongoing fallout from the devastating fire in 2008 at the Universal Music archive warehouse in Hollywood shows, it wasn’t just a media shortcoming and that even now, what we chose to store and how we store it is far from perfect.
The twelfth media-mad Off Message podcast features political writer, Lise Hand, soon to be ex- of the Times Ireland edition parish.
In Buswells Hotel, across the road from her major work haunt of Leinster House in Dublin, and in many ways over the years her office away from her office, she came clean on the life of the political hack, the impact of social media on the world she covers, the downside of the closure of local newspapers, why the Times Ireland is closing and how she’s dealing with it, and much much more.
As the upcoming second series of You Couldn’t Make It Up, our comedy news panel show for Newstalk, fast approaches, it got me thinking about its long and treacherous journey thus far.
Back on Newstalk for a second 10-week run from January 19th, it’s been around the houses just to get this far.
As we often describe it, it’s the show that refuses to die, such has been its regular resurgences just when we think its pulse is no more.
The seventh media-friendly Off Message podcast – Off Message #50 overall…hurrah! – is with Nadine O’Regan, Books and Arts Editor and current (no relation) Off Message columnist with the Sunday Business Post.
During our chat, Nadine discussed how it felt to recently have her long-running Today FM show, Songs In The Key Of Life, rather unceremoniously dropped by the station; her own not insignificant role in the globally successful West Cork podcast; growing up in a household steeped in print journalism; her own very peculiar roundabout route into the business, and much more.
Now that all the fuss and excitement has died down I figured I should write a few words about the whole First Dates experience.
When I agreed to do it little did I know the impact it would have. Of all the one-off television appearances I’ve done over the years, there’s no doubt it was the one that blew up the most.
Mostly due to one simple factor.
The fourth media-mad Off Message podcast is with the ubiquitous Norah Casey who has worked both here in Ireland and in the UK across all sectors in the media.
She’s run and owned numerous publishing ventures, she’s presented her own radio and television programmes, she’s managed a handful of online businesses and written a book of her hectic life to date.
In it the podcast Norah reveals the tortuous stories behind her hugely emotional live Late Late Show and Marian Finucane appearances in which she first told the highly charged stories of her second husband’s death and the domestic abuse she suffered for nine years at the hands of her first; her recently-discovered insatiable love of podcasts; her real fear that she’s now become a news junkie; the trauma of selling most of her cherished magazine titles late last year; her love-hate relationship with social media; and lots more.
The third Off Message media-mad podcast features Mark Little, a man who’s already been around the media block more than once.
As you might imagine we had a lot to talk about, from the nitty gritty of his new business venture, to his reaction when Rupert Murdoch came sniffing round his last one, to the importance of genuine critical feedback, to how his own personal media consumption has changed radically over the years, and loads more.
The debut Off Message podcast, featuring the media-related wit and wisdom of RTÉ 2fm’s music-and-movie-mad Dave Fanning.
Over the course of our chat Dave reminisces about his almost completely accidental career journey; how his RTÉ career hasn’t exactly gone to plan; whether he’d ever ask U2 the hard questions; his unconventional advice for succeeding in the media world, and at a typical Fanning rate of knots, of course much, much more.
Off Message won an Irish Blog Award recently. Get us, huh?
I was of course delighted. But now I’m wondering if winning an award like this has any real and measurable impact on one’s career.
It’s tricky to quantify.
In media circles, fake news is the hot topic du jour.
It’s not a new phenomenon, of course; fake news has long done the rounds in our newspapers, on radio, on television and online.
I’ve been thinking about the perhaps unexpected role footballers’ post-match interviews have played in its current surge.
I got a nice black eye Saturday night. Despite taking selfies cataloguing the ever-darkening wound I resisted the temptation to publicly post them. Til now.
It got me thinking about how our mainstream media’s concentration on violent crime helps propagate an atmosphere of fear.
I followed news of the Brussels attacks online on radio and on TV.
It was no big deal.
I suspect for news providers using all available digital tools it is.
And Then There Were Three compiles a a few articles about some damn fool from the past while.
One contains a video clip I imagine will raise the giggles.
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Your invaluable, ahem, guide to sorting social get-togethers on Twitter.
