Contrast these three snippets from recent Irish newspaper articles. (Headlines underlined)
Katy on life support after heart attacks
… Katy’s failure to respond to treatment is viewed as so serious that doctors have ruled out moving her to a more acute hospital in Dublin … Close friends revealed Katy was …
Read the full piece from the Irish Examiner.
Tragic Katy dies in sister’s arms
… Katy’s heartbroken parents were also at her bedside … A team of consultants are understood to have examined Katy in Our Lady’s Hospital yesterday afternoon.
Read the full piece from Irish Independent.
Top model Katy French dies in Navan hospital
… Ms French (24) was taken to Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan … French celebrated her 24th birthday …
Read the full piece from the Irish Times.
Spot the difference? Top marks if you noticed the third one is journalism. I don’t know what you’d call the other two, but certainly not journalism.
The Irish Times is the only paper that has covered this saga impartially and professionally over the last few days. They have not lowered themselves to the lovey dovey style of familiarity the others have.
And rightly so. I didn’t know this woman. I never heard of her until this happened. You probably didn’t either unless you read society/gossip columns and their ilk. Being seen at parties and functions doesn’t achieve anything. It doesn’t stop wars, feed the hungry, advance life-saving technology. Not even help old ladies across the road or cats down out of trees. Nothing. So why the familiarity?
There are few exceptions for reporting on a first name basis. One was the Robert Holohan case. A child was missing and later found dead in a ditch. The whole nation empathised. The whole nation worried. The whole nation was united. Lines like “Robert is now missing three days” were acceptable. No, we didn’t know him, but it was as if we did, because we could imagine what his family and friends were going through. Our genetic programming triggers protective responses where the young are concerned. “Robert is now missing three days” = “A helpless child is now missing three days”.
This is not the case here. Despite its flaws, it would seem the Irish Times is the sole surviving newspaper in Ireland.
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Maybe that’s what they were thinking, that the whole nation would emphatise with a sick woman who is dying. Just as the whole nation that would emphatise with all the dying happening all over the world. Pause.. Not.
I totally agree on the differences in quality of journalism, or lack of it therefore, for lack of a better term to describe it. Same styles can be seen in every country. In Sydney it was the Daily Telegraph that was the epitome of shite news reporting / journalism.
Now that I have come across two posts in one day, on the news about this woman I will have to “google” and find out about her life story and how she fell ill, etc. *sigh*
Oh, poor “Katy”… She was under so much pressure from fame… What the f*** is wrong with these people!?
Dear oh dear, I just spent 5 precious minutes out of my life to find out more about this person.
Thanks Primal!
And one of the few left in Europe to boot.
Shades of Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury not Moore).
This is a normal situation for me. Most of the people whose deaths I see reported in the media, I never I even knew they lived.
Gayé - Ooops! Sorry about losing 5 minutes on you. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.
Aonghus - I never slag Michael Moore - I won €3k worth of techie gear by answering a question on him. The only time I ever won anything.
Shouldn’t the libraries now be classifying Fahrenheit 451 as Fact not Science Fisction?
A Chainteoir - That’s understandable - you are not (all that) long in this country. I have no such excuse and I only heard of this woman a week ago.
Totally with you there Primal, and you’ll be sure that if i ever need to be catching up with your news I’ll be sticking to the ‘Irish Times’ myself!
Bloggorah used to have posts making fun of her faux celebrity status last spring.
It’s a shame she’s dead but the coverage sadly is simply tabloid journalism.
White girl - And the Sunday Times, Irish edition - they covered the THREE recent deaths laudably yesterday and referenced the many others too.
Medbh - I listened to the Sunday Supplement on Today FM yesterday morning. Sam Smyth’s panel were Kevin Myers and Kathy Sheridan. Whether I’m a fan or not they are all seasoned journalist - and all were baffled at the coverage.