Funferal

Student Media Awards and more

It’s been a while, but its not been through apathy. I actually had a few draft ‘blog entries disappear when my machine crashed, which wasn’t the most fun.
Among the items in the last while are the Oxygen Student Media Awards. While its nice to see student media receive more recognition than was the case while I was in college (I feel so old writing that), I was concerned at the emphasis in the media coverage on the potential of the those involved to gain jobs in industry, as if that is what it is all about.
Of course, given that any media commentator is, almost by definition, someone who views their earlier ‘amateur’ efforts as precursers to a career in media, this angle is hardly surprising. However, the overwhelming belief that improving a CV is the raison d’etre of student media was, I believe, misleading. Student media, like other forms of community and participatory media, fills gaps that (pre-existing) commercial and ‘professional’ media cannot or will not fill. It also allows members of the community to gain an active role in the information-interchange process. But you already knew that…
On another note, the attention paid to Indymedia.ie and other ‘alternative’ media outlets since the debacle on Dame Street on the May Day bank holiday has been interesting.
However, the conflation of all protesting groups, while not as bad as could be the case, did raise the question: is the ‘alternative’ media synonymous with the anti-capitalist demonstrators? While indymedia obviously originated with the Seattle demo, some of the extremely hostile comments on indymedia.ie this week have even led others to comment on the purist attitudes of many posters.
The danger, as I see it, is that if indymedia and similar sites are continually and solely identified with the “anti-capitalist-anti-globalist” protests, without any connections to more local concerns, such media will (continue to) be pigeon-holed, and will suffer a permanent disconnect from the lives of ‘ordinary people’.
Finally: for those following the Irish election, both RTE and The Irish Times are providing continuous (if sparce) updates of the election. RTE, who may be hit by industrial action from Friday which would curtail outside broadcasts, have also launched a premium rate SMS service, which will provide (hopefully instant) updates of results during the election count.