Interest in news is down in
Ireland in 2022, according to this year’s Reuters Digital News Report; but it
is down from a high point of news engagement which focused on COVID-19 stories,
beginning with the first lockdown in March 2020. To put this into context, in
comparison with figures from the UK, North America and the EU, only 9% of those
surveyed in Ireland are ‘not very interested’ or ‘not at all interested’ in
news. And when the morning alarm goes off, the largest number of Irish
consumers reach for their smartphones (35%) for their first news contact.
Radio news in the morning is
still very important. Radio comes in at second place (31%) as the medium for
first news engagement. While only 13% of those aged 18-24 listen to radio news
first, this number rises to 37% for those aged 55-64 and 46% for those aged
over 65. In the early morning, in broadcast news terms, there is less
competition from television than there is in some other countries. Early
morning television in Ireland is a confusing media space: while Virgin Media
offers a solid menu of news and light entertainment on its ‘Ireland AM’ show,
RTÉ’s offerings are a mixture of teleshopping, recycled programming and
Euronews. Printed newspapers come in last as a first point of news contact and
COVID-19 lockdowns have not helped in this regard.
Radio news is an agenda setter
for the rest of the media, in the way that printed newspapers used to be. RTÉ’s
Morning Ireland is the place for politicians to ensure their messages get
aired, despite robust interviewing by a host of forthright and probing
presenters. It would be informative and interesting to hear more radio
correspondents’ on-the-road reports on air, but these are heavy on resources
and early morning radio news in Ireland is mostly covered by multiple phone
interviews.
Radio – and audio generally -
benefits from being a medium you can listen to while getting dressed, showered,
and grabbing breakfast. Now that commuting is back on the agenda, you can keep
listening to radio news on the bus, in the car and while walking or cycling. In
this year’s list of most frequently used traditional media brands, RTÉ Radio
News comes in second (after RTÉ TV news) and has retained its market share over
the past six years. Today FM comes in sixth, local radio news is seventh and
Newstalk is eighth.
People also have a very high
degree of trust in radio news. When asked to name the news brands they trusted
most, the ‘local/regional radio’ category was trusted by 70% of those surveyed,
coming in third being RTÉ news, and the Irish Times. In the trust category,
Today FM scored 65% and Newstalk 64%. We all hope COVID-19 is waning and yet,
should it continue to play an important role in our lives, our respondents care
about how it is covered. In our survey, it remains the subject our respondents
say attracts the most false or misleading news. This is a higher number than
news about politics, celebrities, climate change or immigration. Setting a
trustworthy agenda on this issue therefore remains a core necessity.
Aside from listening to
traditional radio news programming, Ireland also continues to demonstrate a
strong interest in podcasting. The number of people who say they have listened
to a podcast over the past month rose five percentage points this year to 46% with
the most popular categories being ‘specialist subjects’ (science and
technology, business, media and health). This was followed by ‘lifestyle’,
‘contemporary life’ (including crime), ‘news, politics and international
events’, and finally ‘sport’. The highest number of podcast listeners are found
in the 25-34 year-old cohort, but the highest jump in numbers is in the 45-54
year-old group.
Podcasting is seen as a more
intimate way in which to listen to audio programming, in the belief that people
listen to podcasts on their own and through headphones, while out on a walk or
commuting. With anxiety about the general state of the economy and the health
service in the wake of the pandemic it is perhaps not surprising that business
and health are top of the list of interests.
Most podcasts in Ireland are in
the chat or interview format, rather than the narrative format, unless related
to cold case crimes. Popular podcasts can be found in all sectors – public
service media, commercial media, and increasi ngly on the online sites of print
newspapers. Many are hosted by big names in the Arts and comedy worlds – such
as the ‘2 Johnnies Podcast’, ‘The Blindboy Podcast’, or ‘An Irishman Abroad
with Jarlath Regan’. For podcasts more closely associated with news, you can
switch to RTÉ, commercial radio stations such as Newstalk or Today FM, or
newspaper sites. At RTÉ, podcasts can be weekly stand-alone series, such as
‘World Report’ or ‘Your Politics’, or they can be snippets from radio
programmes such as ‘Today with Claire Byrne’ that are repurposed and then
rebroadcast as ‘podcasts’. Similarly, on Newstalk or Today FM you can find
podcast series but also podcasts that could be classified as ‘programmes
streamed later’.
Irish podcasts do not tend to
feature as highly as they should as winners in global awards for podcasting
that specialise in the narrative and storytelling formats. At the New York
Festivals Radio Awards 2022, there were only a handful of finalists in the podcast
section and two Silver awards for ‘Unusual Suspects’ by GoLoud and Doc on
One for the ‘Gunplot’ series. There were winners and finalists from Ireland in
other sections such as in Documentary, Culture and the Arts, Features,
Profiles/Community Portraits and National or International Affairs – but these
were all for radio programmes rather than for podcasts.
In the 2021 annual Journalism
Awards, sponsored by NewsBrands Ireland, there was only one category of
‘podcasts’ for awards, with no separation between subject categories or
formats. However, in 2022, the brand new Irish Podcasting Awards are
open for applications in multiple podcast categories. According to the website
of this new organisation, it will ‘work closely with the British Podcast Awards
and Australian Podcast Awards to share best practice, and all have similar aims
to grow awareness of podcasts from their home countries’. There will be 20+
categories and awards and all formats are welcome. Here’s to celebrating a
burgeoning creative future for Irish podcasting. Colleen Murrell is a Full
Professor in Journalism at the School of Communications at DCU.
Colleen Murrell is a Full Professor in Journalism at the School of Communications at DCU
This essay originally appeared as part of the 2022 Digital News Report Ireland. The full report can be accessed Here.
