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It’s endgame for 2012. How has it been for you? In this the final days of December 2012 we’ve been taking a look and listen to some of the things we got up to in this year. Our life here at Athena Media is marked by content - radio, television and online audio and video and despite its ups and downs 2012 has been a stunning year for story-telling. This time last year we were in the midst of finishing our modern history and politics series ‘Death of an Empire‘ for RTE Radio 1. This five part series ran across the early part of the year and told the story of the fall of the Soviet Union, over twenty years ago, and brought the story from Stalin to modern-day Russia and Putin. The series weaves archives, interviews, locational recordings done by presenter Seamus Martin and some wonderful music to create an audio journey through time. The series went on to win Gold at the international radio festival the New York Radio Awards, beating off competition from some of the best resourced history radio units in the world, including the BBC. Death of an Empire later went on to win silver at the PPI Radio Awards in Ireland and our radio trophy cabinet also had to make room for an Irish national award for our series Made in Ireland with Ella McSweeney, which went out on RTE Radio 1 over Christmas and New Year last year. Made in Ireland’s episode on craft butchers won Agricultural Journalist of the Year for Ella and the series has been running across the year in Australia in its Top of the Pods series.

We were extremely lucky that one of our ex Athena Media staffers, Paula Cunniffe came back to us in Spring 2012 following her sojourn in the US doing a journalism Masters in Florida. Paula became the reporter and assistant producer on The Media Show - the 8 part series on media matters presented by Brenda Power - which went out on RTE Radio 1 from April and covered the Primetime Investigates crisis for RTE and the subsequent BAI report. (We’re hoping The Media Show comes back in the Spring so watch this space for a news alert …..)
Paula went on to be the Assistant Producer on our ground-breaking TV documentary Beyond Limits which followed the lives of seven elite athletes heading to the Paralympic Games in London. The documentary dominated our lives from May to August and was the outstanding highlight for all of us in that we got to work with the incredible Mark Pollock and a cast of amazing athletes including Mark Rohan, Jason Smyth, Michael McKillop, Darragh McDonald, Catherine Walsh, Helen Kearney - who all went on to win medals under the Irish flag. The documentary was broadcast on Setanta and made with the support of the BAI Sound & Vision Scheme and we’ve just been told, this week, that we’ve been fortunate enough to win a second grant award from the fund to do a follow-up documentary called Beyond Limits - The Next Generation where we work with the winning athletes mentoring the next generation of new talent coming forth inspired by the achievements of London 2012. We can’t wait to start this and get into production with Mark Pollock who is himself making headlines by his plans to take on his first adventure expedition to Siberia. Mark - who is blind since his twenties - was a champion adventurer and author before a tragic accident two years ago left him paralysed. He is now training using bionic technology - bionic legs - and has taken up hand-cycling as an exercise since meeting double gold Irish paralympian Mark Rohan.

Paula left us to work with the Taoiseach’s Department from September and she’s been working on the EU Presidency which begins in Jan 2013 and supporting the website and online life of the project but she came back for a weekend to help us make a launch promo for other new Tv series Get Off the Couch! with Teena Gates. This is a series (again supported by the BAI and broadcaster Setanta) which aims to get people active and participating in outdoor sports like walking, hiking, cycling and swimming.

Get Off the Couch! from Athena Media on Vimeo.

A significant portion of our broadcast work is supported by the BAI Sound & Vision Fund and we’re extremely grateful that it has allowed us to help some important stories this year including the Winning Women series on Irish women Olympians for Newstalk which ran across the Summer and culminated in a one hour documentary featuring Sonia O’Sullivan. We’re just finishing a second series with Newstalk called Grassroots featuring short form documentaries on positive action from communities across the country. Grassroots producers are Rob Hope and Lisa Essuman and the final one hour documentary goes out on New Year’s Day on Newstalk at 8am.

But that’s not all our radio work this year. Audio engineer graduate Brendan Rehill joined us in mid year to work on Winning Women and has stayed with us full-time since then working on all our radio projects including our major arts/music production for RTE lyric fm on Wide Open Operas’s first production of Wagner’s Tristan & Isolde. We produced a short form series for daytime called Re-Imagining Opera and a full one hour documentary called Taking on Tristan which went out in late November just before the full broadcast of the opera itself. Our recordist and narrator on that opera project is Michael Gallen, a young composer who is working with us on a freelance basis. Michael heads up the band Ana Gog and we’re lucky to have several musicians around the company at present including Rob Hope himself who is the lead singer and song-writer with Senakah. We’ve used Rob’s music in Beyond Limits and Michael’s music featured in the Get Off the Couch! promo and in our documentary on Fighting Words which went out in late 2011 on RTE Lyric fm.

Michael is also helping me on our new big history radio project called Citizens: Lockout 1913 which tells the story of the Dublin Lockout one hundred years after the events which shaped modern Dublin and Dubliners. The series has been in production since August 2012 but wont go out until September 2013 on RTE Radio 1 so there’s a lot of work to be done yet and Michael will also be working on the music soundtrack of the project.

Other radio projects already started and running into 2013 include a new science series called Science is Everywhere for Newstalk - and Louise Denvir, freelancer, is helping us on that series while Lisa Essuman (who as everyone knows holds the company together) is working on Herosongs with musicologist Therese McIntyre in Galway. Herosongs is a wonderful music series which in many ways grew out of our big music history series High Fidelity as Therese was a listener and series fan who got in touch with the idea of telling the stories behind folk songs which have in themselves become history stories. Herosongs is again for RTE Radio 1 - and once again thanks to the BAI for supporting it.

So some amazing stories which have come our way - told by inspiring people - and we’re lucky to have had a great crew across the year including Lisa, Paula, Rob, Michael, Brendan and freelancers Stephen, Louise and our cameraman and editor Barry MacNeill. We’ve had several great interns across the year - Joseph Pelan was with us for the first six months under an Erasmus Scheme and helped enormously while we’ve been gifted to have recent graduate Leon O’Neill working with us supporting Social Media Training and our productions. We’ve expanded our output under Athena Media Training with the support of Sinead Kennedy and under the ever careful leadership of Lisa Essuman. We’ve been back in full swing running our half day social media workshops this Autumn and Winter and in Jan 2013 we move to The Gresham Hotel as our new venue for the workshops and we’re starting on Jan 21 with a new offering - the half day workshop on Linkedin. We’ve currently got four half days in the offering; twitter,facebook, linkedin and social media strategy & online content and we’re back working with the Dublin City Enterprise Board from the Spring with Twitter for Business. We spent the first part of the year working with the Irish Times training its entire newsroom and journalist staff on Twitter for Journalism and we’re keen to continue our research and work on the future of journalism, news and digital media. Some interesting things on the cards on that front and again we hope to have some details here soon.

So a busy year - a tough year in terms of ever reducing budgets and a declining advertisement market for many of our broadcast clients. A busy but challenging one and 2013 promises even more challenges for the media landscape as digital and online continues to disrupt every assumption the media business model sits on. For us 2013 already has so many deadlines and projects but our big ambition remains to tell true stories well and hope you enjoy them.

Happy Christmas and a very warm New Year wish to everyone - Let’s hope 13 is a turning point for the better (we know a few black cats who can cross the path just in case…..:)

Communications Minister, Pat Rabbitte, meets the RTE Chairman and Board to discuss the critical BAI report. Helen Shaw explores some of the questions and argues good management could have saved RTE from bad journalism.

RTE’s problems are multiple: a E50 million record deficit and a devastating failure in its editorial standards and processes.
The cash crisis is hitting programming. But the editorial crisis cuts far deeper.
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s report into RTE’s Primetime Investigates shows an incredible breakdown in editorial controls. The Minister used the words ‘shoddy, unprofessional and cavalier’.
As a former Head of RTE Radio it is hard to understand how this happened given the experience of the people involved. Long established guidelines were ignored and the lack of documentary evidence and paper notes is contrary to all serious journalistic practice, whether in print or broadcasting. Anna Carragher, the report’s author, talks of ‘groupthink’, a lack of challenge and review, which allowed the team to accept assumptions as facts. But, disturbing as the thirty-four page report is, it prompts many questions.
Central to those questions is the role of RTE Legal Affairs. What was its involvement in the case, what was its advice and risk assessment?
The BAI in its findings, which imposed the E200, 000 fine on RTE for a breach of its legal responsibilities under the 2009 Act, states ‘it is a source of regret’ that RTE did not waive its solicitor/client privilege with its in house legal staff. Why did RTE not do this? Given the scale of the libel and its consequences it is important the public know. The Carragher report expresses concern that the reporter was the sole conduit for contact with Fr Reynolds solicitors. Yet what is disturbing is that the report states that the May 18th RTE response to Fr Reynolds was sent by the reporter but written with the assistance and agreement of RTE Legal Affairs and the Executive Producer and Head of Current Affairs. By May 18th a letter from Mill Hill Fathers offered, for the first time a paternity test. A second letter from Fr Reynolds solicitors on May 19th was copied to Legal Affairs by the team but no reply was sent by RTE.
By May 23rd, the day of the programme’s transmission, a further letter is sent directly to the reporter by Fr Reynolds solicitors. This again offered a paternity test and stated Fr Reynolds would sue for defamation if the programme went out. This letter, while shared with the programme team, and verbally discussed with the Head of News & Current Affairs, Ed Mulhall, never went to Legal Affairs. While Mr Mulhall took full responsibility for the decision to broadcast, it remains bizarre that no one seriously considered the offer of the paternity test. There was such an assumption of guilt they never saw the offer as genuine.
It is not clear if Mr. Mulhall or Legal Affairs briefed the Director General on the paternity test offer. The report states there ‘appears to be no mechanism for alerting the Director General who is Editor in Chief’. In my RTE experience such alerts were standard requirements by Heads of Output.
When did this change and why? RTE is heavy on meetings and has several key editorial meetings across the week. Traditionally the Director General had regular contact with the Outputs Heads in Radio, Television and News & Current Affairs. When did a process develop where a major editorial and legal risk was not flagged to the Director General? The new editorial guidelines and editorial standards board create checks but the key dynamic is the relationship between the Director General and the content divisions heads.
A further, and significant, question for RTE is why they accepted an early retirement package with Mr. Mulhall without waiting for the report’s findings and without therefore providing any opportunity to explore what happened and why. The report does not include the transcripts of those involved but the real absence is an account from the senior manager himself; someone who has such a record for outstanding judgment.
The emphasis on the reporter, who has now taken voluntary redundancy, and the media’s portrayal of her as ‘shamed’ and ‘disgraced’ obscures the fact that layers of management lay between her and the programme’s transmission. She had an Executive Producer, a Head of Department and a Head of Division above her and they had RTE Legal Affairs advice. One might have expected the Head of News to brief the Director General or for RTE Legal Affairs to have flagged an alert given the scale of risk.
Was that risk assessed?
RTE, and independent, stable public broadcasting, is central to our democracy. We need trusted news and critical, courageous investigative journalism. Those who worry that that is in danger must worry about why this happened. The Chairman and RTE Board, who were appointed by the previous Minister, bridge the last Director General and the current one who started the job not long before this programme aired.
Did the board ask questions about editorial risk and structural process? Did they evaluate corporate governance? Did they provide challenge?.
A further question remains over the speed with which RTE reacted to the crisis post the libel settlement last November (indeed RTE knew once the paternity test was done in September what the outcome would be). It was this lack of public action that seemed to prompt the Minister to request the BAI investigation.
RTE needs to move on. It needs to get its finances and operations in order and restore public trust. But the failings identified in the BAI report are not just in journalism but also in management and in managerial structures and operations at the highest levels.
Good management would have saved RTE from bad journalism.
It is not clear that the changes will address the managerial gap. That requires open, engaged and collective leadership from the boardroom down rather than targeting frontline reporters who need support, training and robust editors. We all need RTE to get this right because as Carragher says in her foreword: ‘broadcasting’s powerful place in our society also brings heavy responsibilities and it is right and proper that those who hold others to account are themselves held accountable’.
The stakes are high but if RTE embraces that level of transparency, accountability and openness this dark episode may be the roots of a stronger, more public focused broadcaster. Now that would secure the public’s willingness to pay.

Helen Shaw runs Athena Media who produce The Media Show on RTE Radio 1. She served as MD RTE Radio (1997-2002) and previously worked with BBC NI as Editor news & current affairs, radio.

I mentioned when the Gavan O’Reilly resignation broke late Thursday, a couple of weeks back, that we’re not a live show and the agreement with RTE is that we hand over the show by latest lunchtime Friday so they can check it for transmission.
That’s all fine except media stories are media stories and we’d look a bit daft if we ignored them.
On Wednesday as I was recording this week’s edition (which is about the TV market, RTE’s financial woes and the competitive battle between RTE TV and TV3) I got a call from the Charlie Bird radio show saying they were under the understanding that the BAI report on the PrimeTime Investigates programme about Fr Reynolds would be out on Friday and would I come on the show and talk about it? I said sure but let’s check.
We were told the BAI Authority members were meeting Thursday morning and if they approved the report and its finding it would be published. We would normally edit and close the programme Thursday evening so decided to continue to record and make our show but booked Friday to do the edit. Right through the day the BAI declined to comment on the timescale for the release of the report.
We were told they were busy writing on Thursday and working on a release but no timeframe. Given that our session ended at 6pm, our editor had been on duty since 9am, we completed the episode with all the different elements and had closed by 5.30pm on the basis we were under pressure to deliver to RTE for transmission.

A tweet from Bryan Dobson said the Minister would be on the RTE Six One News if the report was out in time. Clearly it seemed the report was at least with the Minister.
Just after 5.30pm the BAI released the 34 page report, to its site along with its finding. The RTE newsroom led with it at Six One but it was obvious they had not had time to go through it. Throughout the day we were told the RTE DG Noel Curran would make a statement if the report was published and both Six One and Drivetime on RTE Radio 1 had similar responses from the DG and RTE issued a carefully prepared press statement accepting all the finding and showing their compliance with them.

At this stage I was trying to read all 34 pages of the Carragher report, the additional BAI findings document, the lengthy RTE response, the additional John Horgan report which was simultaneously published by RTE, and trying to make sense of it to do a short insert into the top of the Media Show so we could drop a couple of items and replace with a piece on the report and at least reflect it.
By 7pm post the Six One News we had clips of Noel Curran’s response and I had gutted the documents but the most compelling element in the responses was not RTE’s but that of the Minister Pat Rabbitte who broke through some of the PR soundbites with a damningly frank assessment of the report’s findings and called the PrimeTime Investigates programme and the journalistic work behind it ’shoddy, unprofessional and cavalier’. His sense of shock at the detail in the report reverberated. Several times he was asked by the interviewer Bryan Dobson whether he now had confidence in the DG and the RTE Board. He declined to say yes or no simply stating his confidence was shaken and he would be meeting the board and the DG at 8am on Tuesday morning.

Up until that point I had a sense that the release of the report, just before 6pm Friday, on a bank holiday weekend, could mean that its findings and implications were buried. It seemed somewhat contrived that the report issued so late on Friday although we are assured that the BAI was working frantically to get it issued in time and not hold it over the bank holiday weekend. But with all good intentions it did seem to us that if we were struggling to get it into a weekend show (which is operating like a lot of weekend newspapers and magazines) because of our production deadlines then a late delivery of the report would also make it difficult for Sunday newspapers to fully assess the report and with the May bank holiday many people’s attention is off news and current affairs from mid day Friday until Tuesday morning and Morning Ireland (which may now have to revise its 8am start time!)
Pat Rabbitte’s statement that he is calling a meeting with the DG and RTE Board at 8am Tuesday signaled to everyone that this will not get lost in bank holiday traffic and that it will run as a very big media story throughout next week and beyond.

In our own case all we could do was reflect that in the show and flag that we intend to go into the implications and consequences of the report in much greater detail next week and will follow what happens at the Tuesday meeting. We’ve already several key interviews lined up next week from people who have not been heard on this story and can take us much deeper into what happened and why. But our ability to re-make the show at 7pm was non existent and even with the short insert and change we did not hand over the programme until after 9.15pm to be reviewed by the commissioning producer. It takes time to edit, cut to duration and re format for delivery.

So what are the issues? Anna Carragher has done an excellent job in the 34 page report in trying to pull together the threads but there are some real questions that RTE needs to address and I really encourage people to read the actual report and not just the press and broadcast coverage.

The BAI in its findings expresses regret that RTE did not lift its client privilege with its legal advisors and legal team so that that information could have come into the report and its understanding of what happened and why. Given that the chairman of the BAI Bob Collins is a former Director General of RTE it suggests that the BAI believes RTE had the ability to do this legally but did not. We do not have an input from RTE legal affairs in the report but a core part of the report hangs on legal letters from Fr Reynolds to RTE particularly one to the reporter at the centre of the programme on the day of transmission itself when Fr Reynolds once again offered a paternity test and flagged his intent to sue RTE. Its clear from the report that the reporter passed this email letter to the production team, and the head of current affairs. The head of news and current affairs was told by telephone as he was at the Obama event. What remains bizarre is the unanimous decision to go ahead and broadcast the show without any discussion, it seems, about the potential issues involved or the liability to RTE in terms of a court case. It seems from the Carragher report that this letter did not go to RTE legal affairs. It is not clear if that failure would have in fact stopped the transmission because no view is given in the report from RTE legal affairs. It may well have been that the editorial decision to broadcast would have remained but its the events around those legal letters and the day of transmission which are quite revealing about the gaps in RTE News & Current Affairs procedures.
RTE, in its reponse, is keen to show everything that has been done since April in its pre-emptive move before the report’s publication. All that is well and good but some of it raises questions for RTE which may be part of that Tuesday meeting.

1.Why did RTE at an executive and board level react so late? Nothing in the Carragher report will have come as a surprise to RTE since its all based on their own internal material and all this was known to them by latest November given the background to the programme would have gathered for the legal case and for the internal inquiry post the libel judgement. Key people only stood aside when the Minister asked the BAI to investigate, post the libel settlement, on November 23rd. RTE’s failure, at the Board level, to take decisive action after the court case and the fact that the key decision-makers were still in their posts appeared to have prompted ministerial action. As a former member of the executive board of RTE (I was Head of RTE Radio 1997-2002) it is always uncomfortable to see politicians in the midst of the public broadcaster’s operations we have a legacy of political interference in RTE and the direct legacy of Ray Burke’s corrupt actions in radio (see Moriarty report 1!) but public accountability for the publicly funded media is the final responsibility of the Minister. It would have been preferable if the BAI had called the investigation itself but these are new powers and the BAI would normally respond to a request to investigate rather than make that call itself.

The Minister’s decision to invoke the 2009 Act and call for an independent investigate was necessary and we would not have got to where we are now without it. The RTE John Horgan report, issued yesterday post 6pm, is fine but was limited by RTE to exploring guidelines and procedures rather than what happened and why. It is equally not clear why this report could not have been issued at the time of the April guidelines announcements and given context and a rational background to those changes which took many by surprise given the BAI report was not out.

2. Can we believe, given the experience and reputation of the people involved, that this was an isolated programme or has the collapse in journalistic good practice (note-taking for legal purposes is part of Journalism 101) been part and parcel of our programmes? Was the casual approach to ethics, guidelines and referral in this case part of a culture which had developed in that strand or in the division? Can we possibly believe it was isolated? The full transcripts of the team would help us understand that - including the one with the head of news & current affairs - as to why everyone believed this story unquestioning? Was the Director General aware of this programme and to what extent was he aware of it? What level of briefing did the division give to the DG and the executive board? In assessing this programme was there a conversation about RTE’s ability to stand this up in court? If not, why not?

3. RTE’s decision to grant early retirement to the Head of news & current affairs, Ed Mulhall, before all processes were finished has to be questioned. The clarity over who runs the news and current affairs division could have been resolved without that decision being taken. Yesterday the reporter at the centre of the programme resigned and that’s the first time the word ‘resignation’ has been used. There is as RTE tells us an independent HR inquiry going on. The challenge RTE faces is that the burden of this failure of standards, or absence of standards, appears to be falling on the reporter. In any editorial process the reporter is at the bottom of the chain. That is why there are producers/directors, middle managers and finally heads of divisions.
All the non-existent processes that the Carragher report highlights existed under a layer of management. The lack of note-taking, paper records, documentary evidence, challenge and review is all the responsibility of management across the organisation. What is shocking about the Carragher report is that many of the existing guidelines were ignored or misunderstood. People seemed unclear about their meaning. That responsibility - to ensure staff know and understand their responsibilities within an editorially led organisation - is the responsibility of senior management. The appalling failures in management are at the heart of what happened and that is why the word systemic is used in the report. ‘Groupthink’ and a lack of challenge and review can not easily be tackled by new guidelines. It requires leadership. External experts can no provide that.

3. How do we learn? The big message from RTE post the report publication last evening is that the organisation is learning from the events. A key part of that learning will be openess, transparency and an acceptance that things must change completely. It would be good to see external outstanding candidates being seriously considered for the current vacancies. It would be good to see RTE re-investing in journalistic training - not just guidelines and social media training. RTE used to be a primary trainer in its sector. It would be good to see more diversity at executive board level. It would be good to see RTE engaging with the public - in the period 1997-2002 we used to do a road show, led by Kevin Healy, where RTE - including the executive board - went to towns and cities and listened to the public. It would not be a bad idea to open the windows again. Our own humble show The Media Show is a beginning - but we’re not a public feedback show - we can’t do a digital ‘mailbag’ but it is needed. The RTE Audience Council could play a much more prominent role as an interface between the public (who are 50% funders of RTE) and RTE itself. Yet it is still true that the vast majority of licence fee payers have no idea there even is an Audience Council and who is on it let alone its remit and function.
If the Minister is looking at the big picture the independent regulation of RTE is at the heart of this. Does it currently work?If not why? and what are the solutions? Given the financial crisis which is literally threatening the future of RTE - with 2012 promising a 50 million euro deficit -that question of regulation and governance is not academic but may rapidly become one of survival. Let’s hope everyone at that meeting on Tuesday is up to the challenge. Now is not the time to blink.

Anyone expecting our show this evening, April 21st, to be full of Gavan O’Reilly and Independent Newspapers will be disappointed. But I’ll explain. By late Thursday when the story broke we decided it would be everywhere; on radio and TV current affairs and lots of print coverage. So rather than sounding the same we stuck with the programme we’d recorded and edited and decided to focus fully on the issue of cross media and media ownership next week when we can get behind the story and do something fresh and original which will add value to the public conversation. We’re not a live show. We record all day Wednesday with our reporter Paula Cunniffe working on future packages and items across the week. So we edit thursday and generally aim to get the programme to RTE early Friday morning so Radio 1 can hear it before transmission to make sure it is compliant. We are a bit like a weekend current affairs magazine; topical but if something happens Friday or Saturday the challenge will be to decide if it is big enough to warrant us to re-record. And in reality we are not a news programme. Our mission is to get behind media stories so for us the fit is to unpack the very complex issues of ownership, plurality of ownership, concentration, cross-media and policy and with that we’ve got some surprising elements in next week’s show.

This week our show takes a theme of the shift online in media from the online news successes at the Pulitzer Prize awards this week to the success of Mark Little’s Storyful operation, and the question whether the print version of newspapers is dead?. Storyful is a Dublin based global, digital news agency, which is re-writing our definitions of news and journalism while sticking to the principles of journalism 101 that everything is verified and checked. Newspapers have been hard hit by this shift online. We talk to young people who see news as something they get from social media and not newspapers. They rarely buy them and if they read its Metro. We hear from Noirin Hegarty online editor at the Irish Independent, John Burns of the Sunday Times and David Cochrane of Politics.ie. We also look at what happened when we, the audiences, readers and viewers, shift online and how the media money, which is the funding base of much of content, has followed. Gerard O’Neill, chairman of Amarach, the research agency, joins us. By the end of this year it is predicted that 20% of the 900 million euro Irish advertisement revenue will be spent online but the challenge here is that nearly half of that goes into search, into Google and social media sites like Facebook. When people advertise products on your Facebook pageyou are being sold as a produce to advertisers via Facebook. So traditional media, broadcasting and print, is losing revenue through the recession, through a drop in sales for newspapers and more significantly by the movement of media revenue out of content and into search. O’Neill talks about the absentee landlords of Google and Facebook who are stripping revenue from content creators in Ireland.
With over 2 million of us using Facebook more and more money is being spent marketing us there rather than radio, TV and newspapers but the end result is that money is not then going into media companies here producing our radio, television and print media. How traditional media fights back and finds its economic and business connection with audiences in a digital age will be a recurrent theme of our series as its one of the key issues in the national and international media landscape.

Its really interesting that so far the only company that has said a blanket NO to us in our detailed and very polite requests for interviews and access is Google, who as you know are based here in Dublin at Barrow St and are a big employer in the city. Google’s reply, when I said we were talking to media companies, was pointedly ‘but you do know we’re not a media company’. Which most of us will find a little surprising. They mean they don’t make content but in many ways they are the glue in the heart of the digital media business and media landscape. They are how media content is being found, shared and how media audiences/users are being marketed for advertisement. Their revenue comes from media advertisement money and is directly linked to the transformation of the media world. Its a shame that a company that is so central to our media life, and to the sharing of knowledge, is so private about its own work. But they are not alone. I once shared a conference platform in Hillversum, the Netherlands with Apple on podcasting and the classic moment was when a member of the audience, all radio professionals, asked ‘can you talk to us about the future, where things are going?’ to while Apple guy number 1 replied ‘we can’t talk about the future, period’. We all understand there are issues of confidentiality but a sense of openness would be helpful from some of the companies who dominate and shape our media and communications world

So our lead in this week is RTE’s decision to close the London Office, which is one of those stories which is bubbling away since it was announced and will probably get bigger as the closure happens post August. Given our much we interact with the UK we are exploring why RTE took the decision to end London rather than explore cuts and savings in other part of output or even share it across regional and foreign news output? What do you think? Do you value RTE being present in London or do you think it can be covered from Dublin and Belfast which is what the newsroom is saying? We talk to Cillian de Paor, who is acting head of news and current affairs and get the reaction of people like Pat Loughrey, former BBC Director of Nations and Regions. We also ask TV3 CEO David McRedmond for his view and in both cases you may be surprised by what they say.
One of the things we’re doing in the series is adding additional content post the transmission in the form of longer even full-length interviews. We did this twice with episode 1, with a long cut of both the Bob Collins and Hugh Linehan interviews and we plan to do the same within our very limited resources with episode 2 starting with that Cillian de Paor interview. Its all at www.rte.ie/radio1/themediashow
We’ll post links to podcasts and news soon. But keep in touch via mediashow@rte.ie. We may not be based in Montrose but that RTE email gets directly to us. If it is post do send it here to Athena Media, Adelaide Chambers, Peter St Dublin 8 rather than RTE - that’s faster!.

It has been a busy two weeks since we started full time work on the new RTE Radio 1 series The Media Show, with presenter Brenda Power. There’s such a pile of topics, stories and developments every day in the world of global and Irish media that the challenge for us is to be both topical and original; to try and make sure that everyone feels this is a programme for them and that it is relevant, innovative and extremely open-minded. I quess we also want it to be a good and intelligent listen!
We’ve set up a radio essay in the programme called Mediawatch where we are inviting people to pitch 300 word audio opinion pieces which we record and which allow us to bring new voices and
ideas into the discussion around media. In episode one radio fanatic and general good guy Brian Greene has done a beautiful radio essay, with sound effects, on the joys of radio and its relevancy 100 years after its use in Titanic’s tragedy. It is a lovely two minutes thirty audio essay and sets the tone for the kind of ideas and voices we want to encourage. Next week we have a great piece by Cork woman Deirdre O Shaughnessy on the lack of regional voices, writers and accents, in her view, on national media. We’ve another piece coming in which is by an Irish citizen, born in India, who tackles the way Irish media talks and treats the concept of identity, race and belonging. For a country with our level of racial and ethnic diversity where is that all evident in the daily life of the media? Other topics include the very current question of how the media covers religion. Is groupthink a problem for more places than RTE ? (Given that that seems to be one of the core findings of the Anna Carragher BAI report on the PrimeTime Investigates programme on FR Reynolds).
I definitely want to hear from more people with pitches for the MediaWatch slot. It’s not an audio rant but an audio essay; a chance to use radio to tell a story about the media, both Irish and international and your very own personal take on it.
In talking to Brian Greene, who is an enthuastic leader in all things digital, he asked whether I would be blogging about producing the show. So that got me thinking about my own approach to transparency and I figure I need to try and share, as much as possible, how we are thinking about the show and how I am making decisions about its content as producer of the team in Athena Media and with Brenda herself.
This week we had intended the show would have a focus on digital journalism and explore the future of newspapers with people in the midst of trying to answer the question ‘ will the print version of papers die?’. By Tuesday with the leak of the BAI briefing document on the Carragher/Reynolds report in the Irish Times I was considering what impact that made on our first episode. By Tuesday night in watching the PrimeTime programme which covered extensively the leak and the leaked findings of the report (which are it has to be said extremely damaging for RTE) it was clear to me that we had to talk about ‘what happens when the media itself becomes the story? How good are we are covering ourselves?” and that changed the direction of the interviews we were doing on Wednesday and Thursday. Part of the difficulty when the media becomes the story (whether RTE re Reynolds, the Irish Times re Kate Fitzgerald case or Independent Newspapers re Denis O’Brien) is that it is difficult to stand outside and look at it neutrally. And it required specific consideration in the conversation about media ethics, regulation and guidelines. Guidelines, in all media, should, I think, cover specific protocols in what happens when your media organisation is the main news story. We have seen how challenging this is via the Levenson Inquiry in the UK (something we hope to cover fully in The Media Show later).
So episode one brings you a range of different topics from smartphones and media apps to a strong interview with the BAI chairman, Bob Collins, on the leak but more signficantly on the Right to Reply Scheme which is a public ‘Right to Reply’ Scheme launched by the BAI a year ago but which has not been used at all by the public. We raise the issue whether this is because the public don’t know anything about the scheme and whether the BAI and the broadcasters (as it impacts on all broadcasters not just RTE) have done enough to let the public know about the scheme and how they can or could use it. The ‘Right to Reply’ is when you believe your reputation has been damaged by something broadcast - which is untrue - and allows you with no cost to seek a reply and correction. It could be part of how broadcasters like RTE work to heal its relationship with the public and could avoid long complaints processes and legal action if someone can quickly and speedily get a correction and apology aired. What do you think? Listen in tonight to the show at 7.30 on RTE Radio 1. The podcast will be online on www.rte.ie/radio1/themediashow afterwards and we’re going to start posting the long cuts of interviews, starting with the Collins interview, on Monday. So while the on air version of the show is just a half an hour we have the ability to give you the full interviews so you can hear additional material without the limits of slot. Our email is mediashow@rte.ie or contact us here directly at Athena Media via brenda@athenamedia.ie. My key mantra about this show and series is that it is for the public not the media and if in doubt on what we do that is what I put back as a question ‘what is the best approach for the public; what do listeners, readers and viewers think?’ .

Let me know.
And the first episode is just a beginning. We’re just shaping the series and have lots of things in the pipeline including a great series on inside media-houses from the Irish Times, Storyful to TV3. We’re looking for access to just about every influential media force you can think of and if we’re missing one of them let me know.
I am going to try and write a blog note regularly about the production of the show and will share your feedback too. Thanks for reading and hope you can listen.
Our twitter address is @athenamediaie and the hashtag we’re using for the series is #rtemediashow so please do use that so I can find all your comments!
Podcast online on RTE http://www.rte.ie/radio1/themediashow/
and our own site by Monday - and we’ll be posting full interviews from the series so starting with Bob Collins…lots more in that interview on Right to Reply and how it works.

www.athenamedia.ie

It’s strange to get the chance to make a series about your own profession and business - but it is something I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time. From April 14th we have a run with a new radio series, simply called The Media Show on RTE Radio 1 7.30pm, and along with presenter Brenda Power we’ll be getting behind the scene of the media business and helping listeners to navigate their way through broadcasting, print and online. It is a very big canvas from TV entertainment to news & current affairs, from regulators like the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to the Press Ombudsman, from global companies like Google to Irish broadcasters like RTE and TV3. In many ways Brenda and myself are well fitted to talk media as between ourselves we’ve worked at some stage in just about every form of it; from print to broadcasting to online. But the focus of this series is not media people but the public and our aim is to make a series for citizens about how the media works and how it impacts on their lives. We want to get new voices on air as well as get inside the places and people who make crucial media decisions. We’re planning a series of radio essays giving voices to different slates on media - and the gaps perhaps in media coverage. We’ll be spending time in the editorial rooms of places like the Irish Times and talking to editors, directors and those who decide what we see, hear and read. We’ll go from the traditional homes of content like the Irish Independent to some of the new online challengers like Storyful and Journal.ie. We’ll also be global and look at the trends which are changing the landscape and hearing from New York and London and getting behind the Levenson inquiry as well as finding out how social media is changing journalism and news. There’s fun too; how is reality TV and the daily soaps made? And we’ll be getting into the media mindset of children, young people and older groups talking about their media habits and what they love and hate about what they see, hear and read. It’s an incredible opportunity and one we’re all getting stuck into and thankfully everyone we’re asking to help us is saying ‘yes’ with lots of people saying ‘it’s a great idea, and about time’. We hope the initial run of eight shows will be extended but as always its a test of what we can do and deliver within a tight budget and our ambitions are high.
Hope you can listen and follow the series if not on air then via the podcasts or player. We’re keen to hear from you too so do send us your ideas and thoughts via email or twitter @athenamediaie and we’re using the #rtemediashow.
More details on each show will be posted closer to transmission and we’ll make sure you get lots more additional content via the RTE website and via our own online life.

There’s a lot of talk about media accountability, accuracy and bias at present. Some of it is flowing from the controversy over the so called Frontline and bogus tweet account which was the subject of a BAI complaints decision against RTÉ last week. Some of it comes from the discussion over the proposed changes to the code of fairness and balance for news and current affairs which the BAI is also concluding.

Equally there is discussion over the BAI’s investigation of RTÉ’s ‘Fr. Reynolds’ Primetime and the report by investigator Anna Carragher which is due shortly. In many ways it is good to separate the apples from oranges (or apples from garlic given the week’s other news!). The Frontline ‘fake tweet’ issue is an error of judgement and even good journalists are allowed to have errors. RTÉ has already said ’sorry’ but it does have questions to answer on its processes, its editorial processes, which have been highlighted over the weekend. I don’t think it warrants a public inquiry (and the BAI has already ruled out any inquiry) but Sean Gallagher is open, or anyone else for that matter, to take another complaint against the programme based on the changed and continued allegations. We need to be careful that every single clash over an editorial error or judgement call does not result in endless inquiries which will be both costly and equally fruitless.

The Fr. Reynolds case was and is completely different and separate and the investigation governing it has been triggered by the Minister using part of the Broadcasting Act to investigate the matter. It did not result from a complaint and is not part of the normal complaint process under the BAI. The Fr. Reynolds investigation is not about a live programme and a judgement call within a live programme. It’s about a detailed constructed programme which was seen and vetted by several key editorial people in RTÉ and it’s about the broadcast given the subsequent libel case. What is puzzling about the weekend allegations about The Frontline is that is does not seem that these were made as complaints to either RTÉ or the BAI and have only surfaced post the BAI judgement and in response to news media coverage. If that’s not the case I’d love to be corrected?

For RTÉ the key now is to re-connect with the public in a new and more open, transparent manner. The new social media guidelines which will form part of the overall programming guidelines should be on the home page of the RTÉ website as a click through. The RTÉ Audience Council, which does exist although few know about it, must be given channels to connect with the public and to act, as it was intended, as an interface between the audience and RTÉ so that there is real communications. The Audience Council could really help RTÉ, but try to find it online or via the website and you will struggle. It needs to be empowered.

Emily Bell, formerly of The Guardian newspaper and now of the Tow Institute for Digital Journalism at Columbia University in New York, talks about the Internet and social media forcing journalism to be more transparent in all its processes, more open to its readers, listeners, viewers contributions and feedbacks and to recognising that what is needed today is ’see-through journalism’.

‘See-through Journalism’ is about getting rid of the cloak of secrecy around what we do in journalism and in the media. It’s about seeing ourselves as collaborators with our so-called audiences. It’s about respecting them and ensuring they know how we make the news, how we make decisions, about how we edit and construct stories. An informed and engaged public is more likely to support the valued news providers who offer trusted and accurate news and information stories which help and assist our lives. For RTÉ - and indeed any news organisation - the challenge is to see this crisis as an opportunity to re-invent, to open up rather than close down. RTÉ need to look at ways in which it does this via its website, its own programmes (there is no media programme on RTÉ radio or TV) and more importantly via public meetings. One of the things my colleague Kevin Healy did in my time on RTÉ’s executive board, when he was in charge of public affairs, was to set up an RTÉ road show where managers and programmes literally took to the roads and had open public meetings around the country on RTÉ, programming and feedback. They were lively discussions but the thing is when you open up and say you are listening to your audience, your clients, your customers, you often find that the majority of them support and value you and the conversations that follow allow you to understand and address the negative feedback.

The challenge for the Minister of Communications and the BAI itself is that the Internet does not come under their brief. The Internet and all the content that flows within, and via social media, is not governed by the regulations currently being discussed about broadcasting and equally while the print media loves to attack RTÉ it would have to think quite differently if it had to operate under the same news and current guidelines as the broadcasters. It is time for an overall Media Authority which brings together all forms of media and content creation, which is distributed to the public, and to merge and coordinate the ways in which we think about media regulation. The press is currently self-regulated and we know from other parts of public life how challenging that is as a concept. The conversation now needs to open up to the creation of an integrated media authority which connects and makes rational all the ways in which we as citizens and consumers are served by the media as a public and commercial good.

If you want to follow our work connect with us on facebook and on twitter.

It’s December 8th so time enough to get into the Christmas spirit. We’ve wrapped the Adelaide Chambers offices in tinsel and the potted plants are sharing space with a nice little plastic tree, baubles and lights (thank you two euro shop!). It’s been a busy year. More radio than TV this year and we’ve a host of radio shows coming up over the Christmas and New Year. We’ve even got multiple shows on the same day. Phew.
We’re still editing our latest radio baby ‘Death of An Empire’ which goes out on RTE Radio 1 on Jan 7th. its a 5 part series presented by Seamus Martin (formerly of the Irish Times) and we’re tracing the story of the Soviet Union, twenty years after the dissolution of that Union, and finding out how its legacy has shaped modern Russia. The series starts with ‘Becoming Soviet’ and traces the state built by Joseph Stalin which once covers one sixth of the planet and had a range of 11 time zones.
But before “Death of an Empire’ goes on air our big radio baby (now a toddler) from this year, the 26 part music history series ‘High Fidelity - a century of recorded song with Jack L and Julie Feeney’ which went out on RTE lyric fm from May to November, gets a second life on RTE Radio 1. The series will begin after Christmas with a run across the week starting Dec 27th and has a full repeat on Sunday nights at 11pm from New Years Day. So that keeps us on the air right to the end of May!
We’ve re-edited the series to match the RTE Radio 1 slot and we’ve also created a podcast channel which you can access via iTunes or www.podcastingireland.ie. Which means we’ve effectively edited it three times! Thanks Lochlainn and Naomi.
But just after High Fidelity starts on RTE Radio 1 our current series ‘Made in Ireland’ which goes out Mondays on RTE Radio 1’s Today with Pat Kenny show - it gets its own re-fashioning and goes out as a re-mixed stand-alone series on RTE Choice, RTE Radio’s digital radio services. This 13 part series finishes its run on December 26th and episode 11 goes out on Monday -with lace-makers in Ireland talking to Ella McSweeney about their craft. Its a series which has prompted a great response from listeners particularly this week’s episode on poitin and the story of poitin makers in Ireland. Made in Ireland is supported by the BAI Sound & Vision Scheme (and thank you very much for that licence-fee payers!). Made in Ireland goes out on RTE choice form Jan 4th, every wednesday at 3.15 and then repeated on Saturdays at noon. So that’s High Fidelity, Made in Ireland and Death of an Empire all making weekend appearances from January.
But if all of that is not enough listeners in Carlow-Kilkenny region will also get a second chance to hear our ‘Opera for Carlow’ programme as KCLR is broadcasting the opera on Christmas day between 5-6pm (we’re chuffed with that and again thanks to BAI Sound & Vision for letting that production happen). We were delighted to share the broadcast with KCLR, the local radio station in the region, as the original broadcast was with RTE Lyric fm and went out in mid November.
So lots of output, lots of our 2011 work coming on air at Christmas and New Year.
Now just the small business of trying to find new projects to excite us all in 2012 and begin the whole process again of making great programmes and telling engaging stories.
Have a wonderful Christmas and a better New Year.

In the midst of the all the nonsense that surrounds the Presidential election I’m wondering exactly what has changed since the last time around and I quess the answer is the expansion of the media outlets and social media itself. Before the debate was largely the Late Late Show which played such a significant role in the election of both Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, now it seems its reality TV time and the candidates, or characters, are popping up on everything ready to ‘debate’ at the pop of a paper bag. It’s a campaign without substance. The office is all about symbolism and status, the final point of command in our democracy, and yet the campaign seems to have begun and continued as a soap opera of crimes and passions. There’s lots of little white lies or half truths and some great, big, huge denials of reality. We won’t even go there. But beyond that it is increasingly hard to find anything close to status and national symbolism in what is on display. The media’s role seems to be to see the candidates as fresh meat to have a chew on everyday. And its a case of the more exposure there is the less dignified the whole engagement looks. It was always a tough and bitter battle but now it seems the purpose of each media encounter with the candidates is to reduce them to a sobbing heap. Its a little like the Roman ampitheatres where people were pitted against lions. They did not have a choice. And sometimes its hard to understand how anyone would willing put themselves in front of the assault the wannabe Presidents get. Maybe they should club together, stop assisting the attack and actually be respectful to each other. It could, by example, encourage the media to both follow the public’s interest but equally to respectfully follow the public’s interest and remember that while some people may prefer otherwise - this is a campaign and not a public trial we’re all participating in. Paper, they used to say, never refuses ink and in an era of social media and morning to night radio and TV it most definitely seems cyberspace no more than the airwaves abhorrs reflection. In a campaign without substance it seems the media must relentlessly fill each second of silence with chatter and noise and the candidates are all too happy to help them.

It feels cold and autumnal today. But I quess September is just one week away so perhaps we need to adjust and let go of the idea of Summer. Largely it was just an idea.
September 1 is one of my favourite dates in the year. Its the day we set up Athena Media back in 2003. So its our 8th birthday. Which seems mad. We don’t feel that old. My nephew Adam turns 8 in a few months and he said 8 is different - 8 is grown up. So I quess we must be grown up as a company. We’re still small and perfectly formed. But its good to know that on this September 1 we’ll be filming with one of our favourite people - Mark Pollock, the adventurer and motivational speaker, who is in rehab after a major spinal injury one year ago. Mark inspires us because he refuses to be limited by his physical life. Its tough, frustrating and hard but he sees more than most of us who still have working eyes. And I am sure that he will out-reach most of us despite his broken back and wheelchair. Life is about what we do with the cards we are dealt not about the ones we don’t get. Its how we face the day which counts.

Athena Media is now happily living in Adelaide Chambers and exploring the delights of Camden St cafes. We’re in the midst of several big radio projects including wrapping up our documentary on Fighting Words which is called ‘Word of Mouth’ about the creative writing centre in Dublin started by Roddy Doyle. It goes out on RTE Lyric fm later this year and 2011 has been a good year for our connection with RTE Lyric fm as our 26 part music series High Fidelity is reaching its endgame. We’ve recorded and edited 20 episodes and next Monday night showcases episode 16 a Jack L special on movie composers. Its been wonderful fun working with Jack and Julie Feeney and a great focus for our work. We’re also in the midst of a big series on the fall of the Soviet Union called Death of an Empire which is being presented by Seamus Martin, the ex Irish Times correspondent in Moscow. Seamus and producer Laura Haydon have been recording in Moscow this month and we’ll continue with more recordings in Dublin and beyond in the coming months. The series goes out over Christmas/New Year on RTE radio 1 so we’ll keep you posted about transmission times and dates when we get them.
Our other big radio baby is called ‘Made in Ireland’ with Ella McSweeney and that is a 13 part series for RTE Radio 1 which starts in October and goes into the Today with PK Show. We’ll also be re-editing the content for RTE Choice, the digital radio channel so you’re bound to be able to hear some of it.
Other radio projects in the pipeline include a series for BBC Radio 4 which we’re currently in development on and which will be very exciting if it happens. We’ll let you know.
Our training workshops continue with the new twitter half day workshop ‘twitter business’ and we’re also running our social media workshop - call Lisa and Niall for bookings and details on 01 4883350.
But back to September 1 - our shoot with Mark is for a new Capital D feature for RTE TV which goes out in mid September and focuses on Mark’s rehabilitation training as he works to re-build his independent life again post the accident. Our videographer Barry MacNeill will once again be behind the camera and edit desk .Barry was behind our recent ‘Drimnagh is Good’ feature and he is also editing our Belmayne documentary and just did a beautiful short introduction to the piece. You can check out our work on vimeo www.vimeo.com/athenamedia.
So we’ll be celebrating on our eight birthday with a great story - which is how we like to do things anyway. Inspiring stories told well. What more could a birthday bring?