Brandon Scott
Séamus Dooley, Secretary of the National Union of Journalists and former editor of the Roscommon Champion, has expressed disappointment about the lack of diversity of opinion in modern media and insisted that editors and producers need to take more risks in ensuring that more voices are brought to the table.
Speaking on The State of the Nation podcast, Mr Dooley said that changes in the media landscape have created a uniformity in how news is presented in Ireland and that giving exposure to the same few familiar faces continuously is leading to biases emerging – which is consequently making media unrelatable to some people.
“One of the problems is the lack of diverse voices means that many who write articles also present their own radio programme or they’re also a panellist on a radio programme,” he said. “Editors and producers need to be much more consciously diverse in taking risks.”
“There’s an urban bias and this can come down to even the accents. I’m not surprised that many people may feel alienated from a media that doesn’t represent them.”
You can listen to the State of the Nation Podcast here.