The Future of Professional Music Journalism in Ireland

Earlier this year, I completed a MA in Journalism and, to my surprise and delight, I finished with a First. A massive part of my Masters was a thesis I worked on entitled "Is there a future in dancing about architecture? An examination of the role of the professional music journalist in Ireland in an era of citizen journalism."

While not the catchiest title in the world, my thesis asked a very simple question; is there a future for professional music journalists when faced with competition from bloggers who provide their services for free? 

Up until now only those interviewed for the thesis and my lecturers have seen the results of my thesis but I have been asked by a number of people to put a summary and, indeed, the thesis up online in order to provoke further debate. I've been slightly reluctant to do this because it's very difficult to summarise 20,000 words in 6-700 without losing some context. However, I've decided to forgoe those concerns and so here is my summary, as well as a link to the full thesis:

The first step of my thesis was to investigate why so little research had been conducted into popular (and that includes indie) music journalism and I found that the problem seems to be that music isn’t considered as worthy for study/inclusion as literature or theatre, either by academics or newspaper editors. It would seem that they see music as a frivolous pursuit, relegated to the margins, and not a life affirming passion which is obviously ridiculous to those of us who care about music.

                                                                                                                      

I then set about interviewing some of the most influential (based on a number of criteria that can be found in the thesis) bloggers and professional music journalists in Ireland.

2UIBestow – Peter Nagle

Asleep on the Compost Heap – Darragh McCausland

Harmless Noise – Naomi McArdle

Swear I’m Not Paul – Ronan Hunt-Murphy

Those Geese Were Stupefied – Karl McDonald

The Irish Times – Jim Carroll

Irish Independent – John Meagher

Hot Press – Stuart Clark

Nialler9 – Niall Byrne

My thesis focused on their motivations for engaging in music journalism and found three main roles for the music writer; The Critic, The Cheerleader and The Archivist. These roles can be defined as follows:

The Critic combines objective critical analysis with subjectivity.

The Cheerleader promotes only music they likes with no objectivity.

The Archivist decides what is/isn’t important enough to write about.

Anyway, I found that, while the professional music journalists  generally gave equal importance to all three roles, almost all of the bloggers felt that that cheerleading was the most important role, believing that they had an obligation to promote new music, often at the expense of objective critical analysis. The reason for this, I believe, is the interactive nature of blogging, the fact that a blogger can talk about a band/album and then immediately let their audience experience it.

That’s not to say that bloggers don’t play the role of The Critic at times, it’s just that, given the opportunity, they almost all failed to mention it as being important.

I also found was that most bloggers don’t actually want to write about music professionally, especially if it means giving up their blog. It was for this reason, amongst others, that I concluded that the challenges faced by professional music journalists do not come from bloggers but rather they are the same challenges faced by other professional journalists (falling sales, etc), which is, for the time being at least, out of their control.

My final conclusion, and something that journalists can control, was that it is much more likely that newspapers/magazines will hire traditional print journalists who are willing to engage with blogging than they are a blogger crossing over to print media, meaning that there remains a future in dancing about architecture for professional music journalists.

So now I’m throwing this open to you, as I know my findings have sparked some debate amongst the journalists/bloggers who took part and I’d like to see if it will provoke further debate. I would, however, recommend that you do read the whole thesis at some stage but I'm willing to justify any and all of my findings. You can find the full thesis here.

Right then, over to you…

Elliott Smith - A fond farewell to a friend

I could be another fool
or an exception to the rule
You tell me the morning after


Though I'm not supposed to be online today (work, work, work) October 21 2010 marks the 7th anniversary of Elliott Smith's untimely death and I just couldn't let that pass.

It was almost exactly a year earlier, in October 2002, that I first started listening to Smith, when, in the wake of my Grandfather's death, I was given a copy of his eponymous sophomore LP (that's self-titled second album in non music-journo speak). From the opening bars of Needle in the Hay right through to the closing chords of The Biggest Lie, that record encircled and entwined every fabric of my being and helped me through my grief.

Over the course of the next few months, I did my best to get my hands on every piece of music Smith ever even thought of composing. This was a time before mp3s and YouTubes and so Dublin's record shops and musically well-endowed friends proved invaluable. I even managed to get my hands on some Heatmiser bootleg tapes, tapes I tell you, that some friend of a friend had gotten from his cousin's sister-in-law who'd worked in Portland. 

There are few, actually, scrap that, there are no artists that have had the effect on me that Smith has had. He has influenced and inspired almost all my musical endeavours as an adult, be it writing, playing or just listening. There are people, as there always will be, who don't 'get' Elliott Smith. Some find him too depressing, some say he couldn't sing, others don't like the constant references to drugs in his lyrics. But drugs, and his living hell fighting/embracing them were what made Smith who he was and his songs what they were. And despite how strung out he was for years, I once got talking to a journalist who interviewed Smith when he was at his worst. During the interview Smith was plucking an acoustic guitar and could barely string a coherent couple of words together but, according to said journo, he didn't play one bum note on the guitar over the course of a 45 minute interview.

Anyway, this post isn't about glorifying drugs, one way or another his abuse of them played a role in his death, but the point I'm making is that they were his demons, and while we're all fighting our own individual battles, be alcohol, poverty, illness - his words, his music, even seven years after his death, can continue to provide us with hope. It worked for me 8 years ago, it works for me today.

The Information Super Water Cooler

By now, you've probably heard that Steven Gerrard rumour, or at least the latest incarnation of it. I'm not going to repeat it here, that would get me into a lot of trouble, but you can find it if you have 3 brain cells and access to Google.

Now, this isn't the first time a version of this rumour has surfaced, there was a similar one around the end of April too. That's probably what has made the rumour spread so fast. You heard/read the rumour and you thought 'oh, I heard something about that before, it must be true.'

Now, forgetting for a moment that the supposed third party in this particular rumour DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXIST, why is it that rumours such as this become part of the public conscience?

For a start, the rumour has spread over a variety of media. Personally, I've gotten texts, tweets and emails about it. I'd have probably read about it on Facebook too at this stage only I opted out of that particular invasion of privacy a few months back.  This, like the fact that other versions of the rumour have spread before, reinforces the idea that 'it must be true if everyone is saying it.'

This is where the Internet really lets itself down. People, including (or if I'm being honest, especially) journalists, post things online that they wouldn't stand over in court or print in their newspaper. The rush to be the first to tell the world that Gerry Ryan had died is a perfect example of this.

Breaking news, for me at least, is about making sure that you've got all your facts straight and that you've made every possible attempt you can to make sure what you're about to print is true.

People seem to forget this when they go online and turn valuable journalistic tools like Twitter into nothing more than an information super water cooler, a place to fly a flag and see if there is some truth in something you've heard in the newsroom.

That's a shame really, because the potential of a site like Twitter, providing professional journalists with the opportunity to interact with a vast range of citizen journalists, will probably never be fully realised because the site could well become the subject of a privacy case long before then.

I have no knowledge that such a case in the works, but if bloggers can be targeted, why not microbloggers and the site that allows them to test the waters with legally questionable stories?

For its part, Twitter seems to be quite good at self-censorship, but I wonder will it be enough to save them from the legal minefield it seems to have to tiptoe through everytime a contentious issue raises its head?

The World Thesis Championship

My name is Steven O'Rourke and it's been nearly 48 hours since I looked at a World Cup game.

It's been horrific, I can't sleep, can't eat, can't drink.

BUT...I've managed to do a load of work on my thesis which totally makes up for it.

I've got to talk to the people behind blogs such as Those Geese Were Stupefied, Harmless Noise, Asleep on the Compost Heap, Swear I'm Not Paul etc and the answers I've been getting back so far have made for some interesting reading.

I'm off to London this weekend but when I come back I'll be getting ready for two weeks of pure thesis work by which time I hope to have over 75% of the thing finished, well ahead of schedule.

Only 8 games left in the World Cup too which should make it easier.

New Blog, New Website

Hello and welcome to The View From The Bridge.

As some of you may know, I have previously penned the Key Notes blog for CLUAS, Ireland's longest running music website.

This blog will be slightly different because, while there will still be a strong emphasis on music, it will also contain my musings on any number of general cultural, news and media topics as well as updates on the progress of my thesis - The Role of the Professional Music Critic in Ireland, in an Era of Citizen Journalism - catchy title eh?

Anyway, I'm using this particular blog to launch both The View From The Bridge and my new website - stevenorourke.com.  This website will contain a portfolio of published work as well as videos, more information on me and a feedback form.  The best thing about it though, is that I designed it all by myself which is something I never thought I'd be able to do.

Right, I'd better get back to finishing it off before the big launch.

Welcome to Steve 2.1!

Test Blog

Test blog