Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Day Two: DCU and The Frontline

It has been such a long (but fun) day!

We started off the day with a lecture by Dr. Roddy Flynn at Dublin City University. He discussed Irish media and the different types of restrictions journalists have to deal with. It’s so surprising to me how little the Irish use the Internet and how much they read newspapers compared to the states. Dr. Flynn said about 55-60% of the Irish population read a newspaper daily and 90% read at least one newspaper a week. I also couldn’t believe how long the censorship laws lasted here; it wasn’t legal to post any information whatsoever about abortion until 1996 and pornography wasn’t legalized until sometime around then as well. Overall, it was a really interesting introduction and a lecture that I actually wanted to last a little longer!

After DCU, we had a little break and then we went on a double-decker Dublin bus tour. It was nice because we could get off at any stop (there were 23 around the city at tourist stops like Dublin Castle) and could get back on the bus if we wanted to. A large group of us stopped at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was gorgeous, like most of the city. Then we continued on the tour and saw other places like the Dublin Zoo, Christ Church Cathedral, the Guiness Storehouse and Áras an Uachtaráin, the President’s residence. I really enjoyed the tour, but the weather got a lot colder today, so sitting on the top of a double-decker bus wasn’t the most ideal thing to do.

Our long day ended at The Frontline, an Irish political talk show that airs on Mondays at 10:35. Tonight was a special edition discussing the best way that the country should deal with its economic issues. We had to go there extra early so we could watch a documentary with four different expert opinions on the issue before the show. I tried to follow all the information, but once the show actually started it was hard to do because there were so many people talking so fast! One of the guests was a member of the Irish parliament and there were also a lot of small business owners who shared their opinions. Although I couldn’t really follow the discussion, it was interesting to see all the different broadcast elements. There were so many lights! It was also weird because they only had one commercial break during the entire hour and fifteen-minute show. I’m not sure if it normally lasts that long, but we were told it would end at 11:30 when it really ended at 11:50. As interesting as it was, I was quite ready to leave and go to bed…but of course I had to update my lovely blog first.




St. Patrick's Cathedral


Áras an Uachtaráin


The Frontline studios with the cameras and lights...and Dave Fabilli's head.

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