The Identity Crisis in Google Trends

[superfrank]

Peterborough are owned by an Irish lad, aren't they?

[jebus]

Why do you say that? The media has a public role: it is not a private domain.

Actually, redtops give 'us' -- i.e. the greatest sport in the world as it is expressed on this island -- more coverage than the so-called qualities. Is that because they somehow owe 'us' more?

RTE gets a licence fee precisely so that it is not at the mercy of ratings and can instead provide local (Irish) coverage.

I excluded RTE from my comments, but I'd be interested to know why you feel privately owned companies owe the League of Ireland anything

[osarusan]

I'd agree with Jebus that private media companies don't owe the eL anything, or owe anybody anything. They want to sell newspapers / TV commerial time, etc, lots of them, and will talk about what will sell (within whatever ethical limits they have, or don't have).

That said, the media are far more likely to create a sensation about British football than Irish football. People can be duped into becoming interested in something they normally wouldn't be interested in due to media frenzy over the issue, but I've never seen this done for an eL story (at least not a positive one).

[BohDiddley]

They are private entities, but they operate in the public domain (that's why the Irish Times is run by a trust).
If they want to slavishly follow globalised sport because it's cheap and lots of saps will read any old guff that they print about it, then intelligent people should recognise that and see it for what is.

[jebus]

They are private entities, but they operate in the public domain (that's why the Irish Times is run by a trust).
If they want to slavishly follow globalised sport because it's cheap and lots of saps will read any old guff that they print about it, then intelligent people should recognise that and see it for what is.

So the minority want it one way and the private entities that operate in the public domain go the way of popular opinion and they're wrong?

Back in reality the fault for any of this lies squarely on the Irish sporting public's shoulders, not the private entities operating in the public domain (which could be anything from Pat McGuff's local tavern to McDonalds it's such a loose term)

[BohDiddley]

So the minority want it one way and the private entities that operate in the public domain go the way of popular opinion and they're wrong?

I'll try to ignore that ridiculously childish eye-roll and respond to the point made.

It's not a matter of one way or the other. No one has suggested that the media goes totally from one extreme to the other. It's a matter of balance and proportion, i.e. balancing private, commercial interests v. the media's public role, and balancing EPL etc. v reporting on domestic football. A decent sporting media should be able to do that. It doesn't owe it to 'us'; it owes it to its readers, but much of the Irish media cops out of that and takes the easy road.
The Irish Times, which itself makes great play of its public role (and actually has a very good LoI corr) is one of the worst offenders. Some days, you'd imagine that football didn't exist on the island.

[TonyD]

We're a niche market, we'll always be a niche market and we will get the niche market coverage from media that don't owe us a thing.

Fair enough, but that niche suddenly gets a lot bigger when there's a bad news tale to tell regarding the league.

[jebus]

I'll try to ignore that ridiculously childish eye-roll and respond to the point made.

It's not a matter of one way or the other. No one has suggested that the media goes totally from one extreme to the other. It's a matter of balance and proportion, i.e. balancing private, commercial interests v. the media's public role, and balancing EPL etc. v reporting on domestic football. A decent sporting media should be able to do that. It doesn't owe it to 'us'; it owes it to its readers, but much of the Irish media cops out of that and takes the easy road.
The Irish Times, which itself makes great play of its public role (and actually has a very good LoI corr) is one of the worst offenders. Some days, you'd imagine that football didn't exist on the island.

It's readers who couldn't care less if this league lives or dies?

[GenerationXI]

If I were an editor on a Irish newspaper I'd have given more coverage to them too, because that's what the majority of the public wanted, and that's what their advertisers would have wanted to.

We're a niche market, we'll always be a niche market and we will get the niche market coverage from media that don't owe us a thing. I'd take issue if RTE had started a weekly hour long programme about Sunderland, but they didn't, so I won't

Exactly, you're not there to fight your own fight - you're there to make the company for whom you work more profitable.

Some days, you'd imagine that football didn't exist on the island.

Football barely exists on this Island and that's not the error of the National media. The coverage is proportionate to the fan base. You can't blame the media for that and you can't charge them with the responsibility to increase the popularity of the league. If there was more demand for LOI coverage there'd be more coverage.

If you want the league to be more popular then approach every person you see in a Celtic, Man Utd, Liverpool, North London Scum (Red/White), Chelsea, Barcelona or Real Madrid Jersey and ask them to go and buy their local club's jersey and come to the games. Then watch media coverage grow.

If that's what you want, you go and do it. Don't pass the buck and blame the media, when you know it's your family, friends and neighbours who are letting this league down.

[Dodge]

I'd agree with Jebus that private media companies don't owe the eL anything, or owe anybody anything. They want to sell newspapers / TV commerial time, etc, lots of them, and will talk about what will sell (within whatever ethical limits they have, or don't have).

That said, the media are far more likely to create a sensation about British football than Irish football. People can be duped into becoming interested in something they normally wouldn't be interested in due to media frenzy over the issue, but I've never seen this done for an eL story (at least not a positive one).

Spot on, as usual. The sunderland thing was brilliantly architected by Drumaville. They flew all Irish journos out to Sunderland for their own "special" tour of the club. As ORA has said, the people Sunderland, and others, target will never think for themselves.

[BohDiddley]

If you want the league to be more popular then approach every person you see in a Celtic, Man Utd, Liverpool, North London Scum (Red/White), Chelsea, Barcelona or Real Madrid Jersey and ask them to go and buy their local club's jersey and come to the games. Then watch media coverage grow.

If that's what you want, you go and do it. Don't pass the buck and blame the media, when you know it's your family, friends and neighbours who are letting this league down.

One doesn't exclude the other. We can do as you suggest (and many do put that into practice) but the media has a role to play too.
Sports editors love to say that they are simply reflecting public taste, and clearly lots of people buy into that. But we have already seen in the Sunderland an illustration of their being actively interested in promoting something in which there was no previous interest. You will also see sports sections and individual journalists promote sports in which they have a personal or professional stake but which do not have the following to justify the airtime or column inches: sailing, athletics, basketball...