nation

al

media

confere

nce

Dublin

2012

A media conference organised by students, for students.

In partnership with

WelcomeIt is our absolute pleasure to welcome you all to National Media Conference 2012 in partnership with The Irish Times.

This event is for you. Students have, for many decades, been dedicated journalists, broadcasters and filmmakers, and more recently producers of television. What they have never had is a national forum to share their insights and promote their endeavors . That is what this event is about.

It was our confidence that there are unconditionally dedicated members of the student media all over the country that gave impetus to this pipe dream in the first place.

Our guest speakers today boast the kind of career biographies that inspire us to start careers in media from student level. It can be daunting to keep such illustrious company, but we want you to be inspired.

These are sector-leading media professionals jumping at the chance to enter into discourse with you; they know that your engagement with the big questions guarantees the industry’s prosperous future.

Thank you for taking the time to contribute to NMC.

Schedule10.30am - Official Opening by Kevin O’Sullivan, Editor of The Irish Times

Talks - The Media Landscape11.00am ‘The Future of Journalism’ (talk)

12.00 noon ‘Instant Reaction: Social Media and the Modern Mob’ (talk)

1.00pm ‘Beginnings’ (talk/presentation)

Each talk will last approx 35 mins with 10-15 mins Q&A and 10 mins break time

2.00pm - 3.00pm Lunch BreakThose selected to take part in the Irish Times workshop

are asked to please return from lunch for 2:40pm

Show, Think, Create, Promote. National Media Conference 2012

Radio

Screen

Print

Why aren’t There More Young People in National Radio?

Overcoming Limitations: What

Makes Radio a Unique Medium?

Is Irish Radio Failing it Listeners?

3.00pm - 3.45pm 3.45pm - 4.30pm 4:30pm - 5:15pm

‘The digital democ-ratisation of the film industry has made it

stronger.’

‘Financing the Future of Print Media’

‘Leveson and Modern Newspaper

Journalism’

‘Nowadays, News Belongs Online’

‘Making the leap from Student to

Professional.’

‘Soon, live events will be all that we watch

on TV.’

5.30pm-7.30pm Drinks and canapés reception in the Graduate Memorial Building

Guestsof

NMC

Kevin O’Sullivan

EditorThe Irish Times

O ur keynote speaker is Kevin O’Sullivan, edi-tor of our partners The

Irish Times. He is the thirteenth editor of the paper and suc-ceeded Geraldine Kennedy on 23 June 2011 upon her retirement. O’Sullivan is from Tramore, County Waterford. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from University College Dublin in 1981 and a diploma in Journalism in 1983 from the National Institute of Higher

Education in Dublin (now Dub-lin City University). He worked at the Connacht Tribune and the Tuam Herald before joining The Irish Times in 1997. He was news editor at the The Irish Times from 2006 to 2011. He previously held the positions of night editor, special projects editor, editor of the health sup-plement and environmental and food science correspond-ent.

“New Landscape, Old Rules: Young Journalists in the Cloud Era”

Bryan Dobson

AnchorSixOne News

“Soon, live events will be all that we watch on TV.” (panel discussion)

Bryan Dobson is a newscaster with RTÉ and one of the biggest names in Irish media. He has

presented RTÉ News: Six One for al-most 15 years. He previously present-ed RTÉ News: Nine O’Clock. Bryan joined RTÉ News and Current Affairs as a reporter in 1992. Before being the main RTÉ News: Nine O’Clock presenter, he was the RTÉ Business Correspondent. In September 1996, he was named as the co-presenter

of the flagship early evening news programme, RTÉ News: Six One on RTÉ One, one of the most watched news programmes in Ireland. Since then he has presented that news programme, currently with Sharon Ní Bheoláin. He also presents various special programmes such as RTÉ’s coverage of general elections. In May 2011, he fronted RTÉ television cover-age of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to the Republic of Ireland.

NiallHarbisonEntrepreneur,FounderSimply Zesty

Niall is one of the co-founders at Simply Zesty and is pas-sionate about social media,

marketing, advertising, online video and anything to do with sports. He contributes the daily video on Simply Viral and spends a large portion of his time writing about new things hap-pening on Facebook.

Simply Zesty is a Dublin-based social media company that helps its clients punch above their weight with smart marketing, training and up-to-date news. The company was founded by Niall and Lauren Fisher and was sold to UTV for an initial price of £1.7m in March of this year after less than three years in existence.

Oliver CallanComedian

O liver Callan is an Irish vocal and performance satirist and impression-

ist known for featuring on Nob Nation, Green Tea and The Sat-urday Night Show. He rose to fame during the 2000s when his daily Nob Nation slots aired on RTÉ Radio.

Nob Nation and Green Tea parody political, social and cultural personalities, with Cal-

lan performing as the charac-ters featured on the show. His radio broadcasts have led to the release of regular podcasts, several CDs and appearances on prime time television pro-grammes such as The Saturday Night Show on RTÉ One. He has also incurred the wrath of several politicians and the Kerry GAA star Paul Galvin for his impressions.

Gillian Fitzpatrick

The Irish Daily Mail

G illian Fitzpatrick is the features editor of The Irish Daily Mail, where

she has worked since 2007 after a brief period working as a news sub-editor for The Irish Daily Star. She holds an MA in Journalism from the esteemed Masters programme in Dublin Institute of Technology and is a popular young journalist of

national repute.Her role as features editor involves editorial responsibil-ity for the Irish Daily Mail‘s weekly 12-page Good Health (Tuesday) and Femail (Thurs-day) supplements. Gillian is a panelist on our discussion of the implications of the Leveson inquiry for newspaper journal-ism.

Orla Barry began her career in broadcast media at South East Radio in Wexford be-

fore moving on to Radio Kerry where she produced and presented shows including the station’s flag-ship talkshow “Kerry Today” and the afternoon show “Barrytime”. Barry, a Cork native, has been working at the Dublin based Newstalk 106 since 2003, presenting ‘The Green Room’, a show focused on the discussion of issues related to culture, art, film, music, reviews and interviews. She is also a regular contributor to the BBC world service.

One of Ireland’s foremost broadcasters in the cultural sector, Barry will be addressing the National Media Conference on whether Irish Radio is fail-ing its listeners; a debate which questions whether the content of Irish radio provides the sort of quality entertainment and relevant information which it’s audience deserve. For those of us devoted to Student Radio and Radio in general (a me-dium which has beaten all the odds and remained popular), this is sure to be a lively de-bate.

OrlaBarry

Newstalk FM

J ohn Purcell is the chair of the Independent Broad-casters of Ireland, Chief

Executive of KCLR, the Director of Newstalk, and presenter of The Bottom Line, KCLR 96FM’s weekly business programme. In his new role Mr. Purcell will advocate and promote the role of independent radio in Ireland.

Mr. Purcell, is Chief Execu-tive and Shareholder in KCLR 96FM (Carlow & Kilkenny) is a veteran of the radio industry having been a founder Director of Anna Livia radio station in 1991. He was General Manager of Radio Kilkenny as from 1993

– 1998 and is a former direc-tor and shareholder in regional radio station Beat 102103. Pur-cell is also a director of nation-al radio station, Newstalk.

The mission of the IBI is to champion the agenda of independent broad-casters in Ireland and to be a distinct and coherent national voice in the ongoing campaign for competitive equality across the sector. 70% of the population tune into independent radio on a daily basis. This translates into weekday figures of 2.5 million listeners.

JohnPurcellChair, IBIChief Exec,KCLR

PaulDrury

EditorJournalist

P aul Drury served as man-aging editor of Associ-ated Newspapers Ireland

from 2008 until 2011 and now works as a freelance column-ist and commentator. A native of Dublin, he was the launch editor of the Irish Daily Mail in 2006. In a journalistic ca-reer spanning more than 30

years, he also served as edi-tor of the Irish Mail on Sunday, Ireland on Sunday, the Even-ing Herald, the Irish Daily Star and the weekly Irish language newspaper, Amárach, as well as holding a number of senior editorial positions with the Irish Independent. He has a BA in Journalism from DIT.

E oin O’Dell BCL (NUI), BCL (Oxon), PhD (Cantab), FTCD, Barrister-at-Law

lectures Contract, Restitution and Freedom of Expression, researches and publishes pri-marily in the fields of private and commercial law in Trinity College Dublin, and has been President of the Irish Asso-ciation of Law Teachers and Editor of the Dublin University Law Journal.

Dr. O’Dell is currently chairper-son of The Copyright Review Committee, established in May 2011 by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mr. Richard Bruton T.D. The Com-mittee’s remit is to examine

current copyright legislation to identify any areas that might create barriers to innovation; identify solutions for removing these barriers and make rec-ommendations as to how these solutions might be implement-ed through changes to national legislation; examine the US style ‘fair use’ doctrine to see if it would be appropriate in an Irish or EU context; and make recommendations, if necessary, for changes to applicable EU Directives that will eliminate the barriers to innovation and optimise the balance between protecting creativity and pro-moting and facilitating innova-tion.

Eoin O’Dell Lawyer

O ne of the most prolific writer/actor/directors to emerge from Ireland in

recent years, Terry McMahon has established himself both in front of and behind the camera as a man of considerable talent and expertise.

As a writer, he has won the Tiernan McBride International Screenwriting Award and the RKO Pictures Hartley Merrill In-ternational Screenwriting Prize in Cannes, with which he was presented at the Academy of

Motion Pictures and Sciences in Los Angeles.Charlie Casanova (2010), his debut feature film, was nomi-nated for 5 IFTAs in 2012, in-cluding Best Script, Best Direc-tor, and Best Film. The film also took home Best First Feature at the 2011 Galway Film Fleadh. We at the National Media Con-ference are thrilled to have him be a part of our panel discus-sion on the digital democrati-sation of the film industry this coming November.

TerryMcMahon

Writer/Director

S ince 2007, Alan has been the managing director of

Filmbase. Filmbase is a not-for-profit resource centre for filmmakers. Its building on Curved Street, in the heart of Dublin’s Temple Bar, is a pub-lic space where filmmakers can network, hire filmmak-

ing equipment, take training courses and receive support and information about working within the Irish film industry. Filmbase also publishes the cultural magazine Film Ireland and administers a number of film and documentary produc-tion award schemes.

Alan FitzpatrickFilmbase

Gavan Reilly

TheJournal.ie

H aving begun his career in journalism during his days as a student, Ga-

van Reilly is no stranger to the modern face of media in his role at TheJournal.ie.

As a student of commerce, Ga-van was involved with The Uni-versity Observer as both On-line Editor and Deputy Editor,

as well as the UCD Students’ Union before transitioning into professional news, swiftly taking up his current post at TheJournal.ie and becoming Editor of Agenda.ie, Ireland’s premier online news service and an up to date guide to the happenings of Leinster House respectively.

J ason Kennedy is a recent graduate of the Univer-sity of Limerick, currently

working in the Irish Times under the Editorial Internship Programme, where he will spend the next year working in the heart of the organisa-tion’s multimedia centre. Prior to working with the Irish Times, he worked as a multimedia freelancer. Jason studied Jour-

nalism and New Media and in his time in university, he worked as News Editor for the student newspaper An Focal and as Head of News for the campus radio station UL FM. He has written for Irish Ex-aminer, Sunday Tribune, The-Journal.ie, Irish Daily Star, Irish Independent and a number of regional newspapers.

Jason KennedyIntern, Irish Times

Gavan Titley

Academic &Journalist

G avan is a Lecturer in the School of English, Me-dia and Theatre Studies,

NUIM, where he is currently the Doctoral programme coor-dinator. Educated in TCD and DCU, prior to joining NUIM he worked at the University of Helsinki.

Gavan’s research interests focus on racism and multiculturalism in Eu-rope, and in particular, the impact of media forms and processes on public debates. His books include Broad-casting in the New Ireland (2010) and, with Alana Lentin, The Crises of Multiculturalism: Racism in a Neolib-eral Age (2011). He is a regular media

analyst on Vincent Browne, and a regular contributor to The Guardian. In summer 2012, he devised a series with Guardian ‘Comment is Free’ section on ‘racism in a digital age’, examining the impact of online har-assment on participation in pressing public debates. This in part provides the focus for his input on digital media and participation – people have unprecedented possibilities to communicate and participate, but to whom are they communicating, and what are they participating in?

ConorHorgan

PhotographerFilmmaker

C onor Horgan began his career in fashion and edi-torial photography work-

ing for such esteemed clients as Image Magazine, GQ, British Vogue, Harpers & Queen. As well as this, Conor has col-lected a catalogue of over 70 music videos and commercials to date as director. Heineken, The National Lottery and musi-cal band, The Script can be included in his list of current and previous clients.

His short filmmaking efforts to date have earned him numerous acco-lades and much recognition, with screenings in the Cork, Tampere, Boston Irish and Cannes Film Festi-vals. In 2010, his debut feature film ‘One Hundred Mornings’ premiered at Slamdance Film Festival in the US, to rave reviews in publications such as The New York TImes and The Irish Times. The film later had its irish nationwide release in May 2011 and went on to win multiple awards worldwide, including an IFTA.

AlisonCurtis

Radio DJ

Alison Curtis is a presenter on Irish radio station Phantom 105.2 and a respected figure

on the Irish music scene. She present-ed The Last Splash on Sunday nights from 20:00 until 22:00 and The Alison Curtis Show from 05:00 – 07:00.

The Last Splash and, later, The Alison Curtis Show, earned Curtis her three Best DJ Me-teor nominations, though she narrowly lost out on the first two occasions to her Today FM colleague Ray D’Arcy and lost again in 2009, this time to her Today FM colleague Ray Foley. Curtis currently possesses her own television channel and has written for Hot Press.

#NMC12

Simon McGarr

Simon McGarr, graduate of UCD and GMIT, is an expert in IP and internet law. McGarr is extreme-

ly active in many aspects of Ireland’s ‘Public Sphere’, having been an active “Stop SOPA” campaigner as well as leading a campaign for the expul-sion of the papal nuncio in the wake of the Murphy Report. A fearsome debater, he is known to many for his challenge to minister Sean Sherlock at the Irish Digital Forum and for his ongoing defense of the freedom of the web.

McGarr’s blog, Tuppenceworth.ie is a veritable Alladin’s Cave of content, featuring articles on

the Irish political scene, edu-cation, media and art. McGarr has a simple message for Irish people; ““Irish Internet users are in a race to save their Inter-net.” In his view, our freedom of speech and expression is under threat from the increas-ingly restrictive laws of this and other governments. At National Media Conference 2012, he will be addressing us on aspects of the Leveson inquiry and the downfall of the News of the World. This talk, from such a prominent expert in the field, is sure to be one to watch.

Solicitor, Internet Activist

‘Like’ the NMC on Facebook

Stevie Russell

S tevie Russell has had a remarkable career tra-jectory over the last

number of years. A graduate of IADT’s Film & TV Produc-tion programme, Stevie was named student of the year at his graduation. Since then, he has gone on to carve a name for himself in the music video and commercials industry as a director with a client list that includes Budweiser, HSE and The Irish Examiner as well as

bands like The Gorgeous Col-ours and The Kanyu Tree. Just this summer at the Cannes Commercial Producers Awards, Stevie Russell won Best Direc-tor for his commercial for the Road Safety Authority ‘Loaded Weapon’ from entries across the globe.Stevie will be participating in our roundtable discussion ‘Making the Leap from Student to Professional.’

Filmmaker

Cian McMahon

2 1 year old Cian Mac Ma-hon is a final year Multi-media student at Dublin

City University, and is also the Deputy Station Manager at DCUfm. From being the young-est professional podcaster at age 13 to winning a national Student Media Award for his documentary The Cancer Man last year, Cian lives the life of a media-creation addict and is

an inventive storyteller. Despite his radio head status, Cian spe-cialises in Film production, has been involved with a number of startups, worked on several prime-time television pro-grams, and currently teaches gifted children film production, audio editing and web design at the Centre for Talented Youth Ireland at DCU.

Multimedia Specialist

Simon Eustace

As both a filmmaker and mu-sician, Simon Eustace has a special edge on the world of filmmaking. Having first gradu-ated from Trinity in Philosophy and Italian, Simon toured with his band The Chapters, for which he is the lead guitarist, before then completing Grif-fith College’s Media Techniques Course.Since then, he has become a sought-after director of music videos and commercials. Not only the Go-to-Director of The Coronas and Miracle Bell, Si-mon has also leant a directorial

eye to commercials for Quinn Healthcare and Enel Energy Group and music videos for The Minutes and Ryan Sheri-dan.His work has earned him mul-tiple accolades, especially the Irish Music Television Awards where Simon has won Best Director and Best Live Video among countless nominations.Simon will be participating in the NMC’s roundtable discus-sion on ‘Making the Leap from Student to Professional’ this coming November.

Filmmaker & Musician

Ciaran O’Connor

C iaran O’Connor is in his final year of Communi-cation Studies in DCU.

DCUfm has been his main pas-sion for three years. Starting out in the News Team, Ciaran has learned the ins and outs of Current Affairs Radio and progressed up through the ranks of the station eventually becoming Station Manager in June 2012.He has had many

successes throughout his 3rd Level including two Student Media Awards for separate documentaries as well as being chosen to travel solo across Europe in August 2012 promot-ing Ireland along the way. His main passions are Audio Pro-duction, Music, Current Affairs and Collecting Vinyls. A career in Radio or PR hopefully awaits him!

DCUFM

WHY CHANGE?SHARPER. SMARTER. CLEARER.

THE IRISH TIMESTHE STORY OF WHY