Niall Martin, Editor, Morning Ireland wrote this to Connect-World in September. We have now posted it on our website to provoke debate following our workshop on November 23… Director Katherine Meenan’s response will be posted tomorrow.

 

I would like to contribute in a practical way, to the debate on your website about how developing world issues can get more coverage in broadcast and film media.

 

There are no great mysteries and it all starts and ends with a good story. If a reporter asks me am I interested in a story about human rights abuses in Burma, my eyes will glaze over. But if the reporter says “I have this story about a woman in Burma who was beaten until she miscarried and I have access to her …and to a group of Monks who live on a mountaintop and cycle into the city every day to peacefully protest - one of whom studied in London and has good English “ …well I would jump at it.

 

Following on from that example what elements are essential to get a story into the media?

 

1. A dodgy mobile phone or a crackly satellite phone line reduces the impact of all but the most catastrophic events.

 

2. For broadcast a story really must have some English language interview, but an interview with an Irish NGO in a logo’ed T shirt, is not always the best way. Far better that the journalist finds or is assisted to locate someone with reasonable English. This gives the story more coherence but also more validity.

 

3. A good pitch to the Editor is essential; the pitch must give a picture of “something I don’t know already “. So even if the main story is another famine in another godforsaken country in Africa, the story the journalist wants to tell must contain a new element, a twist or a novel approach. Overall the story must contain compelling people - not just images of people.

 

4. There has been a debate in journalism for as long as I can remember about whether journalists should get involved in the stories they cover. If this technique is used sparingly it can make a powerful connection between the journalist and the audience. It is acceptable I believe to get become involved (Michael McMillan ITN, The Chavez documentary, Michael Moore, Louis Theroux, John Simpson, Martin Bell).

 

5. The rules of how things get made are the same whether you’re making a docu-soap, a documentary or a drama - the pitch has to offer something above and beyond what I, as a commissioner, expects to hear, the characters in the piece need to be drawn out so the Commissioner can visualise the person and central character needs to be special.

 

6. Both journalists and agencies need to realise that speaking to the converted is the easy bit, it’s speaking to those who don’t read a newspaper never mind a foreign news page, who don’t care about Darfur, but who still have feelings, who vote and who are just as much part of this society as the people who look at the New York Times on the web each morning - that’s the challenge. I have to admit I’m a mainstream kind of guy; ten paragraphs in the Star is worth far more than ten pages in Village magazine; in fact five paragraphs in the Southern Star beats them all.

 

7. Conferences/symposiums/seminars By and large a load of grey men (and they are mainly men …still) going into a grey building to preach to the converted in a darkened room. Does this sound interesting? Think about it … There are between ten and fifteen conferences a day on during the two conference seasons in Ireland, Most end up on the bottom of the newsroom newslist. Why? Because there is little chance anything dramatic will happen, because the venue is sterile, because there are few “real people” there, because conference delegates tend to speak in “conference speak “ best practise”, “going forward”, “geo-political” and acronyms abound – even NGO is a term most people will not understand.

 

8. Journalists like to feel they came upon the story themselves, even if they are being led by the nose by an agency! If you are an agency or NGO don’t over plan or over schedule a trip.

 

9. If you have built up a relationship with a particular journalist, keep them in the loop, a quick tip off can work wonders. Don’t engage the journalist in a long phone call. He/she will know whether the tip is of much use within 30 seconds.

 

10. Stop with the e mail - we receive about 250 e mails a day to our programme alone, only a fraction gets read. If you have something to say, make a short phone call, practise the pitch, have all the information, know what hotel the person is staying in, what time the flight is coming in, make a Plan B if the flight is delayed. Know whether the person you are pitching for interview REALLY has good nuanced English. In addition a very thick African accent may be indecipherable on radio but may work on TV because you have lip synch and also the possibility of sub titles.

 

11. There are lots of routes where funding can be drawn down: journalists and agencies should familiarise themselves with criteria, deadline dates etc so they can advise each other. The main funds are: Simon Cumbers Fund, the Irish Film board, Northern Ireland Screen, the Arts Council. RTE have a heavily structured approach to commissioning and all information is on the RTE website, TG4 have several commissioning rounds through the year, TV3 commission on a rolling basis, Setanta Sports also commission.

Niall Martin

Editor

Morning Ireland