Sunday World - Gutter press or quality newspaper

Dundalk Daily

Alot of posts in the Paul Williams thread were directed at the Sunday World which imo is probably the worst Irish newspaper on the market. Would you agree ? Do we need newspapers like this ?

newby.204

Supply = Demand

People(albeit intellectually challenged) want to know that posh&Becks just boguth fifteen pairs of shoes that could feed a small country for a year Or some nobody whos somebody for no reason just had sex with three pigs etc etc etc gutter rubbish blah blah. The fact that several hundred Iraqis, Afghans, Koreans, Chinese you get the pint have been mortared, suicide bombed,tortured,shot,starved or that they even exist!!!

Supply = Demand

I think sometimes we overestimate the collective intelligence/conscience of the general public, they dont care that kids have just been killed in israel, e.g.man utd just won 2-0

sense the cynicism

lostexpectation

the admins going to ban you for this thread you do know that don't you

DublinWriter

Dundalk Daily wrote:

Alot of posts in the Paul Williams thread were directed at the Sunday World which imo is probably the worst Irish newspaper on the market. Would you agree ? Do we need newspapers like this ?

Where else is the irony of modern Ireland best expressed but in the Sunday World, where Fr.Brian Darcy's "Little Bit o' Relgion" column was faced with a leaving-cert aged model photographed in tits-almost-out mode?

It's a rag for the lumpen proloteriat. It wouldn't exist if there wasn't a market for it. It's basically just a small part of the 'circuses' component in the 'bread and circuses' national mechanism.

The Sunday World lost its heart when Kevin Moran died.

santosubito

I think you might mean Kevin Marron.

But, surely, you're contradicting yourself. Even with Mr Marron did it not cater to the lumpen proletariat? Intellectual snobs are so boring. People who read tabloids are just as smart and thick as everyone else. In fact, I understand there are some people who read both! Get over yourself.

Dundalk Daily

I doubt if the avaerage SW reader could even tell you what a proletariat is.

nlgbbbblth

santosubito wrote:

Intellectual snobs are so boring.

People who defend red-top tabloids and their readership are far worse.

Blackjack

Dundalk Daily wrote:

Alot of posts in the Paul Williams thread were directed at the Sunday World which imo is probably the worst Irish newspaper on the market. Would you agree ? Do we need newspapers like this ?

Evening Herald and the Daily Indo are right up there IMO.

Dundalk Daily

Blackjack wrote:

Evening Herald and the Daily Indo are right up there IMO.

Blackjack bad enough as both these are I dont think they are up there with the SW.

santosubito

nlgbbbblth wrote:

People who defend red-top tabloids and their readership are far worse.

I don't think so. And I wasn't defending tabloids -I was defending people, like me, who read them.

Tom Dunne

santosubito wrote:

I was defending people, like me, who read them.

If you don't mind me asking, what exactly is it that you read in the SW? I'm not being in any way patronising or condescending, I am merely at a loss to understand what draws people to papers such as the SW.

DMC

I agree with santosubito. People buy them, people read them, and they have the vote too.

I occasionally get a "red-top", just to see what is happening in them.

And, because of the thread, I got the Sunday World for the first time in ages. It was always bought in my house for years, really until the early 90's.
And lo, there is a feature on Toni the exotic dancer, an SW favourite from years ago

Its standard fayre for a "red-top", but there is a skew towards the violent ends of our society, and a focus on those loveable rogues, the travelling community....

Its all there for the discerning reader!

santosubito

I didn't say I read the SW!
I read tabloids and I read broadsheets, I suspect many people do the same.
I read the Irish Times, The Indo, The Business Post, The Star, The Observer, The Mirror, The Mail and Mail on Sunday.
The Mirror in Ireland is largely ****e, but I used to read it a lot when I was a kid and I remember it as a decent, left of centre newspaper. Its stance on the war on Iraq is also something to be admired and I ALWAYS remember John Pilger's `The killing fields' stories about Cambodia - great stuff.

I get a good mix of news and sport from all of the above newspapers, but it's also my job to read them.

Media professsionals, from my experience, scan all papers everyday. And, like me, most reporters have worked for both stables.

I don't like the Sun or the NOTW, but - in Britain, anyway - they break a huge amount of hard news stories which are followed up by all the other media. I read the MoS, dislike it intensely, but it also breaks significant Irish stories.

I don't care whether people dump on tabloids, but I do take exception to people insinuating tabolid readers are thick.

shane86

In fairness, the Sunday Indo is the worst paper in Ireland. Its 70% ads and their columnists are less in touch with modern Ireland than my mother. Jesus, even their journos who are in their 20s write articles about young people drinking, drugs, sex etc that have as little real world experience of the issue as the boy in the bubble.

santosubito

shane86 wrote:

In fairness, the Sunday Indo is the worst paper in Ireland. Its 70% ads and their columnists are less in touch with modern Ireland than my mother. Jesus, even their journos who are in their 20s write articles about young people drinking, drugs, sex etc that have as little real world experience of the issue as the boy in the bubble.

Hard to argue with that. I really hate that paper. Muppets.

Dundalk Daily

Shane I hold similar views on the Sindo, whats your read on the Sunday World.

Dave!

I'd say most people who read tabloids do so for a bit of entertainment. Not everyone wants to read about opinion polls and mid-term elections and fishing bans, first thing in the morning. Nothing wrong with that, and it doesn't make them "intellectually challenged". They could go home and read the works of Shakespeare after work, would that counter your initial prejudice?

Probably not. As someone said, intellectual snobs are so boring.

Irish Times FTW BTW

lostexpectation

DaveMcG wrote:

I'd say most people who read tabloids do so for a bit of entertainment. Not everyone wants to read about opinion polls and mid-term elections and fishing bans, first thing in the morning. Nothing wrong with that, and it doesn't make them "intellectually challenged". They could go home and read the works of Shakespeare after work, would that counter your initial prejudice?

Probably not. As someone said, intellectual snobs are so boring.

Irish Times FTW BTW

the daily show is entertaining, it ain't reactionary bull**** though like the tabloids

tbh

look - the SW has two columns every week written by 'celebrity' cleavage , Amanda Brunker. Doesn't that tell you everything you need to know?

shane86

Dundalk Daily wrote:

Shane I hold similar views on the Sindo, whats your read on the Sunday World.

I like it for the crime stories, apart from that its an average enough read, but probably the better of the tabloids. Some may regard its content as dubious but at least it doesnt rely as much on interviews or observations that never happened (like the one in the Sindo yesterday with her tale of 13 year old girls in a Dublin newsagents talking about dirty filthy S E X. It was so obviously made up to make the point of the article it was embarrasing)

Mind you you have to wonder as to the reliability of "Garda sources" for the SW. Either they dont exist or Williams has all his stories fed to him by a cop who takes the risk of leaking presumably because he has some sort of drink or gambling problem and needs the money.