Why does the news media ignore Northern Ireland?

ewan whose army

Being a UK citizen living in Ireland I mainly watch the BBC et al for the news, I just do out of habit, anyway today there was an attempted bomb attack on a Shopping Centre in Belfast, thankfully it failed. But it only got basic news coverage, when something similar happened in London a few years back (when Islamist extremists attempted to Bomb Haymarket) the news was having a panic over it.

I mean strip the location and who probably did it, its still a terror attack at whats offically an UK city which could have murdered innocent people who were just out Christmas shopping

seachto7

Maybe giving the twats in the North some air time would be what they want. Also, maybe the fact if it happened in London, London is a world city, as well as the UK capital.

Look at the Boston bombing. Not to make light of who was injured and who died, in the grand scheme of things, only 3 people died, yet it got wall to wall coverage....

Mr Pseudonym

It's something I've considered, as well. What I think is even more lacking is any discussion or analysis of NI politics in Irish media. I don't know whether this is unique, but I feel no similar to a Londonderryman than to a Londoner.

If I were a strategist for a Republican party, I'd attempt to get NI candidates elected to the Dail (is Adams the only one?), and vice versa. The idea of "uniting" the two countries, when there is so little social and political integration, is farcical.

Edit: I misunderstood the thread. I thought it was related to the lack of coverage in Dublin media.

IRE60

Maybe the media are more concerned with things that happen in London than Belfast?

Maybe Belfast and other large populated areas in NI are 'really not in the UK' - or as we heard all too often part of 'the mainland'

Maybe after 30 odd years of conflict the media have become sanatised‎ to events like that - when they take place in NI and not in London

munchkin_utd

its probably not terribly big news because its just part of the low level background violence that happens in the north whereas something that happens in a city like London just is bigger news as its unexpected and raises questions as to whether its the start of something or not.

It also depends on whether events like this happen in a quiet news period.
If nothing is happening (i.e. no bailout or budget news or axe murderers or trials of such people) then terrorist attacks outside of the 26 counties will get great coverage.
If not, and maybe that was the case with the London incident, then it'll receive much larger coverage as theres no local news to compete with it.

you'd see the same when some random child goes missing in england or the USA and the irish media is all over it like a rash EVEN on local news which is often about sewer pipes bursting or cat being saved from a tree and then suddenly "random child in far away place found alive" (that you never knew was missing in the first place, but anyhow).

coylemj

If an event is out of the ordinary then the media will jump on it.

Classic examples:

1. Helicopter crashes into Glasgow pub, eight killed. In 2012 there was 1,754 people killed on the roads in the UK so roughly the same number of people (8) probably died on the same (Friday) night in traffic accidents.

2. Train crash in the Bronx today, four killed. In 2012 an average of eight murders per week were recorded in NYC so probably the same number (4) of people were murdered this weekend.

Bombs are not unusual in NI, dissident republicans plant them under police officers' cars all the time, fortunately most of them are detected but as news items they are not up there with a helicopter landing on the roof of a crowded pub on a Friday night and then crashing through it.

youreadthat

IRE60 wrote: »

Maybe the media are more concerned with things that happen in London than Belfast?

Maybe Belfast and other large populated areas in NI are 'really not in the UK' - or as we heard all too often part of 'the mainland'

Maybe after 30 odd years of conflict the media have become sanatised‎ to events like that - when they take place in NI and not in London

Maybe because it only has the population of the Leeds-Bradford urban area.

Santa Cruz

Maybe because we don't give a damm about them seeing they are too stubborn and ignorant to come to a little bit of compromise.

ewan whose army

Santa Cruz wrote: »

Maybe because we don't give a damm about them seeing they are too stubborn and ignorant to come to a little bit of compromise.

Who is stubborn the UK or Northern Ireland?

Sound of Silence

ewan whose army wrote: »

Who is stubborn the UK or Northern Ireland?

The Stormont Executive.

ewan whose army

Sound of Silence wrote: »

The Stormont Executive.

Mmmmhhhmmmm They are.

Its not surprising IMO, with the news that 3.8% of the people who there want to be unified with here

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/poll-just-38-want-a-united-ireland-now-29584149.html

I just wonder how relevant the current system there is especially when I read this

More Catholics thought the Queen is performing better as monarch than Martin McGuinness is as Deputy First Minister, as we asked voters to rate public figures on their performance.

Her Majesty pipped a host of leading figures to the post, as she was crowned the most effective performer in office.

Those taking part were asked to rate leaders’ performances on a scale from ‘excellent’ to ‘very bad’ and the Head of State was the only one to score a positive score of +2.8.

The results were close as Catholics scored the Queen +1.3 and Mr McGuinness +0.9.

But it wasn’t just the Deputy First Minister she overtook, as Queen Elizabeth also triumphed over PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott, the President of Ireland Michael D Higgins and the Secretary of State Theresa Villiers.

Queen Elizabeth received a positive score across all religious groups.

While the President of Ireland Michael D Higgins wasn’t far behind her

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/debateni/blogs/liam-clarke/message-of-belfast-telegraph-poll-northern-ireland-needs-a-change-in-politics-29595871.html

Sound of Silence

ewan whose army wrote: »

Mmmmhhhmmmm They are.

Its not surprising IMO, with the news that 3.8% of the people who there want to be unified with here

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/poll-just-38-want-a-united-ireland-now-29584149.html

I just wonder how relevant the current system there is especially when I read this



http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/debateni/blogs/liam-clarke/message-of-belfast-telegraph-poll-northern-ireland-needs-a-change-in-politics-29595871.html

I can't speak for the methodology used, but lets just say it's not particularly wise to take much heed in polls gathered from a Paper's readership.

Regardless, It seems as if you're trying to springboard off my post to make some kind of unrelated point.

IRE60

Whats are you talking about - it's research conducted on a sample, randomly selected sample, of 1,222 people in NI. Fcuk all to do with the BT's readership.

Sound of Silence

IRE60 wrote: »

Whats are you talking about - it's research conducted on a sample, randomly selected sample, of 1,222 people in NI. Fcuk all to do with the BT's readership.

And even less to do with the thread.

IRE60

Sound of Silence wrote: »

I can't speak for the methodology used, but lets just say it's not particularly wise to take much heed in polls gathered from a Paper's readership.

Seriously? you are going to try and moderate this as well - considering I was commenting on your post above?!! If my comment is off topic then so is your original post?

The point that you believe that the poll was conducted on the BT's readership shows you fundamental misunderstanding of the research process.

Therefore, IMO, it would be wiser to take a step back at this point.

Sound of Silence

IRE60 wrote: »

Seriously? you are going to try and moderate this as well - considering I was commenting on your post above?!! If my comment is off topic then so is your original post?

The point that you believe that the poll was conducted on the BT's readership shows you fundamental misunderstanding of the research process.

Therefore, IMO, it would be wiser to take a step back at this point.

Take a breath there...

I think you'll find that I never posted the link to that poll, and when I commented on it I pointed out that it had little to with the thread. So unless you can make a link between the views of Catholic on the Union and how the BBC reports on Northern Ireland, then I'm guessing your more inclined on debating the former than the latter.

And I don't know about you, but just because someone puts something forward to me doesn't mean I have anything really to say about it, nor is it my responsibility to make a connection to the point their making - hence "off topic".

As for my comment on the poll, I think you'll find that I prefaced what I wrote by saying "I can't speak for their methodology".