is the Irish Times viewed as a paper that only "big shots" buy?

Lollipop95

Don't know if this is the general public feeling but where I live I would frequently hear people saying that the Irish Times is only a paper that "big shots" (teachers are frequently named in this category) buy. Do you think this is true? Personally, most people I know read the Independent. Only one person I know reads the IT and the person is a former university lecturer, not sure if there's a correlation. So what do you think? Which paper do you read and as a matter of interest, which paper do you think is better - the Times or the Indo?

towelly

I've set up Tweetdeck to manage my newsfeed rather than read a newspaper.

smash

Teachers are big shots now?

Lollipop95

smash wrote: »

Teachers are big shots now?

people round my area seem to think so anyways!

Corvo

I like it, and believe me - I'm no big shot!

The sport section is particularly good, with some great opinion pieces. And the Sunday Times makes for a days reading, across a lot of subjects.

Anyone that criticises anyone who reads the Times as being a big shot are probably the same people who enjoy reading The Sun.

andrew

Only in the kind of place where a teacher is considered a 'big shot.'

Turtwig

The Irish times is viewed as the paper best highlighting the decline in reputable fact checking journalism.

Menas

Lollipop95 wrote: »

people round my area seem to think so anyways !

Is your area the year 1877?

It costs 2 euro.

Not exactly a private members' club membership

HeidiHeidi

Corvo wrote: »

I like it, and believe me - I'm no big shot!

The sport section is particularly good, with some great opinion pieces. And the Sunday Times makes for a days reading, across a lot of subjects.

Anyone that criticises anyone who reads the Times as being a big shot are probably the same people who enjoy reading The Sun.

I read it and I'm DEFINITELY no big shot!

But the Irish Times and the Sunday Times are two completely different publications. Wouldn't rate the ST anywhere near the IT - a couple of good opinion writers that I like, but otherwise it's a broadsheet-sized tabloid IMO.

As regards the IT, I suspect there's a big rural/urband divide.

Lollipop95

a lot of people I know complain about the price of it and claim the Indo is a lot cheaper

Duggy747

I get my news from Weekly World News.

They cover the real hard-hitting stuff like latest updates on Bat Boy's current location.

TwoShedsJackson

Lollipop95 wrote: »

Only one person I know reads the IT and the person is a former university lecturer, not sure if there's a correlation.

There isn't. I used to read the Times and I didn't even go to university, never mind lecture in one.

The Indo is a rag of the highest order, just look at the garbage masquerading as news on their site if you need confirmation. Who really gives a flying fu<k at a rolling doughnut what Bressie thinks about anything or who some supposed supermodel is dating, breaking up with or getting married to?

I stopped reading the Times because I realised it was costing me €500 a year to do so, and I could read it for nothing online - then they went to the pay wall so I just don't read it at all, unless I get a look at the copy my boss buys. He has a degree though so maybe there is something to your theory.

I actually find that since I stopped regularly reading news sites and listening to current affairs shows on the radio I'm happier day to day - so much of that stuff is so depressing that I just couldn't really take much more of it.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

All (or certainly most) Irish print journalism is gone to the dogs. It used to be semi ok but now its just sensationalist headlines disguising tired and lazy writing. And teachers are not big shots.

mikom

Well my puppy made a big shot all over the Irish Times I laid down for him.

syklops

mikom wrote: »

Well my puppy made a big shot all over the Irish Times I laid down for him.

Was it a hot shot as well?

Johnnio13

Apart from lacking a red-top the main competition for the Times in Ireland is a sad version of its former self. The articles are badly written with no thought going into them or the articles are just lifted directly from Guardian news-services.
Don't think the Times is for big-shots though. Great sports coverage.

Tarzana2

smash wrote: »

Teachers are big shots now?

Down the country, to a certain generation, yes. My father puts teachers in this category. And nurses. Actually, some teachers of his generation put themselves in this category. I remember waitressing at a catering thing at a teachers conference years ago. The older teacher were as whole a very uppity demographic. Bizarre, but there you go.

mikom

mikom wrote: »

Well my puppy made a big shot all over the Irish Times I laid down for him.

syklops wrote: »

Was it a hot shot as well?

Very hot.
It got Breda O'Brien right in her sanctimonious face.......... http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/breda-o-brien-love-is-not-enough-when-it-comes-to-children-s-rights-1.2077548

AndonHandon

IT is mainly a Dublin paper. The Indo is a country paper (just compare the property supplements of the two). The Indo is a complete rag with sensationalist, tabloid headlines; since it is for culchies then there must be some correlation.

ScumLord

I don't read it and I'm a big shot. I hire my own journalists and send them off around the world to find news and send back personalised reports to me. It's what all the big shots do, we wouldn't be reading the same news that the plebs read.

Johnnio13

Johnnio13 wrote: »

Great sports coverage.

I was with you until this!

The only reason I have ever been tempted to buy the Indo is because of its excellent sports analysis.

With the exceptions of Roddy L'Estrange and Gerry Thornley, the quality of the IT's sports coverage is ferociously weak and erratic.

pixbyjohn

Colleges used to get the Times delivered at a cut price. Maybe they still do.When I was working I got the times in college everyday cheaper than I could buy any other newspaper in the shops.

TwoShedsJackson

mikom wrote: »

It got Breda O'Brien right in her sanctimonious face...

Has she any other?

Dyr

Tarzana2 wrote: »

Down the country, to a certain generation, yes. My father puts teachers in this category. And nurses. Actually, some teachers of his generation put themselves in this category. I remember waitressing at a catering thing at a teachers conference years ago. The older teacher were as whole a very uppity demographic. Bizarre, but there you go.

"A public-house to half a hundred men
And the teacher, the solicitor and the bank-clerk
In the hotel bar drinking for ten. "

that's the culchies for ye alright

harry Bailey esq

Turtwig wrote: »

The Irish times is viewed as the paper best highlighting the decline in reputable fact checking journalism.

The Irish 'paper of record' as it likes to be known.It has a great sports section,if you like rugby it blows the Indo out of the water though.

HeidiHeidi

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I was with you until this!

The only reason I have ever been tempted to buy the Indo is because of its excellent sports analysis.

With the exceptions of Roddy L'Estrange and Gerry Thornley, the quality of the IT's sports coverage is ferociously weak and erratic.

It's the only paper in the country that covers my sport of choice!

smash

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

It's the only paper in the country that covers my sport of choice!

Zorbing?

Lollipop95

Tarzana2 wrote: »

Down the country, to a certain generation, yes. My father puts teachers in this category. And nurses. Actually, some teachers of his generation put themselves in this category. I remember waitressing at a catering thing at a teachers conference years ago. The older teacher were as whole a very uppity demographic. Bizarre, but there you go.

could well be a Culchie thing then as I'm also from the country

Sleepy

It's the nearest thing Ireland has to a daily newspaper.

That's feint praise when the rest are parochial gossip sheets though.

El Weirdo

Lollipop95 wrote: »

a lot of people I know complain about the price of it and claim the Indo is a lot cheaper

Oh, it's cheaper alright.

chopperbyrne

Corvo wrote: »

And the Sunday Times makes for a days reading, across a lot of subjects.

I got a very quick and angry earful for asking about the print numbers for the Sunday Times when I briefly worked in The Irish Times.

"The Irish Times does not have a Sunday edition."

biko

I only read Daily Telegraph, none of these provincial rags from the colonies.

Fr_Dougal

Lollipop95 wrote: »

Don't know if this is the general public feeling but where I live I would frequently hear people saying that the Irish Times is only a paper that "big shots" (teachers are frequently named in this category) buy. Do you think this is true? Personally, most people I know read the Independent. Only one person I know reads the IT and the person is a former university lecturer, not sure if there's a correlation. So what do you think? Which paper do you read and as a matter of interest, which paper do you think is better - the Times or the Indo?

Oh I know the type, Avensis driving bastards giving grinds on the qt.

circadian

I've been living in the Republic for a few years now and even in that short time the quality of printed news has dropped. It was already just about passable but now it's downright embarrassing.

Every time I lift up a paper here there are spelling mistakes everywhere. The grammar is also all over the shop.

The IT is the best I've seen recently in terms of proof reading but I don't think the quality of reporting is great, it's mostly middle of the road fence sitting crap.

ScumLord

circadian wrote: »

The IT is the best I've seen recently in terms of proof reading but I don't think the quality of reporting is great, it's mostly middle of the road fence sitting crap.

It should be middle of the road. The problem I see with papers is they push agendas, they pass off some ranting fool's opinion as news. They should be reporting facts without bias, all I see in the papers is bias instead of facts.

syklops

circadian wrote: »

it's mostly middle of the road fence sitting crap.

Whats the opposite of middle of the road, fence sitting? Left wing or right wing. We have plenty of both already. The IT is one of the few which manages to appear somewhat impartial.

Right Turn Clyde

I remember being on a building site years ago and one of the guys was laughing at me behind my back because I was reading the Indo. He thought I was a snob. The Indo! I read the Times these days. God know what he'd think of me now. He'd probably stone me to death if he seen me. Social class is a huge factor here. I'm from a working class area and I don't ever remember seeing a broadsheet when I was growing up. It was strictly tabloid readers, save for one or two 'weirdos', i.e. people that read books and thought about stuff bigger than themselves. Generally speaking, I find that people with little or no education will gravitate towards tabloids, some would say for obvious reasons. And I include myself in that. I used to read tabloids on the sites years ago, but I eventually got sick of them and moved onto something that looked more substantial, i.e. the Indo. But it was only after I started studying as a mature student than I wanted a real newspaper, something that could give me a daily update on the the type of issues that I was reading about in college and in my spare time. Of course there's gonna be a crossover. I seen plenty of Page 3's lying around in college, and there's a steady stream of broadsheet readers sitting on their doorsteps in my estate, which is great to see. I honestly feel that tabloids are toxic.

Kermit.de.frog

The Irish Times is not impartial on social issues like abortion for example. It's actually heavily biased.

Having said that it is pretty much the only paper now with any quality journalism. The Indo went rouge tabloid a long time a go. And the other tabloids are written for thicks.

Right Turn Clyde

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

The Irish Times is not impartial on social issues like abortion for example. It's actually heavily biased.

You have to take bias as a given, whether it's a newspaper, a hardback or a documentary. The key thing is to be aware of it. Look at The Guardian, for example. I suspect a lot of its readers don't realise how biased it is because they simply don't notice it.

lavdad

Duggy747 wrote: »

I get my news from Weekly World News.

They cover the real hard-hitting stuff like latest updates on Bat Boy's current location.

You've made my day by letting me know there are others out there more sexually desperate that I am. A fat chick, yes. A downey, maybe. But a bat, and raw thus resulting in a bat child? That's just too far.

I grew up in a house where we got the Irish press everyday, as an adult I changed to the Irish times and the Observer on Sunday, I then switched to the Sunday times and little by little I stopped buying the Irish times during the working week, now I only buy the Sunday times the odd time.

I still get Saturdays Irish times but its really gone off a bit lately.

circadian

ScumLord wrote: »

It should be middle of the road. The problem I see with papers is they push agendas, they pass off some ranting fool's opinion as news. They should be reporting facts without bias, all I see in the papers is bias instead of facts.

I agree I guess what I really want from a paper is solid investigate journalism. Not some political agenda crap designed to undermine people but looking into things in a pragatic, matter of fact way.

Yes the IT reports news with very little angle, but I can get that at other news outlets that are usually the source for such articles.

I'd like to see, just for example, something like an investigation into the perceived failings of the Irish legal system. An investigative journalist worth their salt would spend quite some time on that, and if done properly it'd be a massive, factual, well written piece of journalism.

I may expect too much.

Larbre34

Its a paper I buy on a Saturday as I enjoy some of the stuff in it. Otherwise I read their online stuff until I run out of free article views. I find the reportage is mostly objective and to the point.

Its always good to have a bit of broadsheet knocking around the house in case of needing to varnish a table or change the oil on the lawnmower.

Real big shots own newspapers, and I dont mean a copy of todays edition.

Mardy Bum

Print journalism has already fallen over the edge and became a rat race to those customers whose main preoccupations lie with how Americans pronounce Irish names or how to get your hair like XXXX XXXX or the latest in the world of Kim Kardashiands.

Zamboni

It's the best out of a very very poor bunch.

I can't get my head around the fact that people still actually pay for newspapers though.

Magico Gonzalez

Zamboni wrote: »

It's the best out of a very very poor bunch.

I can't get my head around the fact that people still actually pay for newspapers though.

I like the feel of it in mt hand, the rustling of it. I like to sit down for a coffee somewhere nice and have the paper at hand. I find the hole experience more relaxing than flicking away at the online papers during the day. I try not to use the internet too much at home in the evening as I've been staring at a screen all day and I really don't need to be staring at one all night either. I'd rather be cooking or pottering about.

daUbiq

The latest ad on TV for the Irish Times is pretentious nonsense.. the catch line is you are what you read.

What do they mean?

Dr Strange

Magico Gonzalez wrote: »

I find the hole experience more relaxing than flicking away.

Interesting.

callaway92

Ya, a couple of my lecturers bang on constantly about how "rubbish" the Indo is and that we should be reading the Irish Times. Sometimes almost insulting to people who read The Independent.

Kermit.de.frog

daUbiq wrote: »

The latest ad on TV for the Irish Times is pretentious nonsense.. the catch line is you are what you read.

What do they mean?

To put it in plain english perhaps it implies that if you are in a queue in a newsagent and the guy in front of you has a copy of the Irish Daily Star or the Sun, for example, you are probably gonna think "scum" or at the very least potential Jeremy Kyle Show participant.