I’m not bothering much with Spotify or Netflix, I’m not really reading the newspapers online and there’s a heap of podcasts on my phone that haven’t been listened to. I’ve started doing this mad, crazy thing of watching TV programmes that are on at the same time for everyone, instead of popping in headphones and firing up the laptop whenever I want – to watch whatever I want. Sometimes actually, if I’m early, I might even have to wait for the show to start! And instead of listening to podcasts geared towards me and my preferences, I listen to the same radio as everyone else. My COVID-19 diet of RTÉ and the local radio station, MidWest Radio, has reminded me what’s lost by engaging solely with media curated to our tastes and preferences. The streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime don’t have any kind of a social contract to provide information and bring people together whereas RTÉ and Midwest do. It’s heart-warming to see how seriously they take their duties.
I hadn’t watched RTÉ television in a long time and all I really heard or read was scoffing reviews and people giving out about how bad it is. Criticism of RTÉ’s output is often warranted and the network certainly faces problems going forward, but the criticism neglects to mention that RTE’s content is supposed to please a far wider audience than any Netflix show. Online streaming service content (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime etc.) is largely designed to be enjoyed individually; the platforms promote content based on what you watched before so two people are unlikely to be watching the same show at the same time. That’s not the case with the likes of RTÉ. I’ve been struck over the past few weeks at how many people I’ve chatted with – regardless of age or gender or politics or anything – about a funny thing on Keys to my Life (minor Irish celebrities go back to childhood homes), Daniel and Majella’s Road Trip (minor Irish celebrity couple take a road trip) and Homes of the Year (Irish people competing for… oh you get it). Some things on RTÉ are ‘not great’ – as are some things on Netflix – but if a show brought a load of people together in conversation, shouldn’t that count for something in a review? I haven’t given up on Netflix or anything but in the circumstances, having something other than COVID-19 to chat about with neighbours has taken on a new importance and RTÉ provides us with that. Or that’s my excuse anyways. Well that, and being chairperson, secretary and PRO of the Anne Doyle Fan Club.
My radio ‘diet’ has been upended too. Radio in Chicago was insufferable so I mainly listened to podcasts (again, curated to my tastes and likely to align with my own views). In doing so, I forgot the power of radio to connect. The radio at home is always left on 96.1FM for the local station, Midwest Radio, and I usually catch the mid-morning show presented by Paul Claffey and Gerry Glennon. The show is aimed at people over forty (and you could add another decade on to that) in the west of Ireland, many of whom live in rural and often isolated areas. The usual fare of listener requests, turf for sale, cattle on the road outside Kilkelly and the corny jokes belies the seriousness of their mission; to stave off isolation for older listeners and keep them informed about what’s going on in the world. Claffey and Glennon will ‘spontaneously’ get chatting about issues of concern to their audience – the proper way to social-distance or what some new budgetary measure means – in an easy conversational style that, at the end, leaves everyone informed but nobody preached at. The show never gets heavy – it’s like an ongoing chat. Because so many requests are read out and seamlessly fed into the ongoing chat about a cancelled bingo or people missing their grandchildren, listeners feel like they’re part of a group conversation. MidWest Radio’s mid-morning show is unlikely to win any award for cutting-edge radio or anything, but that’s fine because it does something way more important than innovation. It’s easy forget that millennials, critics and public figures under forty don’t have the monopoly on excellence; it can be found between the death notices and an ad for a fridge on sale in Ballyhaunis.
And the other ‘traditional’ media source that I’m grateful for is RTÉ and its nine o’clock news bulletin. Nobody of my age watches the news; everyone gets their news online, scrolling through it while waiting for a bus. I’m a big believer in public service broadcasting and don’t wish to be disparaging of the BBC but I’ve been surprised at how much better RTÉ’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic has been. From the word go, the BBC’s news bulletins focused on the economic implications of COVID-19 rather than the human cost. When Ingrid Miley was on RTÉ explaining in the clearest of terms how to apply for the government’s COVID payment, the BBC was explaining the UK government’s economic plans but with no guidance on how these funds might be accessed. If a chart is necessary on RTÉ, it is super-simple and clear, unlike the unwieldy ones the BBC go with. The BBC still shows coverage of people standing closer than two meters apart, when RTÉ wouldn’t dream of it. While the markedly different approaches the Irish and British governments took were bound to be reflected in each country’s news coverage, RTÉ’s coverage has been all about providing information, serving its viewers and explaining to people what they need to know. If COVID-19 was a Leaving Cert subject, the RTÉ nine o’clock news would get you a comfortable B1 in the Ordinary Level paper. There’s the Claire Byrne Show and PrimeTime for anyone who wants to take the Honours paper but like my Leaving Cert Maths, I’m perfectly happy with my B1 in the pass paper.
It’s easy dismiss RTÉ and your local radio station but they’re both providing essential services, whether it’s alleviating rural loneliness for an hour or two, or giving us news we can trust and depend on. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime etc. are taking over the world of television but these services thrive on our isolation, and our expectation that everything should be tailored to our own preferences. In contrast, the numbers watching RTÉ are declining and the critics are increasing, but though that criticism is often well justified, there’s more than one way to do a good job. Artistic merit is important, but so too is being able to sit on a wall and talk to an eighty-year-old woman about the thing we both enjoyed on the television last night.
doireann.ie 