by Ciarán Murray, Coordinator, Near Media Co-op
On 23 March, Lord Mayor of Dublin Cllr Ray McAdam launched Near FM’s media literacy series Mad about Media. This series is a collaboration with FET Dhúlaigh and is supported by Coimisiún na Meán’s Sound and Vision Fund through the television licence fee.
The programmes go out every Monday at 6 p.m. on Near FM and are available after broadcast as a podcast. Throughout the series, media students from FET Dhúlaigh put questions to journalists, academics and media experts. The students take various challenges to limit their screen time, including using their screens in black and white and substituting their smart phones for brick phones.
Media student Sarah Fitzgerald was the presenter for the first episode, with First Year students Erica Milling, Aoibh Cowan and Aaron O’Reilly-McGee making up the panel.
During the series, the students get to discuss a wide variety of topics with a range of experts, including Martina Chapman from Media Literacy Ireland; David Power from the Irish Film Classification Office; Stephanie Comey from Coimisiún na Meán; Stephen McDermott, journalist with The Journal;, and David Curran, head of Media with FET Dhúlaigh. Students also interview Greta Mohan of the ESRI on young people and online gambling, Eileen Culloty on mis and dis-information, Leon Diop on the Black and Irish podcast, Rosie Day on the Medemap Project, and Roddy Flynn on media ownership,
The production team comprises of Ciarán Murray, Jaye Palmer, Dave Curran and Cáit Boyce-Willis.
You can listen to the first episode here.
