Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

I attended the Cleraun Media Forum on Monday night where Mark Hennessy, political correspondent with the Irish Times, and Peter Feeney, head of Public Affairs at RTE, gave an overview of each of their respective organsation’s reporting on the Lisbon Treaty and a general overview of how the referendum was covered.

What was of primary interest to me was the fact that both Mark and Peter singled out the woeful efforts of the Yes campaign’s communications strategy…or the lack of it! Looking forward to the second referendum, their insights were fascinating as we will have to see real leadership from politicians if it is to be passed this time.

One of the interesting aspects of having to give balanced media coverage is that column inches and airtime were given over to people who had no electorate mandate. However, as a number of audience members rightly pointed out, this should not matter. Looking at it from a PR perspective it was incredible to hear that Mary Lou McDonald appeared on RTE more times than any of her political counterparts. What this did was shown up politicians in favour of the treaty, as a number of them were inclined to use Lisbon for their own political agenda or waste valuable time by criticising the No campaign instead of building arguments.

When Lisbon II rolls around, the Yes Campaign are going to have to work together and sacrifice their egos by letting a handpicked group of spokespeople handle the majority of interviews. Given the low standing of politicians in the eyes of the public, I believe that individuals like Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary should be given prominence. How this would sit with the likes of opposition leaders and other lobby groups would be interesting to watch.

The issue of balanced coverage was a funny topic as RTE was compelled to give both sides equal footing and the Irish Times choose to do likewise. Despite this, some members of the audience felt that both orgnisations were biased in their coverage. On the other hand, you had the situation where the UK titles operating in Ireland effectively took an anti treaty stance, despite what some of their journalists say.

This represents a major challenge for those in favour of the Lisbon Treaty. Tabloids have been identified as an important segment of the media to communicate pro European messages through, but given that they are anti establishment in terms of editorial this will be difficult to overcome. Again, this highlights why tabloid friendly figures like O’Leary who has voiced his support for Lisbon should be given a bigger share of the communications platform.

What was humbling to see was both Hennessy and Feeney saying that they felt that their media organisations hadn’t put enough resources behind reporting on Europe prior to the referendum. Given the current economic climate and the fall in advertising revenues, one wonders whether media organisations will invest in niches.