Interculturalism in Irish Public Service Broadcasting

RTÉ and the New Irish

Bill Lehane

• Publisher: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9783838329802
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Sociologia

This book examines the place of interculturalism in Irish public service broadcasting in the context of a new commitment to the concept made by RTÉ in 2007. It first traces the history of interculturalism in Irish public service broadcasting and sets out the present day reality of a newly heterogeneous Ireland. The book then uses exclusive access to internal documents arising from this commitment to analyse the station''s plans to transform its organisation and its output to greet the new diversity. The book details the findings of a series of 11 interviews with seven key RTÉ personnel across all major output areas and five New Nationals, four of whom are broadcasters themselves. These interviews reveal a spectrum of opinion about the issue as well as highlighting potential barriers to change. The book examines many aspects of the issue such as: the depiction of New Nationals on news reports; the question of dedicated intercultural programming; plans for the station to mainstream its intercultural content throughout it schedules; the role of the Internet in RTÉ catering for New Nationals; and a new effort to hire intercultural personnel in all areas of RTÉ, including on-air roles.