TG4 gears up for an all-man, full Irish language general election.
By PÁDHRAIC Ó CIARDHA
 ...all of our viewers are also fluent in English, a General Election means that we really have to live up to our channel motto of súil eile (another perspective)... |
They say the media love elections as much as politicians hate them, but for any public service broadcaster, a general election is a major test. For an Indigenous language channel in a country almost obsessed with politics, it is the supreme challenge, as slender resources and a small market share pitch you in direct competition with fellow broadcasters for a very discerning viewing public.
In the case of TG4, where all of our viewers are also fluent in English, a general election means that we really have to live up to our channel motto of súil eile (another perspective) to ensure that our coverage is different to that on offer elsewhere (and that we are not just providing a platform for the same political clichés expressed in another language).
Our planning for this election began immediately after the 2007 general election as we assessed how our coverage could be improved and tweaked. While the provisions of the Irish Constitution did not require an election till 2012, the political fall-out in Ireland from the financial turmoil world-wide, coupled with our own crises in both the public finances and in the banking sector meant that we all knew last Christmas that we would be going to the polls before St. Patrick’s Day 2011. And so it came to pass.
The fact that the main government party changed leaders just before the election date was set as Feb. 25 provided a good spring board for the campaign to kick off for a three-week period before polling day, with that main party’s standing in opinion polls falling as low as 14 percent, a third of its support at the last election.
The campaign began with some really good news for TG4.
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For the first time in the country’s history, all the leaders of the five main political parties are Irish language speakers. This means that at every major event during the campaign, from constituency walk-about to major policy launch, our news reporters are assured of actuality in our language from the mouth of the main man (and they are all men as were 84 percent of the outgoing members of our national parliament).
Not only are all the leaders fluent but they are also proud of their Irish language ability and relish the opportunity to speak it to TG4, and in front of the English-language media.
In particular, the main leaders’ fluency in Irish means that in the 2011 General Election, for the first time ever, TG4 was in a position to pitch for (and succeed in obtaining) acceptance that the run of televised Leaders’ Debates should include one on TG4, in the Irish language, between the three main party leaders.
On Feb. 16, this 50-minute debate took place and was broadcast at the height of the campaign. It was a real feather in our cap as the entire national media circus came to our headquarters in west Ireland to witness and report on a historic first – and the first three-way debate in any language in the campaign. The facilitator for the Leaders’ Debate was our Chief News Anchor, Eimear Ní Chonaola.
In addition to that gladiatorial encounter, TG4’s coverage of the campaign comprised:
• Extended daily news and current affairs coverage (with the news and current affairs output merging into one seamless program two nights a week),
• Follow the Leaders: news reporters were assigned to follow the main party leaders as they campaigned,
• Detailed constituency profiles and predictions from key election battle-grounds (Ireland’s multi-seat constituencies and proportional representation (PR) voting system often pitches party colleagues in direct conflict with one another)
• Party Political Broadcasts were assigned to the qualifying parties (based on time allocations calculated on previous party results at election
• and a major Results Coverage program over two days with live outside broadcasts from vote-count centers.
This extended coverage posed a huge resource and logistical challenge for our small and multi-skilled news and current affairs teams. Twenty-five journalists, some operating as full video journalists and all with camera and editing capability worked throughout the campaign to bring coverage. The channel’s in-house staff also made themselves available to assist in the Results’ Day coverage.
The PR voting system and multi-seat constituencies also meant that the count can be a very lengthy process — over 2,000 people are in the running for the 166 seats in Parliament and the various counts can last for up to 48 hours. TG4 has a long experience of such counts and our coverage complements that of other public service broadcaster, RTÉ with whom we share facilities and results data.
At the time of writing the campaign is in full swing and the profile of TG4 and of the Irish language in political discourse, has never been higher. Party workers and non-party candidates alike all realize that using Irish gets them air-time and this greatly aids their canvass at a time of year when darkness (and an increasing public cynicism about politicians) makes the door-to-door or shopping mall encounter a less than perfect use of their time in the run-up to voting.
One of the most gratifying and slightly surprising aspects of the 2011 election campaign so far for TG4 has been the universal acceptance by all – candidates, parties, media, and the general public that the Irish language is a central and normalized component of the discourse and that a Leaders’ Debate in Irish is not such a big deal after all!
It seems we’ve come a long way in a relatively short time. Elections can bring out the best in us.
For more information about Vóta 2011, visit: www.tg4.ie; to watch the program, visit: live.tg4.ie.
ENDS
Pádhraic Ó Ciardha is Deputy CEO of TG4. He has been a senior manager with the channel since the outset in 1996. Pádhraic served as a ministerial advisor in the government’s planning for the establishment of TG4. His long career in broadcasting began as Dublin correspondent for Raidió na Gaeltachta, the national Irish language radio station. He subsequently held a number of senior editorial positions in the RTÉ News division in both English and Irish language news output areas.
