While RTÉ.ie’s election coverage was a little bit lacking in comparison to what it had on Radio and TV at the time, it was a step forward for the broadcaster’s online offerings.
The constituency map and voting breakdown isn’t anything we shouldn’t expect from them (and they’ve had it before), but things like the “punter’s guide” series (here, here and here) was a nice, albeit simple use of the online medium.
From this link that turned up in my RSS feed last night it seems as though they’re expanding on the idea too, with “A Punter’s Guide to… Open Skies”, written by the RTÉ.ie Business Editor Andrew Fanning.
This is exactly the kind of thing the website needs and it will prove extremely useful when stories relating to the flights agreement appear in the future, as they’re bound to do.
Hopefully from now on, when a story about Open Skies is published, there’ll be a link to this piece in the sidebar for readers who need a short run-through of the ins and outs of the agreement and its cause and effect on Ireland. Here’s hoping it won’t just be lumped in with the “related stories” panel too, and will get its own clear space to attract readers who need some background information.
The BBC News website does this kind of thing extremely well and I hope it’s an idea RTÉ expand on – perhaps getting some of their TV and Radio correspondents to write short features of their own to serve a similar purpose.
Charlie Bird could write a backgrounder on the Bertie Ahern finance issue to accompany the many Moriarty Tribunal stories we’re going to hear in the coming months, for example, or Tommie Gorman could to a point-by-point timeline on what got us to a DUP/SF-lead assembly to accent the Northern Ireland stories that pop up on a very regular basis.
There are plenty of other examples – crime, economy, environment etc. etc.
Surely a 500 word backgrounder wouldn’t be too much to ask of someone who specialises in a specific area, would it?
Oh, and it’s great to see articles on RTÉ.ie get a by-line for once – more of that please.