tara or the m3?-
DCU Journalism graduate awarded first `Freda Rowntree' Heritage Council grant

10 November 2004

Simon Bourke, DCU graduate of the Masters in Journalism course, has just been awarded the first ‘Freda Rountree’ doctoral scholarship by the Irish Heritage Council. The award scheme has been established in memory of Freda Rountree, first Chairperson of the Heritage Council, who died in 2000.

Simon will carry out research over three years on "Consumption and Conflict: Representations of heritage in the National Irish Press".

According to Michael Starrett, Chief Executive of the Irish Heritage Council, “The Council is delighted to pay tribute to its former Chairperson’s visionary approach in this manner. Freda herself would certainly have approved of the topic which is particularly relevant to us in today’s climate of increasing public debate on heritage issues. We are particularly interested in Simon’s innovative approach to heritage issues, looking at them from a communications perspective in a way that has not been carried out by any other researcher. At a time where there is a ‘perceived’ conflict between heritage and development, we felt it was an appropriate time to look at the way topical issues are played out in the media”, he said.

Simon’s recently published report, Taking the free-speech temperature: Irish libel law and newspaper journalism is based on his MA dissertation and details over 70 libel cases taken to or through the courts in recent years. It analyses the main categories of litigant and provides the results of a survey of Irish journalists on their experience of dealing with the libel laws, one of which is known as the ‘chilling effect’ which demonstrably inhibits the reporting of stories involving public figures.

Dr Colum Kenny, senior lecturer in Communication Studies at DCU and supervisor of Simon’s research, said that Simon Bourke is both an accomplished researcher and an experienced practising journalist. “Simon’s chosen area of study is likely to bring a closer understanding of how heritage issues are portrayed, This is excellent news'”, he added.

The three-year project will take the dual form of a scientific analysis of heritage-related newspaper content, followed by a probing survey of Irish journalists.