The controversy arose due to the fact that although students with learning disabilities such as Dyslexia are exempt from taking the Irish exam but may take another language. It gives rise to the idea that students are avoiding studying the language due to its difficulty  instead of the inablity to learn it. We must also look at the fact that there are three different levels of Irish which the student can take – Honours, Ordinary and Foundation. It is down to the student anf the teacher to choose a level which is suitable for that student. While it is an unfortunate fact that Gaeilge is not widely used in every day life and students feel that it has no worth and to be straightforward, is a waste of time. I believe however that this is a pure shame and although I am not familiar enough with the issue of Dyslexia, I find it difficult to undersand how a student is unable to sit the Irish exam due to the dissability yet is fit to learn French, German and even Latin, although this is not my place to say due to a lack of knowledge on the subject.

While this case has been all over the news, bloggers have also picked up on it. The following two blogs give contrasting views on the subject, one pro and one con and it shows that blogs give a voice to the voiceless and allow them to express their opinions through the medium of Net Culture and Blogs.

The reasons to blog are colossal – to review, discuss topical subjects,  or to merely voice  your opinions. However, can vocalizing these opinions get you into more trouble with the law?

The Defamation Act was passed here in Ireland in 2009 and while traditional Media organizations have schemes in place to avoid libel cases, bloggers are not always aware of these laws and often over step the mark and may publish offensive material which can be construed as defamation.

An example of this is the court case which took place in India in 2008 between blogger Chetanya Kunte and NDTV, when Kunte accused the television station of shoddy and appalling journalism regarding the mumbai attacks. The blogger was forced to withdraw the post and publish a apublic apology. This just shows that bloggers must be as careful and dilligent as their professional counterparts.

As we all know, any Joe Soap can start their own blog and share their opinions on news stories with the world. They can relay news stories, acting as journalists and put thier writing skills to the test. But where does the professional journalist fit into this equation?

Ken Fox, writer with the Tribune, keeps his own blog which is available on www.kenfoxe.com. The lastest blog written by Foxe entails the story and picture of Terence Wheelock who claims to have been attacked at Store Street Garda Station in Dublin. It includes graphic images of the man’s injuries, pictures which one would not expect to see in a newspaper. This blog and professional ones like it, offer working journalists the chance to write sotries and portray opinions which would otherwise not be vocalised.

This is an example of one of the photographs available on Foxe’s page and is given the caption,

“Copy of a photo of Terrence Wheelock’s right hand taken when he was still alive in the hospital.”

Foxe also looks at issues such as the Civil Service pension scheme which we would indeed expect to be covered in major news organisations, however the blog, as previously stated offers the chance to write and publsih his own article on the topic.

Many Journalists are using blogs as a means of selfpublishing and one wonders will the day come where these blogs are a necessity for CV’s.

The reader will (nearly) always want to read a story that is factual and accurate, even if it means waiting an extra ten minutes for the writer to check the facts. The writer on the other hand has more interest in being the first to deal with a certain breaking story, even if it means giving inaccurate information to the public. This without doubt goes against the Journalist’s code of conduct and is the basis for determining the difference between professional and amateur news reporters.

Many journalists turn to transparency to prove the facts laid out in their article rather than turning to more careless forms of writing, known as ‘journalism of assertion.’

Transparency is necessary for journalists to build a relationship with their audience.

Journalist and Blogger Jeff Jarvis discusses transparency in the following video.

If you want a reader to take you seriously, then take them seriously and report the news to them in a professional and fair manner. Do not give them information that may be deemed inaccurate or misleading. Write to be right, not to be corrected later. A good journalist, professional or an amateur blogger should focus on the importance of delivering credible news rather than being the first person to write the story.

It allows people with a common interest to discuss important aspects of life, and share their own opinions. This gives the public the opportunity to have their say on what goes on in the world around them and they need not read and believe what they are told to read and believe.

Hyper linking CAN be a key tool for both journalists and readers alike, but only when they are used correctly. A hyper-link in an online article should encourage the reader to view background information on a particular story or allow them to research the topic in more depth. It is a great resource for online writer who do not have to spend time informing the reader on the background of a particular story and allows them to do this work themselves.

However, many hyper-links are are computer generated and direct the reader to pages and stories which have no particular relevance. This distracts the reader who may not return to the original webpage to read the entire article.

Several sites avoid using links from external sites due to competition, and they therefore will direct the reader to various pages within the webpage or sister webpages.

It is a uselful tool often used to navigate the reader to one or more locations on the net…foe example, hers the hyperlink to my blog based around the priciples of brodacast journalism which is written as Gaeilge . . .