Indymedia for the people or Indymedia for IMC'ers?

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday December 05, 2002 11:24 by AKIRA

Now that the year is near an end and Indymedia Ireland has been going since early this year, perhaps it's to time to step back and look at what it has achieved and what it could achieve.

Since it's inception earlier this year IMC Ireland has covered a vast array of activities and events around Ireland. A quick look through the newswire today and a reader of IMC Ireland will find a large number of articles on the upcoming anti-war activities of the weekend, interviews with peace activist Caoimhe Butterly and continuing coverage of the Carrickmines dispute. In the past year IMC Ireland shone brighter, giving much noted and praised coverage to the debacle of the police riot at the RTS party in May, giving public access to the news that Shannon airport has recently become a warport for the USAF to use as they wish and for covering activities such as Burlington through to the firefighter strike.

No doubt IMC Ireland has been a great tool for activists in Ireland. Debate (and sadly much sniping) is an everyday feature of IMC Ireland with different groups, individuals and parties using it to get publicity for their activities or event they may be organising or party to.

Much can be said about IMC Ireland. I am a regular reader, logging on three to four times a day to read the news from an activist/independent view point. But is IMC Ireland as popular with non political people as it is with me, an over political individual?

In my opinion IMC Ireland has only gained relevance to those within or on the peripheral of the activist scene here in Ireland, this is quite evident if you take the time to read through the newswire from the last two weeks. This is the case with alot of IMC's. But isnt the IMC motto "Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth", then if so why does IMC Ireland offer no coverage of ordinary people's concerns and problems.

The answer to this is simple, IMC Ireland as i said before is directly concerned and used by the activist community here in Ireland. While IMC Ireland has received some publicity through RTE using their footage or RTS no other publicity has been received nor been produced (to my knowledge) to attract people (ordinary people that is) to use IMC Ireland.

Not only that, but the ordinary Jane Bloggs out there might find IMC Ireland a little overwhelming. The features section is rarely updated (i understand the problems with such a procedure as updating the features section, but i say this to hopefully entice people to join the "imc revolution", sadly i cant as im bogged dwon with work and college), the newswire is too long and hard to work through. Stories should be perhaps put into five categories (dublin, leinster, connaucht, ulster and munster, thus making people's lives much easier), a search feature for the site would go a long way, people trying to access the articles on Mayday have a long trek back, perhaps a function to allow the user to see more than 10 stories on the newsire would be welcomed, again making user's lives easier.

These are just some points i have heard from people who use IMC Ireland for a period of maybe once a day, to once a week to once a month, to one guy who only used it once.

Other points were taken, a friend of mine from college, whom i pointed in this direction found that he couldnt relate to the site, in his own words "you know me, im not political in the sense that i want to be in an organisation, but in the sense that i want to be involved, all i seen on that website was arguing among the different users", this is a great downfall of what should be an excellent site. The constant sniping, bickering and abuse (by some, you know who you are) on and of the newswire by different individuals(and groups) can be a major turn off for IMC virgins. So perhaps more news less advertisements, more news less bickering, more news less conspiracy theories?

The IMC project in Ireland is young, the IMC project worldwide is young as well, but the Irish one is certainly one of the youngest, IMC users have alot to learn and those involved in IMC here have some changes, improvements or what not to make. But there is plenty of time to improve on what at the moment is a vital tool in the building of a truly equal world.

For me the IMC Ireland website is part and parcel of my everyday, i'd be seriously stuck without it, hell Visual Basic Labs can be fun but you need a break, all i hope is to see it here in two years time, more open (to the general public) and w/more news. Lets just make sure it doesnt descend into a public sparring arena between the different groups in Ireland with nothing else.

Long live IMC Ireland into the new year!