From top: Michael Taft; Dr Julien Mercille

The state of progressive media in Ireland is gloomy.

But that all may be about to change (a little).

Dr Julien Mercille writes:

I am informed by ‘sheet editors that a “beefed up” Broadsheet will evolve over the next few weeks boasting a slightly modified design, new columnists/writers and more cats other “exciting stuff”. This will help fill an immense gap, especially as election 2016 approaches.

The state of Irish progressive media reflects the state of progressive independents in politics. There are projects here and there, individuals trying to do good things, but with a lack of unity resulting in scattered and dispersed endeavours that often go nowhere, or at least never reach their full potential.

The consequence is cynicism, frustration and apathy. It all looks so disjointed that people don’t know where to go, what to do and who to talk to in order to get organised to change things. Projects are started but often don’t move beyond a Facebook page.

Indeed, because of the weakness of progressive media, people too often end up on Facebook and social media. There you can read scattered commentary and see pictures of this and that and read people vent and argue and complain.

It’s clear that some feel very satisfied and excited at debating others and insulting politicians on Facebook. If you’ve spent five hours building graphics and pictures saying Joan Burton is an idiot, that must have been useful, no?

The truth is that this stuff leads nowhere. The only effect is to make the complainers feel good about themselves and actually spread cynicism further and more deeply.

Sure social media is effective to circulate ideas and organise meetings. But in terms of providing a regular source of analysis and opinion on current affairs, we’ve seen better.

One thing that never fails to amaze me is the quality and effectiveness of the progressive media in the United States compared to the appalling state of affairs here.

Broadsheet tries and will try harder to combine two things that are very difficult to achieve in any setting: 1) provide quality content that is 2) actually read and popular. Many other platforms do well on one of those, but not the other. A good quality blog that’s read by 14 people is a failure. And a website that has a million readers but contains only jokes is a failure as well. I think that combining Broadsheet’s reach with quality content might nail it.

It will be a necessary counter-weight to the mainstream media. Some of the latter is good, but much of it is either too uncritical of government or vacuous. The result is that progressive viewpoints have had a hard time making it through.

One thing that strikes me on a daily basis is how much commentary and reporting in the Irish press is simply empty. The problem is not even that I disagree with a viewpoint, it is that there simply is no viewpoint presented, or no point made, with articles completely lacking direction, or angle, or content. The result is that readers are just staring at the television or newspaper but getting nothing out of it.

Broadsheet may even be useful to journalists and producers working in the mainstream media. As a one-stop shop for progressive views, it will be an important resource to find quotes or interviewees or individuals who can appear on radio and television from among the cast of ‘sheet contributors.

For example, Michael Taft will have a weekly column on Tuesdays, starting tomorrow and focusing on the economy in plain and accessible language. I will stay on for Mondays, and look forward to reading all the congratulatory comments from my detractors.

And there will be other writers joining. The goal is to provide a broad range of progressive viewpoints.

Hopefully, the project will snowball and get people interested and talking together. So watch this space.

Julien Mercille is a lecturer at University College Dublin. Follow him on Twitter: @JulienMercille