Making a Difference

The expression ‘glass half-full or half-empty’ is generally used to determine whether your perspective on a given topic is positive (glass half-full) or negative (glass half-empty). In these difficult and uncertain economic times it can be a lot easier to have a glass half-empty outlook. Therefore, whenever there is a bit of good news, it is important that opinion formers take a glass half-full attitude. The media is one such opinion former and, unfortunately, all too often good news is not always reported as good news, but rather the media entity tends to look for some negative angle to the news and focus on this rather than take a more balanced approach.

In this context, I was disappointed to hear a good news story – the announcement by Eirgrid that they had made a decision to invest €500 million in upgrading the electricity grid infrastructure connecting Leinster and Munster – given very negative treatment by our national broadcaster on the mid-day News at One last week.

The headline story about Eirgrid’s investment decision was followed up by an in-depth (glass half-empty) interview with the Company’s CEO, which focused on the environmental aspects of the infrastructure build, the recent unfortunate case of the imprisonment of a farmer who had objected to the tree-felling necessary to make way for the pylons, the relationship with the Irish Farmers’ Association, and Eirgrid’s communications record on previous similar projects. Despite repeated assertions by the Eirgrid CEO that the announcement was being made at the very outset of the development of a detailed plan during which all stakeholders would be engaged with and given the opportunity to input into, the interviewer was highly critical of the lack of detail on routes and the underground/overground options for the laying of the power lines.

Regrettably, in my view, the interviewer did not seem the least bit interested in the benefits to businesses, farmers and citizens that the new infrastructure would bring with it, the jobs that would be created to implement the new infrastructure or the potential jobs that would be made possible as a result of having the surety of power supply into the future.

The media play an important role in communicating vital information across a broad panoply of subjects and it is a difficult challenge to meet. However, they also play an important role in shaping the viewers’, listeners’ and readers’ attitudes. If the perspective is constantly negative (half-empty) then, inevitably, the national mindset will follow suit.

I met with three Ambassadors (from Nigeria, Lithuania and Croatia) last week and all three were complimentary about the resilience shown by the Irish in the face of our difficult economic challenges. If we are to remain resilient, we need the opinion formers to take a ‘glass half-full’ approach to good news announcements more often.