ABSTRACT

The fluidity and volatility which characterised Irish media from the end of the 1970s into the mid-1980s was maintained and even intensified in the decade which followed. In the electronic media, the already qualified monopoly of the state was further fragmented as the airwaves were opened up to commercial interests in a profoundly significant restructuring of the legislative and regulatory framework. In print, a process of rationalisation began to take place on both the national and regional level; new titles appeared to target niche markets as part of a move away from generalist media; and Irish media, both print and electronic, became the object of increasing interest on the part of non-national entrepreneurs and companies. In the process, the sharp line that could have been drawn traditionally between indigenous and non-Irish media became blurred, raising new issues of ownership, control and content.