RTE Brainstorm unique third level partnership

RTÉ has launched RTÉ Brainstorm, a unique partnership with seven Irish third level institutions including DCU. This provides academics and researchers with an important platform to bring new thinking, ideas and perspectives in their areas of expertise into the public domain via RTÉ.ie.

At a time when many audiences are seeking informed and detailed analysis and coverage, RTÉ Brainstorm aims to give space to the broad diversity and richness that exists within Irish academia and seeks and encourages contributions from a wide variety of contributors and perspectives, featuring both new and established voices.

Edited by journalist, Jim Carroll, and supported by founding partners; University College Cork, NUI Galway, University of Limerick, Dublin City University, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ulster University and NUI Maynooth, RTÉ Brainstorm has already published a range of articles from academics across multiple disciplines. Since going live in late September; over 350 academics from a broad cross section of disciplines have signed up to be contributors to the initiative.

To date, the site has covered such topics as what happens to your body when you run a marathon, dark tourism, electric cars, the Catalan referendum, a history of Irish budgets, hate speech on social media, tear gas and what’s going on in a newborn baby’s head.

Commenting, Dee Forbes, Director-General RTÉ said, “Healthy, informed public debate is central to any democratic society and providing an impartial space for such debate in Ireland is core to RTÉ’s remit. Through this unique partnership, we are excited to be able to give our online audiences access to some of Ireland’s most talented academics and researchers - specialists who can give clarity and context to important topics, bringing greater awareness of new ideas and research and articulate alternative ways of dealing with complex issues. We are delighted that we have received such strong support from key third level institutions across the country.

 She continued, “Arguably, in today’s congested media environment there is an even greater need for public service media, through initiatives like RTÉ Brainstorm, to be a portal of discovery for knowledge and informed analysis to help create better discussion and a greater understanding of the issues affecting people’s everyday lives.”

RTÉ Brainstorm Editor, Jim Carroll, said: “This initiative will practically support a greater contribution from academics across many different disciplines to public discussion in Ireland.  Whether it’s the arts, humanities, social sciences, law, engineering, science, technology, business, economics, health or any other academic discipline, RTÉ Brainstorm welcomes fresh thinking, new ideas and different perspectives from the academic community. At a time when we’ve never been more in need of strong and informed news coverage, we firmly believe RTÉ’s audience will welcome the breadth of writing and analysis from Brainstorm contributors.”