Mr. Mark Little:

The thing to address here is the role that the data being collected are playing in the recommendations that are to be shown to citizens. That is a critical part of the media literacy brief. Someone said earlier that it is very hard to define what media literacy is. One of the key elements of best practice internationally that we looked at is helping people to understand that when one receives a friend or family recommendation, it is not from one's friends or family but from a recommendation system that has hoovered up a vast amount of data about one and is telling one what it thinks one wants to see based on its need to optimise for advertising. That is a key element of broader media literacy.

To diverge a little, one aspect we have seen in terms of supporting more community-based media is some good news around the world about international best practices. Where news deserts have emerged in the US, we have started to see the rise of alternative business models around things like subscriptions, donations and membership. We have been very aware of the extent to which we can help to incentivise business models for local community media that are resilient and will survive the next ten years, and not just rectify the pain of the last ten years. We have also looked at the services that community media provide in terms of civic reporting, and at how we can help there. Finally, we have been looking at some of the exciting stuff that is going on in community media around podcasting, for example. One of the key aspects of the Irish media system is the resilience of local radio. We want to see where there is optimism for what will never be a normal for-public media environment. We really need to be prepared for an era when the only constant is change. To that extent we are looking at some of the positive aspects of international best practice in supporting community media in its local formulation but also supporting the key communities around the country.