Interview #12: Sinéad Gleeson
Published Thursday, December 15, 2005 by Kevin Breathnach | E-mail this post
Not only does has she provoked debate across the blogosphere in recent days and weeks, she also manages to use the word 'juxtapose' in this interview. That says a lot for her intellectual capablities. A freelance journalist with work published in The Village, U Magazine and The Ticket to name but a few, Sinéad blogs at over at Sigla Magazine's blog.
Why do you blog?
Good question, because whenever I interview an author, one question I always ask is about their motivation as a writer. The urge to share your thoughts and views in such a public way has many parallels with blogging and both, are in some sense, an attempt at permanency. Why else would we all do it? My day job is as a journalist so the blog is something of an extension of that. It’s also a forum for me to blog about things I’ve been exposed to that I don’t have to review, so it’s a space for further comment. Most of my professional writing centres on the Arts so blogging allows me to vent spleen on other topics like football, blood donation, politics etc.
What is you favourite novel?
God, why don’t you ask what my favourite album and film are while you’re at it?! There are just too many, but I’d probably say Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. When I first read it, I remember closing the book and feeling completely blown away by its enormity. I have never been so affected by a novel before or since but honourable mentions go to Virginia Woolf for To The Lighthouse and William Faulkner’s race masterpiece The Sound and the Fury.
What popular political myth would you like to dispel?
That Brian Cowen has no sense of humour (although some would contest that based on some of last week’s budget decisions). Mark Little reckons he’s the best mimic he’s ever heard and is great man for gags.
Have you ever regretted a post?
No, but if I felt I was in the wrong or had offended someone, I would clarify my view or amend the post.
Simon or Garfunkel?
Both, because – and my music cred will suffer for this – I’m a bit of a fan. Last year, I saw them at the RDS and they put on a fantastic show. Sure, I knew they were doing it for the money, but on the night it sounded like they were doing it for love.
Ever thought about giving up?
Yes. Mainly because it’s a third strand of writing for me and seems like yet another distraction that I should expunge from my life. I’m in a writing group and it’s already very difficult to unplug yourself from journalism to write a short story, so the blog can sometimes feel like another drain on time I could have for creative writing. That said, I think I’d miss it too much if I knocked it on the head.
Will you be blogging in three year's time?
I’d like to think so, but then I also like to think that in three years I’ll be basking in the success of my long-time-coming award-winning novel. I hasten to add said novel has not even been started yet.
As aspiring journalists, the prospect of freelancing is quite a likely one for the Disillusioned Lefties. Is it really as scary and insecure as it seems?
I don’t think it is, but I was quite fearless about it from the start and if you have that kind of attitude, I think you’ll succeed. I gave up a full-time job as an online editor, with no real work on the horizon to try and freelance. Initially I did bits and pieces before landing a job as a full-time Arts journalist for RTE Online. I’ve been freelancing for nearly five years and everything has snowballed from there. I don’t have to chase work, it seems to find me, and I get to do a lot of broadcast work, which makes a change from print. The key to freelancing is having some regular work that you can rely on and juxtapose this with the more infrequent/one-off projects. Freelancing is not for everyone, but I love the variety of work and the fact that I can suit myself. My health was an issue at one point in my decision not to work full-time, but I’m well now and I’m pretty much back to full-time hours anyway, despite the freelance tag.
How much harder is writing professionally, in comparison to blogging?
Well it’s more difficult, because your blog is your own voice, unanswerable to anyone. When you write for different publications that have disparate demographics, you take a take a different approach again. I review music for U Magazine and The Ticket in The Irish Times, and if I had to review the same album for both, I’d approach them differently. With a blog, you don’t know your entire audience, which lends to a more consistent voice. There are certain parameters in journalistic writing, but a blog is more malleable, more relaxed. I love the freedom of blogging off the top of my head in one go and not worrying about sources or word counts.
What - if anything - can the Irish blogosphere achieve in the next 3 years?
The standard of Irish blogging is hugely impressive and citizen journalism is here to stay. Some mainstream Irish media can be lethargic and lazy, while I’ve found some of the most refreshing analysis on issues has come from blogs. If Irish blogging continues to aspire to probing and reporting in such a quality manner, it can aspire in the future to pulling in readers who in the past, would never have deviated from mainstream media.
Have you ever written polemical articles solely for the sake of stirring controversy and discussion?
My recent post on women in blogging was certainly written to provoke debate, but not debate for the sake of it. I felt it was an issue that would strike a chord with a lot of bloggers and most importantly, it’s something that I’m interested in and wanted to address. I genuinely felt that there was a dominance of male blogs, and yet as soon as the debate started, lots of women – and with seriously good blogs - stepped out of the shadows.
You've recently discussed apparent gender imbalances in the Irish blogosphere. Do you think there is any particular reason for the said imbalances?
Stastically, men are more likely to know more about the technical aspects of blogging and as someone who is not a techie, I think I’m representative of a lot of women who are blogging. As Blogger and WordPress continue to advance in terms of user-friendliness, this will increase the number of people who have felt intimidated by the technical side of blogging. I don’t feel there is a gender imbalance as such, but until that post kick-started the debate, many Irish women blogging seemed invisible or without profile. What the post proved is that blogs are capable of raising awareness, serious cross-blog discussion and encouraging a debate that branched out in to many still-evolving angles, all of which have made fascinating reading.
Interviews with bloggers thoughout the Irish MSM will appear here every Thursday. Previous interviews can be found here.
Why do you blog?
Good question, because whenever I interview an author, one question I always ask is about their motivation as a writer. The urge to share your thoughts and views in such a public way has many parallels with blogging and both, are in some sense, an attempt at permanency. Why else would we all do it? My day job is as a journalist so the blog is something of an extension of that. It’s also a forum for me to blog about things I’ve been exposed to that I don’t have to review, so it’s a space for further comment. Most of my professional writing centres on the Arts so blogging allows me to vent spleen on other topics like football, blood donation, politics etc.
What is you favourite novel?
God, why don’t you ask what my favourite album and film are while you’re at it?! There are just too many, but I’d probably say Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. When I first read it, I remember closing the book and feeling completely blown away by its enormity. I have never been so affected by a novel before or since but honourable mentions go to Virginia Woolf for To The Lighthouse and William Faulkner’s race masterpiece The Sound and the Fury.
What popular political myth would you like to dispel?
That Brian Cowen has no sense of humour (although some would contest that based on some of last week’s budget decisions). Mark Little reckons he’s the best mimic he’s ever heard and is great man for gags.
Have you ever regretted a post?
No, but if I felt I was in the wrong or had offended someone, I would clarify my view or amend the post.
Simon or Garfunkel?
Both, because – and my music cred will suffer for this – I’m a bit of a fan. Last year, I saw them at the RDS and they put on a fantastic show. Sure, I knew they were doing it for the money, but on the night it sounded like they were doing it for love.
Ever thought about giving up?
Yes. Mainly because it’s a third strand of writing for me and seems like yet another distraction that I should expunge from my life. I’m in a writing group and it’s already very difficult to unplug yourself from journalism to write a short story, so the blog can sometimes feel like another drain on time I could have for creative writing. That said, I think I’d miss it too much if I knocked it on the head.
Will you be blogging in three year's time?
I’d like to think so, but then I also like to think that in three years I’ll be basking in the success of my long-time-coming award-winning novel. I hasten to add said novel has not even been started yet.
As aspiring journalists, the prospect of freelancing is quite a likely one for the Disillusioned Lefties. Is it really as scary and insecure as it seems?
I don’t think it is, but I was quite fearless about it from the start and if you have that kind of attitude, I think you’ll succeed. I gave up a full-time job as an online editor, with no real work on the horizon to try and freelance. Initially I did bits and pieces before landing a job as a full-time Arts journalist for RTE Online. I’ve been freelancing for nearly five years and everything has snowballed from there. I don’t have to chase work, it seems to find me, and I get to do a lot of broadcast work, which makes a change from print. The key to freelancing is having some regular work that you can rely on and juxtapose this with the more infrequent/one-off projects. Freelancing is not for everyone, but I love the variety of work and the fact that I can suit myself. My health was an issue at one point in my decision not to work full-time, but I’m well now and I’m pretty much back to full-time hours anyway, despite the freelance tag.
How much harder is writing professionally, in comparison to blogging?
Well it’s more difficult, because your blog is your own voice, unanswerable to anyone. When you write for different publications that have disparate demographics, you take a take a different approach again. I review music for U Magazine and The Ticket in The Irish Times, and if I had to review the same album for both, I’d approach them differently. With a blog, you don’t know your entire audience, which lends to a more consistent voice. There are certain parameters in journalistic writing, but a blog is more malleable, more relaxed. I love the freedom of blogging off the top of my head in one go and not worrying about sources or word counts.
What - if anything - can the Irish blogosphere achieve in the next 3 years?
The standard of Irish blogging is hugely impressive and citizen journalism is here to stay. Some mainstream Irish media can be lethargic and lazy, while I’ve found some of the most refreshing analysis on issues has come from blogs. If Irish blogging continues to aspire to probing and reporting in such a quality manner, it can aspire in the future to pulling in readers who in the past, would never have deviated from mainstream media.
Have you ever written polemical articles solely for the sake of stirring controversy and discussion?
My recent post on women in blogging was certainly written to provoke debate, but not debate for the sake of it. I felt it was an issue that would strike a chord with a lot of bloggers and most importantly, it’s something that I’m interested in and wanted to address. I genuinely felt that there was a dominance of male blogs, and yet as soon as the debate started, lots of women – and with seriously good blogs - stepped out of the shadows.
You've recently discussed apparent gender imbalances in the Irish blogosphere. Do you think there is any particular reason for the said imbalances?
Stastically, men are more likely to know more about the technical aspects of blogging and as someone who is not a techie, I think I’m representative of a lot of women who are blogging. As Blogger and WordPress continue to advance in terms of user-friendliness, this will increase the number of people who have felt intimidated by the technical side of blogging. I don’t feel there is a gender imbalance as such, but until that post kick-started the debate, many Irish women blogging seemed invisible or without profile. What the post proved is that blogs are capable of raising awareness, serious cross-blog discussion and encouraging a debate that branched out in to many still-evolving angles, all of which have made fascinating reading.
Interviews with bloggers thoughout the Irish MSM will appear here every Thursday. Previous interviews can be found here.
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