Day 2: Lecture at DCU

This morning we had our first media visit at Dublin City College for just an overview of Irish media. It was really interesting and it made me look forward to the rest of this week’s visits. I learned a lot, too. There are no city-specific newspapers or news broadcast channels in Ireland because it just doesn’t make sense. Out of the 4.5 million people living here, 2 million live in Dublin. The second biggest city, Cork, has 130,000. So the rest of the population is pretty spread out. They also do not rely on web-based content as much as we do. Playboy wasn’t legalized until 1998 in Ireland and, until recently, nothing was allowed to be printed about abortions because it is illegal in Ireland. You also have to pay 185 euro’s a year if you own a television. That price increases for each television a household owns. We meet with Dr. Flinn again on Thursday and I’m very much looking forward to it.

When we got back from our visit, we had time so lunch on our own. Maggie, Meagan and I when to a little sandwich shop to eat. Then we finally got to do a little grocery shopping for breakfast. After that, we did a hop-on-hop-off bus tour. There are 24 stops around Dublin, and with our tickets we could get off and back on at any of the stops and walk around.

I got off at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was really awesome and really pretty. We also drove by the Guinness factory, the zoo, and some other neat points of interest. I also learned, thanks to the tour guide, that the Irish root word that Whiskey comes from means “the water of life.” How funny and stereotypical. I also learned that the Dublin Zoo is really good at breeding lions. In fact, they ship them to Africa. The roaring lion at the beginning of MGM films was born in Dublin Zoo, too.

Tonight after dinner we got to be a part of the live audience of “The Frontline” which is a political debate show. They talked about the housing and banking and debt crisis. It was really interesting because the US is going through the same type recession, although not as severe. It was also cool to see how the arguments were presented and drawn out on live television.

So, as another exhausting day comes to an end, I cannot wait to go to sleep. Tomorrow morning is the advertising/public relations day and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m also excited that we have some free time for napping and the evening free to just hang out and explore.