We intend to do something new.
- Papers flutter in every bar, cafe and shop in the city, but we want something more than the ad rags, cultural poseurs and glossy mouthpieces for power that comprise most of the freebies. We want to draw stories from the harsh realities of the city and also sketch paths towards building Dublin as we’d prefer it. Imagine a newspaper acting like a melting pot of connections, not just between emergent cultural scenes and every day life, but also between social movements and power structures. We want a community newspaper for today. A free paper for free people.
- Let’s breathe new life into journalism in the city and provide a space for emerging writers. We want a generational voice to flourish outside the carrot on a stick culture of internships and a dying newspaper industry. We are going hard copy to develop talent outside the rapid-fire clamor of the blogosphere. Expect original story-telling and explorations of the boundaries between photography, new fiction, journalism and art. This is a space for beginnings.
- We want to transform the newspaper as we know it. rabble will only work if it is built from the bottom up, by its readers and contributors. It will create spaces along the way so involvement can shape it. Whether it’s commenting on what we are doing, feeding news stories and leads, or getting on board and helping assemble the paper itself. Together, we are Rabble and together we are strong. If our sustainers and readers help keep us afloat, we’ll remain a truly independent voice for the city.
- We want to offer an alternative look at Ireland after the boom and help contribute to the popular imagination of what is possible. There is a new generation surviving on the dole, engaged in a mundane struggle to maintain, as power force feeds us austerity. Too many naively celebrate the creative side of the recession and utter non-committal grumbles about how we got here. We’ve no qualms about what side of the fence we sit on. Expect a sharp, non-dogmatic eye on our gracious leaders and power brokers, uncovering the incompetencies, the facts and realities they want to lock away in the closet.