Abstract
This article assesses the communication environment of the north inner city of Dublin, an area characterised by entrenched disadvantage, rapid demographic change, and neoliberal urban renewal. Findings were produced from a ten-week engagement journalism project involving the Dublin Inquirer, various community groups, and working-class residents. Using Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), the study draws on focus groups, participant observation, and interviews to assess local storytelling networks in the context of the project. The findings reveal a fractured communication action context (CAC), where safety concerns, transient populations, litter, lack of public space, and negative national media portrayals constrain residents' ability to connect with neighbours and participate in community storytelling. The study highlights how macro-level forces, including globalisation, population change, and media stigma, manifest at the neighbourhood level, weakening the storytelling network between residents, community organisations, and local media. It concludes that engagement journalism must first reckon with the structural barriers to communication in disadvantaged communities, and that CIT offers a valuable diagnostic tool for identifying points of intervention.
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Recommended Citation
Costello, Stephanie
(2026)
"‘They’re Squeezing Us Like An Accordion’:Assessing the Information Environment of Working-Class Residents of Dublin’s North Inner City,"
Irish Communication Review:
Vol. 20:
Iss.
1, Article 7.
Available at:
https://arrow.tudublin.ie/icr/vol20/iss1/7