School of Communications - Research
Research - Publications, Production and Events
2012: Books, Major Publications and Productions by School Staff
Pat Brereton(2012) Smart Cinema, DVD Add-Ons and New Audience Pleasures
Smart movies broadly encapsulate what have been described as a reflexive and playful postmodern tendency and are augmented by the specific attributes of contemporary new digital media. These new attributes are drawn from video games and music videos in particular, as well as other new generational e-pleasures and tastes. Pat Brereton examines a broad range of post-1990s Indie and mainstream films that break many of the old classic linear narrative and generic rules which helped to define Hollywood and its alternative 'art' cinema. This work particularly explores how bonus features attached to smart DVDs are capable of speaking to new generational audiences. There is a continuing need for a creative and critical dialogue with new generations of students and audiences to help reinvigorate the study of film. DVD add-ons provide a useful bridge between new media and conventional film study, while assisting in exploring how new generational film fans relate to smart cinema.
Reviews
"Through accessible and insightful close readings, Smart Cinema brings together movies from different countries, genres, and directors in order to show how how these films participate in the wider cultures of cinephilia. Brereton is especially sharp in his assessment of the role of DVD extras in promoting new modes of cinematic storytelling."
- Chuck Tryon, Fayetteville State University, USA
"From Donnie Darko to Pixar, this is a fascinating and timely overview of 21st Century western cinema's defining feature: its smartness. Brereton gives new insights into the digital technologies, complex storytelling and savvy audiences that typify film culture today, through accessible analyses of Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Be Kind Rewind, In Bruges, Inception and many others. As smart as the films it studies."
- Ernest Mathijs, University of British Columbia, Canada
Debbie Ging(2012) Men and Masculinities in Irish Cinema
Spanning a broad trajectory, from the New Gaelic Man of post-independence Ireland to the slick urban gangsters of contemporary productions, this study traces a significant shift from idealistic images of Irish manhood to a much more diverse and gender-politically ambiguous range of male identities on the Irish screen. Ging argues that Irish filmmakers have been instrumental to identifying critical flashpoints and fissures in the 'masculinity' debate, sometimes long before sociologists, psychologists and the news media. She tracks evolving cinematic discourses on manhood, from the early period of nationalist filmmaking through the First Wave's unusually anti-patriarchal and anti-nationalist interventions, to post-Celtic Tiger cinema's engagements with postfeminism, New Laddism and Raunch Culture. This is a compelling and insightful story about the development of male identities in Irish cinema over the past century.
Reviews
"Debbie Ging has written an important, timely and sharply focused study which delineates the shifting contours in the representation of masculinity in Irish cinema. Covering the whole of its history, Ging relates the changes in cinematic masculinities to broader social and cultural debates and shows the importance of images of men to the construction of national identities. This ambitious study fills an important gap in the literature on Irish cinema and makes a thoughtful contribution to the expanding corpus of studies of men on film."
- Andrew Spicer, Reader in Cultural History, University of the West of England (Bristol), author of Typical Men: Masculinity in British Cinema
"Long marginalized in stereotypic representations, the emergence of a distinctively Irish cinema also heralded new, locally produced images of Irish masculinities that span a far wider range than before. Debbie Ging uses this history as a lens through which to view the emergence of Ireland itself as a significant cultural force in Europe and the world - and a contributor of gendered identities that are both original and worthy of emulation."
- Michael Kimmel, Distinguished University Professor of Sociology, State University of New York, author of Manhood in America
Mark O'Brien & Kevin Rafter (eds)(2012) Independent Newspapers: A History
For over a century, Independent Newspapers has been the most successful media organization in Ireland. From William Martin Murphy to Tony O'Reilly, the newspaper group has long been at the centre of public life, often in controversial circumstances. In this revealing volume, fourteen leading scholars examine the interaction between proprietors and the newspapers, the company's journalists and journalism, and the relationship between the newspapers and Irish society.
2011: Books, Major Publications and Productions by School Staff
Neil O'Boyle(2011) New Vocabularies, Old Ideas: Culture, Irishness and the Advertising Industry
Advertisements are often viewed as indices of cultural change, just as the advertising industry is often imagined as innovative and transformative. Advancing from an alternative position, which borrows much from practice-based research, this book instead highlights the routinisation of practices and representations in advertising. Drawing extensively from his own study, Neil O'Boyle uses Irishness to investigate the relationship between cultural symbolism in advertising and the cultural vocabularies of advertising practitioners. While globalisation and immigration to Ireland have putatively unhinged taken-for-granted understandings of Irish identity, he argues that representations of Ireland and Irishness in the global context continue to draw from a stock of particularisms and that advertising practitioners continue to operate with largely essentialist understandings of culture and identity. As the first of its kind in Ireland, Neil O'Boyle's book makes a case for renewed attention to advertising by academic scholars and promotes the benefits of interdisciplinary research.
Reviews
"Neil O'Boyle's study of Irishness and the Irish advertising business significantly enriches our understanding of important industrial and cultural phenomena. His deft analysis treats a number of key and interrelated dynamics including national identity, representation and self-representation, consumerism and globalisation. Among the book's many strengths is the way it opens up a lens on Celtic Tiger circumstances in a post-Celtic Tiger era.
-Diane Negra, Professor of Film Studies and Screen Culture, University College Dublin.
Colum Kenny(2011) The Power of Silence: Silent Communication in Daily Life
Colum Kenny explores the significance of silence in the arts, business, personal relationships, therapy, faith, politics, and other areas of daily life. This book demonstrates that silence is eloquent, powerful, beautiful and even dangerous. It surrounds and permeates our daily lives. Drawing on a wide range of cross-cultural, literary and historical sources, the author explores the uses and abuses of silence. He explains how silence is not associated with solitude alone but has a much broader value within society.
The main themes of The Power of Silence are positive and negative uses of silence, and the various ways in which silence has been understood culturally, socially and spiritually. The book's objectives are to equip people with a better appreciation of the value of silence and to enable them to explore its benefits and uses more easily for themselves. The Book has featured in An Irishwoman's Diary in the Irish Times and also been the focus of a radio interview on The Pat Kenny Show
2009: Books, Major Publications and Productions by School Staff
Chi-Sui Wang; C. Hs. Chen and J.O. Clark (2009) Detached Reality. Taipei: Jia Art Gallery. Book length publication and catalogue related to Dr. Wang’s solo exhibition of the same title.
Debbie Ging; Michael Cronin and Peadar Kirby (Eds) (2009) Transforming Ireland: Challenges, Critiques and Resources. Manchester University Press. ISBN: 978-0-7190-7893-4, ISBN10: 0-7190-7893-8, This is the first sustained and broad-ranging critique of the legacies of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger boom. Contributors identify the damaging impact that the free market has had on a wide range of areas of public life such as the media and the pharmaceutical industry and also examine its influence on health, education, state surveillance, immigrants, the welfare state, consumerism and the Irish language. Challenging the notion that there is no alternative for Ireland but the present economic and political dispensation, experts map out an alternative politics that could create spaces for hope and renewal in contemporary Ireland.
Karl Grimes (2009) Stigmatised. Installation at Infectious – Stay Away exhibition. Science Gallery, Dublin. Stigmatised comprised an installation of seventeen drawings on duratrans in light boxes and exhibition entrance portal design. Science Gallery: 17 April – 17 July, 2009.
Karl Grimes (2009-10) The Dead Zoo At Large: Treasures from The Natural History Museum. National Museum of Ireland. Ongoing exhibition of works from the Taxum Totem series in collaboration with NMI. Collins Barracks. Dublin. 30 April, 2009 – 11 April, 2010.
Paschal Preston (2009) Making the News: Journalism and News Culture in Contemporary Europe. London and New York : Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415-46189-4 Making the News by Paschal Preston provides a cross-national perspective on key features of journalism and news-making cultures and the changing media landscape in contemporary Europe. Focusing on the key trends, practices and issues in contemporary journalism and news cultures, Paschal Preston maps the major contours of change as well as the broader industrial, organizational, institutional and cultural factors shaping journalism practices over the past two decades. For more details, see < http://www.comms.dcu.ie/prestonp/MakingTheNews/index.html
Steven Knowlton and Bill Reader (2009) Moral Reasoning for Journalists, 2nd Edition. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN: 9780313345487. Despite the fact that the public's trust in the news media is at historic lows, despite the fact that hardly a day goes by without another report of unethical behavior by news professionals, journalists and teachers remain dedicated to ethical issues—perhaps more so now than at any other time in history. News companies are developing rigorous codes of conduct; journalists and editors are vigorously reporting on ethical lapses by their peers, and many journalism schools are creating standalone courses in journalism ethics and hiring faculty members who are devoted to ethics research and instruction. Using more than two-dozen actual cases from around the world to examine and apply those principles of ethical journalism, Knowlton and Reader suggest an easy-to-follow, commonsense approach to making ethical decisions in the newsroom as deadlines loom. Moral Reasoning for Journalists serves as an introduction to the underpinnings of journalism ethics, and as a guide for journalists and journalism teachers looking for ways to make ethical choices beyond going with your gut.
Tom Lawrence (2009) Score for The Ottoman Empire (Nemeton Films). Tom Lawrence composed the score for this film for RTE. Written and directed by 2010 IFTA nominated director James Phelan. Tx to be announced 2010.
Tom Lawrence (2009) Composer of the music for Car Park. RTE (BCI) Tom Lawrence composed the music for Car Park, a film for RTE (BCI) by Diarmuid Goggins and Kevin Lavelle. Director: Diarmuid Goggins. Music by Tom Lawrence. Tx to be announced 2010.
Chi-Sui Wang (2009) Art Taipei 2009 – International Art Exposition, Group Exhibition, Taiwan National World Trade Centre, Taipei, TAIWAN Dr. Chi-Sui Wang was invited to submit work for the prestigious “Art Taipei 2009 – International Art Exposition”, Taipei, Taiwan.
Bill Dorris (2009) The Arrival of The Fittest: How The Great Become Great. Lulu Publishing e-Book. Available at U.R.L http://www.lulu.com/index.php Bill Dorris' book, The Arrival of The Fittest: How The Great Become Great (2009), attempts to address a number of issues which remain unanswered in the work discussed so far. These include the role of chance over the course of development, the importance of the development of unique personal characteristics to achieving greatness, and the influence of changes in the wider worlds surrounding the person - from interpersonal to societal - on the course of an individual's development.
Colum Kenny ; P. Sreenan, et al. (2009) Media Mergers Advisory Group Report. Dublin: Government Publications. Prof. Colum Kenny was appointed as a member of the government’s Advisory Group on Media Mergers, to address this increasingly important area of media policy in Ireland as elsewhere. Prof. Kenny was a leading author of the report and recommendations produced by the Advisory Group.
Roderick Flynn and Debbie Ging (2009) The Representation and Portrayal of People with Disabilities in Irish Broadcasting. Dublin: Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. This major report is based on research which adopted two parallel approaches to examine the representation of people with disabilities in Irish broadcast media. The study analysed 408 hours of programming (804 programmes) broadcast by Irish television and radio stations from February to July 2007. The sample was drawn from prime-time television broadcasting (6-10pm), and from weekday and Sunday radio broadcasting, including national and local radio. The programming was categorised in terms of the extent and nature of the representation of people with disabilities. The data results were based mainly on clearly observable content, such as the presence or absence of individuals with disabilities in radio or television programmes. In this context, "clearly observable" presented an obvious difficulty on radio since physical disabilities are inaudible. Therefore, the examination of radio material included only spoken references to disabilities or comments that identified an individual as having a disability. However, the study also addressed less overt content, such as whether the representation of people with disabilities in any programme was stereotypical, prejudicial or discriminatory.
2008: Books, Major Publications and Productions by School Staff
Brian Trench and M. Bucchi (Eds.) (2008) Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology. Routledge 'This work provides a useful introduction to the study of research trends in the public communication of science and technology. It is particularly strong in showing the changes in this field, ranging from the ideas of popularization and a general understanding of science to an active, engaging dialogue between scientists and the broader society. With editors and contributors from various parts of the world, the book is particularly sensitive to international issues...Highly recommended.' -- Choice, March 2009
Mark O'Brien (2008) The Irish Times: A History. Four Courts Press, Dublin. ISBN 9-781846-821233. Founded in 1859 as the voice of southern unionism, the Irish Times is now the authoritative newspaper of choice. Forced to make its peace with an independent Ireland in 1921, it was the bane of the censor during the Second World War and became the voice of liberalism during the 1950s. Reinventing itself as 'the paper of record' in the 1960s and becoming a Trust in 1974, the paper has always generated, and been at the centre of, controversial news stories. From the Mother and Child saga in 1951 to the Heavy Gang exposé in 1977, from the Bishop Casey scandal in 1992 to 'Bertiegate' in 2006, this book examines the history of the institution that is the Irish Times. Beginning with the foundation of the paper in 1859, the book combines memoirs, personal papers, archives, company records, interviews and the newspaper's journalism to construct an objective, critically researched history of Ireland's leading newspaper.
2007: Books, Major Publications and Productions by School Staff include:
John Horgan; Barbara O'Connor, and Helena Sheehan (Eds.) (2007) Mapping Irish Media: Critical Explorations (co-edited with John Horgan and Helena Sheehan), University College Dublin Press., 2007. ISBN-10: 1904558836
"Mapping Irish Media" offers up-to-date research and analysis of the Irish media by Ireland's leading experts in the field. The book is sponsored by the School of Communications at Dublin City University and is specially intended as a much-needed textbook for the fast growing numbers of media studies students in Ireland. It is highly readable and also suitable for those with a general interest in the subject. The book focuses on a wide range of media including the more traditional broadcast and print media (newspapers, radio, and television and film), and also engages with newer media such as the internet and DVD, and newer media genres such as reality TV. Although the book is traditionally structured in sections on production, texts and audiences, the editors' intention has been to raise issues which cross-cut these different aspects. The contributors present a range of theoretical approaches, provide comparisons with the media in other countries, and consider in particular the effect of globalisation and increasing consumer choice.
Roddy Flynn, and Pat Brereton (2007) Historical Dictionary of Irish Cinema, Scarecrow Press. This comprehensive overview of Irish cinema from the beginning of the 20th Century to recent classics including Adam and Paul which incidentally graces the cover, captures the full gamut of film history, alongside individual entries for films and creative personnel who have worked in Irish film over the years. It is a valuable resource for researchers who need a summary of the main themes and trends within the Irish film industry.
Recent books by members of staff include:
- Pat Brereton: Hollywood Utopia - ecology in contemporary American cinema (Intellect Books, 2005)
- Colum Kenny: Moments that changed us (Gill and Macmillan, 2005)
- Mark O'Brien (co-editor): Political Censorship & the Democratic State: The Irish Broadcasting Ban (Four Courts Press, 2005)
- John Horgan: Broadcasting and Public Life – RTE News and Current Affairs, 1926-1997 (Four Courts Press, 2004)
- Farrel Corcoran: RTÉ and the Globalisation of Irish Television (Intellect Books, 2004)
- Helena Sheehan: The Continuing Story of Irish Television Drama: tracking the tiger (Four Courts Press, 2004)
- Colum Kenny: Fearing Sellafield (Gill and Macmillan, 2003)
- Barbara O'Connor (co-editor): Irish tourism - image, culture and identity (Channel View Press, 2003)
- Paschal Preston: Reshaping communications: technology, information and social change (Sage, 2001)
- John Horgan: Irish media - a critical history since 1922 (Routledge, 2001
- Pat Brereton: Continuum Guide to Media Education (Continuum, 2001)
- Mark O'Brien: De Valera, Fianna Fail and the Irish Press: The Truth in the News (Irish Academic Press, 2001)