Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Simmel, Social Media And The Debatable Virtues Of Not Caring, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

This paper asks how can bare to talk about the nightmares served up by our media? How can we witness horror, only to forget about it and have It replaced by fresh horror the next day? As Keith Tester wrote, most of us today, can ‘witness horror, and feel next to nothing’ (86). How has this become installed as a modern tradition? And, how might we communicate care while escaping from a cycle of outrage and forgetting.

Working The News: Preserving Professional Identity Through Networked Journalism At Elite News Media, Jenny Hauser

Doctoral

The concept of journalism as a profession has arguably been fraught and contested throughout its existence. Ideologically, it is founded on a claim to norms and a code of ethics, but in the past, news media also held material control over mass communication through broadcast and print which were largely inaccessible to most citizens. The Internet and social media has created a news environment where professional journalists and their work exist side-by-side with non-journalists. In this space, acts of journalism also can be and are carried out by non-journalists. Through the new news distribution channels offered by social media, non-journalists …

On The Factory’S Ruins: The Death Of A Nation And The Birth Of A Museum, Anthony Haughey

Conference Papers

Stuart Hall describes ‘living archives’ as a field of […] rupture, significant breaks, transformations, new and unpredicted departures’. For an artist, the interpretation of archival and historical materials is not solely an academic exercise; it can also be viewed as a societal intervention, where historical narratives are ruptured and re-contextualised, generating an emerging critical and contested site of reinterpretation. In this article I discuss my work as an artist and researcher with particular emphasis on cultural memory, archival formations and the production of contemporary artworks, including my recent video installation, UNresolved which reflects on the twentieth anniversary of genocide in …

Digital Takeover Of News: Journalism As A Public Service In The Social Media Age, Jenny Hauser

Conference Papers

Research into the use of social media by news organisations to source information and user-generated content has shown substantial changes in the news production process. It is argued that these changes are resulting in increased access to established mainstream media for ordinary citizens, mainly through citizen-journalism.

To date, the news industry has been fixated on how free information and visual content shared on social media platforms can be sourced and verified in such a way that standards of accuracy are maintained. While news organisations focus on reaping the benefits of citizen-journalism on social networks, a growing trend of de-professionalisation in …

The Western Way: Democracy And The Media Assistance Model, Daire Higgins

Articles

International media assistance took off during a time where the ideological extremes of USA vs. USSR were set to disappear. Following the Cold War, international relations focused on democracy building, and nurturing independent media was embraced as a key part of this strategy. Fukayama called it the ‘End of History’, the fact that all other ideologies had fallen and Western style democracy was set to become the one common ideology. The US and UK led the way in media assistance, with their liberal ideas of a free press, bolstered by free market capitalism. America was the superpower, and forged the …

Speed In Context: Real-Time News Reporting And Social Media, Jenny Hauser

Conference Papers

Dubbed the ‘tyranny of real time’, the immense acceleration of the news cycle poses serious challenges to professional journalism. As news media struggle to keep up with the speed at which news is reported on social media while maintaining journalistic standards of accuracy, real-time coverage is blamed for de-contextualising news events. While reports may be accurate, the question asked is if they also show the truth? This paper compares the effects of the real-time news coverage of both the Ukrainian uprising and the Gaza-Israel conflict in the summer of 2014, examining how context was shaped and relayed in both instances.

Defining The Audience: Redefining Public Service, Ann-Marie Murray

Books/Book chapters

No abstract provided.

Rationalising Public Service: Scheduling As A Tool Of Management In Rté Television, Ann-Marie Murray

Doctoral

Developments in the media industry, notably the increasing commercialisation of broadcasting and deregulation, have combined to create a television system that is now driven primarily by ratings. Public broadcast organisations must adopt novel strategies to survive and compete in this new environment, where they need to combine public service with popularity. In this context, scheduling has emerged as the central management tool, organising production and controlling budgets, and is now the driving force in television. Located within Weber’s theoretical framework of rationalisation, this study analyses the rise of scheduling as part of a wider organisational response to political and economic …

Not Seeing The Joke: The Overlooked Role Of Humour In Media Production Research, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

This paper attempts to offer a methodological contribution to media production research. By reconsidering an earlier case study, and reviewing relevant literature, it illustrates how humour can fulfill several functions in media production. Importantly, humour is a central means of performing the ‘emotional labour’ that increasingly precarious media work demands. Methodologically, the everyday joking and banter of media workers can provide an important and, heretofore, overlooked means of accessing culture, meaning, consensus and conflict in media organisations. The article argues that humour’s organisational role should be considered when designing production research.

Dislocations: Participatory Media With Refugees In Malta And Ireland, Anthony Haughey

Books/Book chapters

Malta is located in the Mediterranean Sea between North Africa and Europe, a receiving country for significant inward migration. For most migrants the goal is to reach mainland Europe. However, every year a significant number of smuggler boats inadvertently drift into Maltese territorial waters often in severe distress, resulting in rescue by the Maltese Navy and an uncertain future.

Whilst working in Malta I was struck by the similarities between Ireland and Malta. Both islands’ are peripheral locations on the western and southern edges of Europe. Historically both countries have experienced significant outward migration of its citizens who live all …