Communication Technology and New Media Commons^™

Anti-Communism And Media Surveillance In Ireland 1948-50, John Horgan

Irish Communication Review

Ireland in the immediate post-war period offers, to the student of Cold War politics and intrigues, some unusual insights into the nature of political surveillance in general and to the surveillance of the press in particular, according to documents recently released by the US State department and made available in the US National Archives in Washington.1 Politically, the situation was becoming more volatile. Fianna Fáil, which had been in power continuously since 1942 and had won its most recent election in 1944, was coming under increasingly vocal criticism from two key groups of erstwhile supporters: urban workers, who had been …

Escaping The Evil Avenger And The Supercrip: Images Of Disability In Popular Television, Alison Harnett

Irish Communication Review

This article examines the extent and significance of the under-representation of the disabled community in fictional film and television, arguing that when it is portrayed onscreen, the images are often inaccurate or unfair. Whereas media treatment of women, the gay community, or ethnic minorities has received considerable academic attention, no such priority has been given to the nature of the portrayal of the disabled, or the lack of proportional visibility on our screens.

Race To The Park: Simmel, The Stranger And The State, Tanya M. Cassidy

Irish Communication Review

In 1909, Georg Simmel opens his essay entitled ‘Bridge and Door’ in the following way, ‘[t]he image of external things possesses for us the ambiguous dimension that in external nature everything can be considered to be connected, but also as separated’ (Simmel, 1997: 170). Ambivalence, meaning occupying two spaces at one and the same time, provides a stabilising social paradigm, and not a provisional condition of uncertainty. This paper discusses a socio-political drama in Ireland which makes active use of an ambivalent rhetoric, specifically linking notions of transcending boundaries.

Cultural And Structural Change In Irish Television Drama, Edward Brennan

Irish Communication Review

According to Devereux (1998), RTÉ drama, and RTÉ television in general, excludes society’s powerless. This is, in his view, a result of the ideology of RTÉ drama producers. Devereux’s research on RTÉ drama concentrates on Glenroe1. It states that Glenroe fails to represent adequately those who are marginalised in Irish society. In passing, Devereux mentions some material and organisational constraints which may help to explain why this is so.

Book Reviews: Volume 7

Irish Communication Review

Quality Assessment of Television, reviewed by Adrian Moynes

Communication Concepts 6: Agenda-Setting, reviewed by David Quin

News on a knife-edge: Gemini journalism and a global agenda, reviewed by David Quin

Teilifís Na Gaeilge As A Public Sphere, Iarfhlaith Watson

Irish Communication Review

This paper employs the Irish language media to argue for a normative ideal of public access using the concept 'public sphere'. Public sphere as an ideal type contains a democratic potential which allows for universal participation in the formation of public opinion. Two problems exist with the public sphere as a concept in so far as the ideal does not correspond to the reality. On the one hand, it can be argued that the market dominates the public sphere and hampers the democratic, spontaneous and autonomous formation of public opinion. On the other, it can also be argued that the …

New Toys For Boys, Paul O'Brien

Irish Communication Review

In 'Out of Time: Reflections on the Programming Life', Ellen Ullman writes that a senior (male) engineer once asked her why she left full-time engineering for consulting. She replied that she found the engineering culture very 'teenage-boy puerile'. The engineer replied to the effect that such loss of talent was too bad.

Content Matters: The Media And Cultural Industries In Ireland's National Information Strategy, Paschal Preston

Irish Communication Review

When, in the spring of 1996, the Irish government appointed an official Information Society Steering Committee (ISSC) with a brief to develop a national 'information society strategy and action plan' it was following a significant international policy trend. In so doing, Ireland became the latest member of the OECD to launch a policy and research initiative focused on the economic and social implications of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). This latest wave of official policy and research interest

Dancing About Architecture : Postmodernism And Irish Popular Music, Stephen Ryan

Irish Communication Review

Listening to Bono of U2 in a recent radio interview, I was struck by a comment he made. He was talking about contemporary and past musics, and how the past and the present are tied up with hopes and fears about the future. It was, he argued, a case of the difference between yesterdays tomorrow and todays tomorrow. Yesterday's tomorrow was about a confidence for the future, a belief that progress was more or less inevitable and, for music, that artistic creativity would continue to blossom and produce great works.

Ireland's Alternative Press: Writing From The Margins, Lance Pettit

Irish Communication Review

Given the relative scarcity of published sources on the press in Ireland, it is perhaps not surprising that there is little writing on alternative publications. An Phoblacht/Republican News (AP) Gay Community News (GCN) and The Big Issues (BI) might appear to exemplify O'Sullivan's definition of 'alternative media'. This article provides an examination of the term using examples that are specific to the social and political context of Ireland in the 1990s.

Maple And Shamrock: Seeking A Strategy For Survival In The Audiovisual Jungle, Colum Kenny

Irish Communication Review

Attempting to assess what the future might hold for Irish broadcasters and producers, especially in the light of digital and multimedia developments and of increasing competition, I recently paid a visit to Ontario and Quebec, two adjacent provinces of Canada. It is a country where audiovisual matters have long been taken seriously. Canada's proximity to the U.S. 'elephant', as that neighbour is sometimes known, concentrates the northern state's collective mind on survival strategies. Previous trips to Canada, including attendance at the Toronto Film Festival and participation as a guest in the Banff Television Festival in Alberta, had induced in the …

Book Reviews: Volume 6

Irish Communication Review

S. Hornig Priest Doing Media Research, reviewed by Eoin Devereux

Groombridge and J. Hay (eds.) The Price of Choice - Public service broadcasting in a competitive European market place, reviewed by Amanda Dunne

I. Ang Living Room Wars - Rethinking Media Audiences for a Postmodern World, reviewed by Ciaran McConaghy

S. Aronowitz, B. Martinsons and M. Menser (eds.) TechnoScience and Cyber Culture, reviewed by Brian Torode

Is Advertising On Television To Children A Problem?, Brian Young

Irish Communication Review

Why are people concerned about television advertising and its influence on children? Is this concern justified? These are the two main points I want to consider in this paper.

View Of Advertising Practitioners, Peter O'Keeffe

Irish Communication Review

I am concerned to make the case for the rights and liberties to communicate commercial advertising messages to children. Consequenlly, I am amused by the identification of advertising with witchcraft; witches ceased to be burned a long time ago. However, this comparison, illustrates the excessive concern shown about how strangely influential advertising is.

Children And Television Advertising, Farrell Corcoran

Irish Communication Review

I am particularly frustrated by the lack of debate on issues concerning the media and children in this country. That may be a sweeping statement but we tend to react rather than take an active interest in trying to influence things. These reactions tend to be shaped by moral panics. There is nothing as depressing as a moral panic that arises, usually in the area of violence, every year or two, in response to something happening near us, for example in Manchester, Liverpool or perhaps closer to home. The same tired old arguments and positions are taken with little sign …

Eu Media Policy: Recent Features, Josef Trappel

Irish Communication Review

EU media policy has to be considered as an element of the overall economic goals of the EU: it pursues those goals rather than genuine media policy objectives such as freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity, democratic function of media, equal access to information or the notion of programme or content quality. Any meaningful evaluation of media policy of the European Union needs to distinguish between two different concepts: the economic objectives of the EU, the adherence of member state's legislation to EU standards, the completion of the single market, the degree of legislative alignment to harmonized media matters, the …

People's Home To Home And Away: The Growth And Development Of Soap Opera In Sweden, Hugh O'Donnell

Irish Communication Review

This paper is part of a larger study analyzing domestic soap operas and telenovelas in seventeen European countries, comparing their performance with that of imported products of the same kind, and examining their place not only within the televisual culture, but also within the broader social and political culture of their country.

All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Call: Fashion Victims In The New Look Telecom Industry, Maria Lohan

Irish Communication Review

The Telecom industry In Ireland is currently in training to tone itself up in preparation for both convergence and competition In the new look telecommunications Industry. Only those companies who have completed extenslve tummy tucks on staffing and removed the weight of subsidized charging may enter this new telecommunications club. Not only this, but you must of course have the right personality to attract partners with dowries of infrastructure. An important characteristic is a willingness to invest In anything electronic - but property will do too. And what should the fashion conscious Telecom player be sporting this season? Well POTS …

Hypertext Theory And Narrative, Eoin Kilfeather

Irish Communication Review

The title of this essay may at first glance seem strange. The linkage of a computer based technology with a theory of narrative might seem incongruous; however, hypertext and what George Landow has called the 'convergence of critical theory and technology' has stimulated interest in new theories and problematics of the text and of narrative. Interest in studying the textual implications of hypertext systems has grown almost as rapidly as these systems themselves. It is not an overstatement to say that of all the technological developments of the twentieth century, the emergence of hypertext and the internet has been the …

New Technologies And Changing Work Practices In The Media Industry: The Case Of Lreland, Ellen Hazelkorn

Irish Communication Review

The broadcasting environment in Ireland is the most competitive in Europe. RTE's revenue is strictly limited. The licence fee has not increased since 1986. Advertising revenue is controlled by law. The preservation of a comprehensive and effective radio and television service can only be sustained by the most efficient and cost effective approach to the production of programmes of quality.

Problems Of Broadcast Funding: Crimeline And Sponsorship, Amanda Dunne

Irish Communication Review

In recent years, the dominant trend in broadcast regulation in Europe has been to place the consumer not the citizen at the centre of policy. While technological change has also provoked phenomenal changes in broadcasting and its marketplace, the irrefutable tension between the interests of the citizen and those of the consumer, between 'quality' programming and 'mass' audiences, and between the 'public service' ethos and the interests of commercial broadcasting is more directly a function of policy (Dahlgren, 1995).

Fianna Fail And The Origins Of The Irish Press, Catherine Curran

Irish Communication Review

In order to win political support for its programme of economic self-sufficiency in the 1930s, Fianna Fail appealed to a number of constituencies: Irish manufacturers, the smaller farmers, and the urban working class. The success of this appeal depended on a number of factors, one of the principal being that an effective means of communication should be established. The Irish Press was founded in response to an immediate and pressing need for a mass circulation daily to assist in Fianna Fail's struggle for hegemony against the ideas of the ruling party, Cumann na nGaedheal. Manning (l972:42) remarks that the significance …

Audience Identification And Raidio Na Gaeltachta, Niamh Hourigan

Irish Communication Review

Issues of audience identification have always been crucial for radio and television stations broadcasting tn lesser used languages. The imminent arrival of Teilifis na Gaeilge and increased interest in the radio station itself have re-opened the debate concerning Raidio na Gaeltachta and its target audience. This paper argues that approaches to audience identification for Raidio na Gaeltachta have been characterized by a lack of clarity and a failure to recognize the diversity within the Irish-speaking community. The expansive and ill-defined nature of their target audience has not been addressed in a structured manner. Consequently the station's position Is becoming increasingly …

Book Reviews Volume 5

Irish Communication Review

Book Reviews

D. Butler, The Trouble With Reporting Northern Ireland Aldershot, Reviewed by Catherine Curran.

K. Tester, Media Culture and Morality, Reviewed by Eoin Devereux

B. Gunter, J. Sancho-Aidridge and P. Winston, Television - The Public's View, Reviewed by Amanda Dunne.

R. Winsbury and S. Fazal (eds.) Vision and Hindsight: The first 25 Years of the International Institute of Communications, Reviewed by Desmond Fisher.

R. Silverstone, Television and Everyday Life, Reviewed by Richard Fitzsimons.

J. Tambling, A Night in at the Opera London, Reviewed by lan Fox.

S. Moores, Interpreting Audiences, An Ethnography of Media Consumption Livingstone and P. Lunt …

After The Green Paper: What Next For Broadcasting In Ireland? : Discussion, Ellen Hazelkorn

Irish Communication Review

On 27 April 1995, the long-awaited Green Paper on Broadcasting, drafted by the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Michael D. Higgins. and entitled Active or Passive? Broadcasting in the future tense was published. Its publication carne one week after the publication of the Interim Report of the Competition Authority on the newspaper industry In Ireland. and preceded the publication of an examination of the skills requirements of lhe independent film and television production sector In Ireland. entitled, Training Needs to 2000 (June 1995). It is remarkable that within a very short space of time, three very substantial studies …

Freedom Of Access To Information On The Environment - The Reality In Ireland, Geraldine O'Brien

Irish Communication Review

A chink of light appeared on the horizon in 1990 with the lrish Government's laudable comments on the adoption of the EC Directive 90/313 on Freedom of Access to Information on the Environment. This commendable approach was contained in the Government's Programme for Action during its EC Presidency and appeared to herald new beginnings. The Directive would come Into force on 1 January 1993.

Saving Us From Ourselves: Contraception, Censorship And The 'Evil Literature' Controversy Of 1926, John Horgan

Irish Communication Review

In the history of Irish public policy on communications, the ban on the publication of information about contraception merits a special place. It existed for half a century. and the circumstances of its elaboration and implementation offer a special insight into the sensitivity of Irish governments on matters of sexual morality, as well as into public and media attitudes to the controversies involved.

Some Thoughts On Freedom Of Information And The Civil Service, Sean Dooney

Irish Communication Review

All new civil servants receive from the personnel unit of their department a number of circulars dealing with various aspects of their conditions of employment. One of these circulars. the receipt of which they are obliged to acknowledge, deals with official secrecy. The Circular draws attention to the obllgations of civil servants in relation to secrecy in the transaction of official business, which obligations are provided for in Section 4 of the Official Secrets Act 1963. That section, as readers are no doubt aware, provides that they shall not communicate any official information to any other person unless they are …

Scots Gaelic And Welsh Language Broadcasting In The Cultural Contexts: A Comparative Analysis, Fachna O'Drisceoil

Irish Communication Review

This paper will be a presentation and comparative analysis of the experiences of Welsh and Scots Gaelic broadcasting. The intention is to draw conclusions regarding broadcasting strategies in those languages and to identify the implications of those conclusions for Irish language broadcasting strategy. It was decided that a brief discussion of a wider range of lesser used languages would be superficial in nature, and of little real benefit to understanding the Irish situation. Instead, a more detailed presentation will be given of the Welsh and Scots Gaelic cases on the basis that their cultural and historical experience has most similarity …

On Gendered Knowledge In Communication: Women In The Film Industry, Michele Martin

Irish Communication Review

Studies in communication have shown that, in the fllm industry. women as directors obtain less financial support than men. They find themselves in a peculiar situation: the discrimination they suffer obliges them to innovate. and hence they often find themselves at the 'avant garde' of cinematographic production. This is specifically true in the area of documentary film-making. To use Carle's words, In film 'the revolution passes through women'.