Description
Book Synopsis"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.
Trade Review"A new book focusing on Ireland's rapidly-changing media aims to show foreign readers that there is more to Irish culture than James Joyce ... Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole, who launched the book ... said one of the most illuminating sections of the book was a rational, calm analysis of crime reporting." "The appearance of Mapping Irish Media is to be welcomed, if for no other reason than that there is a dearth of good writing on media issues in Ireland ... it's likely to prove useful for students of media for some time to come." Irish Times Sept 2007 "offers a wide-ranging review of scholarly approaches to understanding the Irish mediascape ... these essays broadly deal with the way in which the Irish mediascape is being reconfigured relative to wide-scale changes of a socio-cultural, political, economic, spatio-temporal and technological nature ... the collection is an important ongoing contribution to that larger project of mapping Irish media." Irish Studies Review Winter 2007/8 'Ireland offers a fascinating case study for those interested in mapping out some of the changes in the relationship between media, economy and society in small countries. This collection of essays offers and excellent and succinct snapshot of how a range of media-related issues that stretch across production, representation and media reception are being played out in contemporary Irish society. Although the book is organised into three quite traditional sections od production, representation and reception, the material engages with a range of themes that run through the collection and the sections do not inhibit connections being made across the areas. The themes in the book include the impact of global shifts on media production and reception; the rise of consumerism; the role that digitisation is having in re-shaping the media industries; debates about media regulation; and the changing relationship between the media and national and cultural identity-formation. All these are set in the context of a small peripheral European economy that has enjoyed an almost uninterrupted economic boom since the mid 1990s. The broader context for the chapters is what the editors call the global expansion in media studies, and the particular development of this area within the Irish university and college sector. Yet no theoretical straitjacket is imposed on the book, and differing theories and methods inform the diverse range of material examined.' Media, Culture and Society Vol 30 (5) 2008 SAGE
Table of ContentsJohn Horgan, Barbara O'Connor, Helena Sheehan, Introduction; Section 1 Production; Farrel Corcoran, Irish Television in a Global Context; John Horgan, Paul McNamara and John O'Sullivan, Irish Print and Broadcast Media: The Political, Economic, Journalistic and Professional Context; Iarfhlaith Watson, Recent and Current Trends in Irish Language Broadcasting; Roddy Flynn, About Adam: Film Policy in Ireland since 1993; Paschal Preston, Ireland's Way to the Information Society: Knowledge(s) and Media Matters; Section 2 Representation; Patrick Kinsella, War and Peace on the Screen: Representations of Conflict in Ireland; Mark O'Brien, Selling Fear? The Changing Face of Crime Reporting in Ireland; Brian Trench, Irish Media Representations of Science; Helena Sheehan, Television Drama as Social History: The Case of Fair City; Pat Brereton, Characteristics of Contempoary Irish Film; Section 3 Reception; Aphra Kerr, Transnational Flows: Media Use by Poles in Ireland; Barbara O'Connor, Big Brother Meets the Celtic Tiger? Reality TV, Cultural Values and Identities; Debbie Ging, New Lads or Protest Masculinities? Exploring the Meanings of Male Marginalisation in Contemporary Irish Film; Miriam Judge, Teachers and the Consumption of ICT: A Sociocultural Analysis of a Technology-Based Change Project in Schools; Rosemary Day, Listen to Yourself! The Audience as Broadcaster in Community Radio; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
