FILM AND MEDIA
What the Media Does, and Why
SPRING CN106
Monday
Tutor: Paul Murray
Many factors go into making a media product such as a newspaper, television/radio programme or New Media production. This course examines how culture, politics, ownership and economics have a huge bearing on what is produced and on what we consume. It teaches how print media is written and edited, and the construction of headlines and press releases. It focuses on the impact of social media.
It highlights issues such as media history, ownership, censorship, public relations, privacy, defamation, propaganda and the use of photographs. It tackles whether the media gives a true reflection of society, if indeed that is its job. It also focuses on the impact of social media.
| BELFIELD | ||
| 10 Mondays |
Sep 24, Oct 1, 8, 15, 22, Nov 5, 12, 19, 26, Dec 3 (No class Oct 29) |
7.30pm - 9.30pm |
|
FEE €190 |
Print Open Learning Application Form 2012.13 or ring (01) 716 7123 for Laser/ Credit Card payment |
Tutor Details:
Paul Murray has had extensive media experience. After a UCD BA, he joined the Irish Press, and then spent 32 years in The Irish Times as a sub-editor, news reporter, Social Services Correspondent, Transport Correspondent, High Court Correspondent, an Assistant and then a Deputy News Editor. For four years he was Head of Communications at Age Action Ireland. After a brief period in corporate PR, he joined the Irish Hospice Foundation where he worked as Communications Manager, and as a Development Coordinator for the National Council of the Forum on End of Life.
Provisional list of key topics to be covered:
- History of media
- Media ownership and its impact
- Have New and Social Media been a force for good?
- How journalists and editors go about their work
- How to write a news story
- How to write press releases
- What is PR: is it the same as Propaganda?
- What does a PR person do?
- Interviewing and being Interviewed
- Defamation
- Privacy
- Photographs
- Ethics
Who is the course for?
This course is aimed anyone interested in how the media operates: its origins, biases, constraints, its excesses and its future. People whose work, either paid or voluntary, involves them with the Media will also benefit, as will students who intend testing their interest in a media career.
Reading List
The following is a selection of recommended texts for those interested in reading further around the course content. We advise that you do not buy books in advance of the course as your tutor will discuss the list and suggest the most relevant reading for particular interests.
The following are samples of materials referred to during the course. This list will be discussed in class.
Bayley, E. R., Joe McCarthy and the Press
Behr, E., Anyone here been raped & speaks English
Bergin, Tom Spills and Spin, The Inside Story of BP, Random House Business Books
Boyd-Barrett, Oliver and Newbold, Chris (EDS) Approaches to Media, A Reader
Bradlee, B., A Good Life, Newspapering and other Adventures
Brady, C., Up With The Times, Gill & Macmillan
Broder, D.S., Behind the Front Page, A Candid Look at How the News is Made, Simon and Schuster
Burden, P., News of the World? Fake Sheiks and Royal Trappings
Burke, R., Press Delete, the Decline and Fall of the Irish Press
Chippendale, P., and Horrie, Chris, Stick it up Your Punter, The Uncut Story of the "Sun" Newspaper
Curtis, L., Ireland, the Propaganda War
Davidson, A.J. Defamed, Famous Irish Libel Trials, Gill & Macmillan
Davies, N., Flat Earth News, Chatto
Evans, H., War Stories, Reporting in Time of Conflict from the Crimea to Iraq
Gladwell, M., The Tipping Point, How Little Things can Make a Big Difference
Gray, T., Mr Smyllie, Sir, Gill & Macmillan
Harris, R., Gotcha, The Media, the Government and Falklands Crisis
Henry, N., American Carnival: Journalism Under Siege in an Age of New Media, University of California Press
Horgan, J., Irish Media, a Critical History Since 1922
Horgan, J., Mapping Irish Media, Critical Explorations, UCD Press
Inglis, B,. Downstart
Kiberd, D. (Ed) Media in Ireland, the Search for Ethical Journalism, Open Air
Kilfeather, F., Changing Times, a Life in Journalism, Blackwater Press
Kirkpatrick, David The Facebook Effect, Virgin
Knightley, P., The First Casualty
Marr, A., My Trade
Martin, S., Good Times and Bad, A Memoir, Mercier
McQuail, D., Mass Communication Theory
Miller, David and Dinan, William (Eds) Thinker, Faker, Spinner, Spy, Corporate PR and the Assault on Democracy . Pluto Press
Morgan, H., Information Media and Power Through the Ages
Morozov, Evgeny The Net Delusion, How not to Liberate the World, Allen Lane
Myers, K., Watching the Door, a Memoir 1971-1978, Changing Times
National Union of Journalists, Code of Ethics
O’Toole, M., More Kicks than Pence, a Life in Irish Journalism
O’Toole, M., More Kicks than Pence, Poolbeg
Oram, H., A History of Newspapers in Ireland
Poole, S., Unspeak
Porter, H., Lies, Damned Lies, Fleet St Exposed
Quinlan, C.M., Inside Ireland’s Women’s Prisons Past and Present, Irish Academic Press
Remnick, David, Reporting: Writings from the New Yorker
Simpson, J., Unreliable Sources, How the 20th Century was Reported
Whittaker, A., Bright Brilliant Days, Douglas Gageby and The Irish Times
