UCD Centre for the History of the Media

MA in the History of the Media

The MA in the History of the Media has been available within the Centre since 2009.

For more information on the programme, you can contact its Director, Dr Paul Rouse.

The Programme has two core courses: Making an Historical Documentary and Politics and Communication.

How to make a historical documentary
Dr Paul Rouse

Course outline:
This is a practical course. It will introduce students to the practice of making historical documentaries for television. Students will work in small groups to make their own short documentaries. The course will teach students the basic techniques of historical documentary-making, notably planning and developing historical documentaries, film archive research, filming and interviewing, scripting and editing. Far from being reductive of complex ideas and concepts, the best historical documentaries demand acuity of insight and analysis. Documentaries are built on all manner of primary and secondary sources, and require the development of a particular point of view to sustain their coherence. Accordingly, at its core this course will focus on developing the skills of students in collecting historical information from a variety of sources, and in analysing, organising and presenting that information. By the end of the course, students will have completed a short documentary which will be shown in public. On a broader level, this course will encourage students to develop ideas of their own, to imagine the possibilities of the uses to which they can put the history they have studied and, most of all, to be innovative in their thinking. Ultimately, this is a course which will challenge students, improve them and, hopefully, inspire them to think about a career in which history will feature.

Guest Lecturers:
Amongst the guest lecturers who will teach classes on this course are:

• John O’Regan, the producer who makes Reeling in the Years for RTÉ.
• Paul Murphy, a reporter who works on the ‘Prime Time Investigates’ series.
• Kasandra O’Connell/Karen Wall, Irish Film Archive.
• Mike Liffey, film editor and new media consultant.

Course aims:
The course is designed to:The course is designed to:

1. Encourage students to develop their own ideas and to realise those ideas through making short documentaries

2. Teach students how to develop a treatment for making a documentary;

3. Teach students how to prepare a proper historical research document and production booklet which will underpin the entire project;
4. Give a broader understanding of the range of sources available to historians, not least to give an insight into film, photographic and audio research;
5. Show students how to film and edit their own documentaries;
6. Show how to produce a narrative linking all relevant sources together;

Learning outcomes:

1. The basic learning outcomes from the course will be:
2. Greater awareness of the range of sources open to historians;
3. Understanding of film research and the range of film archive material available;
4. Preparation of a treatment for the making of a historical documentary;
5. Preparation of a comprehensive research brief;
6. Interaction with experts through interviews;
7. A better understanding of the presentation of complex matters in an accessible manner while retaining accuracy;
8. Production of a narrative linking all relevant sources together;
9. Basic training in the use of camera, sound and editing equipment;
10. Development of individual skills within a collaborative framework.

How this course will be assessed:
The examination of students taking this course will be on the basis of continuous assessment. Students will be graded on the quality of the end-of-course short documentary which will account for 100% of marks.

Contact details:
I can be contacted at my office, K118, in the School of History and Archives. My office hours are Monday afternoons from 2pm to 4pm, but students are welcome to call in at any time.
My email address is p.rouse@ucd.ie, and I can also be contacted on 01-7168164 and on 087-9422500.

Timetable:
This course will run for eleven weeks in Semester One.
All classes will be held in Room K115 in the School of History and Archives on Tuesdays from 10am-12am.

Short List of Classes:

• Overview: A History of Documentary Film in Ireland
• From Start to Finish: The Tailteann Games
• How to Write a Treatment
• Research Brief: Audio and Video Content, Part One
• Research Brief: Audio and Video Content, Part Two
• Filming, Recording and Conducting Interviews
• The Paper Edit: Structure and Scripting
• The Edit: A Rough Cut
• The Edit: A Fine Cut
• The Edit: A Final Cut
• The Premiére

Although this course will involve a number of formal lectures at the outset, the bulk of the teaching will revolve around classwork and practical involvement. A detailed breakdown of each class is provided overleaf.

• Overview: A History of Documentary Film

This class will offer a brief guide to the history of documentary film. It will look at the establishment, development and nature of historical documentary making, both in Ireland and internationally. The class will look examine the most important historical documentaries, their makers, their influences, their impact. As part of this class, there will also be an analysis of the invention of film and its place in twentieth century life.

• From Start to Finish: The Tailteann Games

This class will show how the documentary ‘Aonach Tailteann – Olympiad na nGael’ was made for TG4 in 2007. It will examine the development of the idea, the research undertaken, the archival footage trawl, the filming, the scripting process, the various cuts that were made and, ultimately, the broadcast of the final programme.

• How to Write a Treatment

This class will simply demonstrate how to take an idea for a historical documentary and how to turn that idea into a document which can be used to sell that idea to a television production company, a television station or a funding body.

• Research Brief: Audio and Video Content, Part One

This class will show how to prepare a research brief/production book which will underpin the entire programme-making process. The essential truth of every historical documentary is that if you haven’t completed the required research of primary and secondary sources you will simply be unable to make a decent historical documentary.

• Research Brief: Audio and Video Content, Part Two

In addition to studying the key texts, students will also be required to source and generate visual material for their documentary. In terms of archival research, students will learn where to find the footage and the photographs necessary to make the documentary.

• Filming, Recording and Conducting Interviews

Students will develop the basic skills of how to film their own content for inclusion in the documentary, including the filming of interviews. Also, in relation to interviews, students will learn how to select the best range of interviewees, how to prepare for and conduct interviews, and how to decide which sections of the interviews to use in the final cut.

• The Paper Edit: Structure and Scripting

This section will focus on structure and scripting. It will teach students how to do a paper edit, how to structure the piece, how to develop a coherent editorial line, how to prioritise the information that needs inclusion, and how to ensure that the piece is accessible without compromising its accuracy or depth.

• The Edit: A Rough Cut

Students will be introduced to post-production: how to edit all footage and build the narrative of the documentary by developing a rough-cut, which is essentially a first draft.

• The Edit: A Fine Cut

This class will show how to move from a rough cut to a fine cut, and how to add titles, music and voice-over.  And, finally, how to check that absolutely every line of the documentary is accurate.

• The Edit: A Final Cut

This class will consider how to finish the documentary, including a consideration of ensuring that the programme may now legally be shown.

• The Premiére

Finally, students will learn how to organise, publicise, advertise and deliver a Premiére of their documentary. This will involve a public showing of the film and its broadcast on the new website in development through the School of History and Archives.

     
Bibliography:
This is a course about history and the practicalities of making historical documentaries. This is not a media or film studies course. The aim is to provide students with a broader understanding of history, historical sources and the possibilities of making historical documentaries. Nonetheless, students will be expected to look at the following texts to gain a greater understanding of the skills necessary for making programmes.

• Patricia Aufderheide, Documentary film: a very short introduction (2007).
• Michael Rabiger, Directing the documentary (2007).

• Andrew Marr, My trade (2003).

The remainder of the reading for the course will be determined by the choice of project to be undertaken by students.

CORE COURSE 2

History, Politics and Communications
Dr Paul Rouse

Course Outline:
History, Politics and Communications is a seminar series which will meet fortnightly to hear and discuss papers and presentations from leading figures working in Irish politics and in the media. The aim of the seminar series is to examine the relationship between politics and the media from a range of different perspectives, including those of politicians, political advisors, communications strategists, journalists and news editors. The ambition of this series of seminars is also to place these perspectives in historical context and to examine where the skills of historians are relevant to the operation of modern politics and the media.
Amongst the guest speakers confirmed for the semester are:

1. Pat Leahy (Political Editor, Sunday Business Post), Chasing Bertie Ahern.

Pat Leahy is one of the leading political journalists in Ireland and is the author of the best-selling book, Showtime: the Inside Story of Fianna Fáil in Power. He will talk about working as a journalist, primarily in Dáil Éireann, and the various aspects of his job, including his relationship with politicians, the development of sources, the libel laws and the challenge of new media.

2. Fiona Mitchell (News Editor, RTÉ News), How do stories make the Six-One News?

Fiona Mitchell has worked as a journalist and editor in Dublin for more than ten years, initially with TV3 and then with RTÉ. She is a former history graduate and will examine how her training as a historian has helped her in her work as a news editor. In particular, she will examine the editorial process in RTÉ and will evaluate the reasons why some stories make the news (and in what order), while others don’t.

3. Rónán O’Brien (Chief Advisor to Brendan Howlin, Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform), History and Policy-making

Rónán O’Brien is a history graduate who previously worked as Chief Advisor to Ruairi Quinn when he was leader of the Labour Party and as the Communications Manager of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland. He will talk about the manner in which public policy is made in Ireland, with reference to recent policy initiatives.

4. Paul Daly (Communications Consultant), The art of spin

Paul Daly is a Communications Consultant who has worked for almost two decades with a variety of politicians, political parties, professional organisations and private clients. He is the author of Creating Ireland: the words and events that shaped us, which documented the political, social and cultural history of Ireland through the prism of Dáil Éireann. He will examine the use of spin in Irish and British politics.

5. Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael TD for Dublin North Central), Use and Abuse: Politicians and the Media

Pascal Donohoe topped the poll in the Dublin North Central constituency in the 2011 General Election. He has written articles, book reviews and pamphlets, including ‘Should the 31st Dáil be the default Dáil?’ He will talk about the way in which politicians seek to use the media, how new media and social media have changed the way politicians communicate and what it is like to be at the centre of a media storm.

6. Course Conference

At the end of the semester, students will present their own papers during a conference which they will organise. These papers will be published and podcast on a dedicated website.

Learning Outcomes:
Students taking this module will:

1. Examine the relationship between politics and the media;
2. Place this relationship in a historical context;
3. Understand the value of historical skills in the context of modern politics and media;
4. Research and present a paper on the relationship between politics and the media;
5. Meet leading individuals from the world of politics and the media.

Timetable:
All classes will be held in Room K114 in the School of History and Archives on Wednesdays, 4-6pm. Attendance is compulsory.

Contact details:
I can be contacted at my office, K118, in the School of History and Archives. My office hours are Monday afternoons from 2pm to 4pm, but students are welcome to call in at any time.
My email address is p.rouse@ucd.ie and I can also be contacted on 01-7168164 and on 087-9422500.

Assessment:
Assessment will be based on the 4,000 word paper which students will present at the end of the semester. The precise subject of these papers will be agreed with students in the early weeks of Semester Two. As well as presenting a paper, students should be aware that attendance at seminars is compulsory.