In Ireland, before the advent of television in the 1950s, the newsreels were the only visual news medium available to all sections of the Irish public. They provided important records of what audiences were shown about 20th-century historical events, figures, and politics. Constantly seeking to avoid censorship and controversy, the newsreels sought to perpetuate social norms and satisfy public taste. This book tells the story of how the newsreels depicted the Irish as violent, insular, and backward, as well as enterprising, plucky, and an asset to Britain, depending on the political climate. The book also recounts how governments, north and south, manipulated newsreel producers in order to pursue a particular agenda, often at odds with local perspectives. The issues covered also contextualize the birth and development of onscreen news, engaging with the problematic nature of media production and its relationship with audiences. This exploration has particular relevance in relation to the storms of controversy still associated with media power, political institutions, and the release of information to the general public. Richly illustrated, Ireland in the Newsreels is a vital new lens through which to look at contemporary Irish history and society.

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An interdisciplinary conference to be hosted at Northumbria University in conjunction with the Centre for Media Research at the University of Ulster 27 - 28 June 2012

download conference programme here

The CMR's own Dr Chambers and Dr McLaughlin are talking at the following event:

A critical forum to explore how to do 'public history'as we move into a "decade of anniversaries". In a divided society like Northern Ireland how will historians, film makers and broadcasters meet the challenge of engaging with our troubled past?

Conference Organisers: Professor Des Bell and Dr Fearghal McGarry
Register at

Conference Programme:

Vaida Blazyte has won two awards for her proposed dissertation film 'Colourless' on people with Alibinism in Tanzania.

The film will observe the lives of 'colourless' African artists - members of the Albino Revolution Cultural Troupe in Tanzania, who are highlighting and resisting the stigmatization and killing of people with albinism. The 20 minute documentary film will portray the extraordinary Troupe and their stories of growing up, surviving and living as an albino in Tanzania - a country which is believed to have the largest population of albinos - yet being exposed to the appalling discrimination and prejudice.

One World Media Trust and the University of Ulster's Alumni Association have awarded £1000 each to the film, making it possible for Vaida, a Lithuanian studying at Ulster, to produce the film over the summer of 2012.

Vaida, who will be accompanied by fellow student Mara Cavalli, says, 'One World Media Trust made it possible for this idea to become reality. Many students struggle to implement their ideas and dreams, many wonderful stories remain untold and unseen just because of the lack of funding possibilities for students' films. I am very lucky to be given a chance to make this documentary - now I feel a huge responsibility to do my absolute best'.

Director of the University of Ulster's students' course, MA Documentary Practice, Dr Cahal McLaughlin, says, 'these awards offer wonderful opportunities for our students to develop their experience in film making internationally. We look forward to seeing the material that Vaida and Mara bring back.'

The latest book written by CMR Director, Prof Martin McLoone was launched recently at a reception in the Irish Embassy in London hosted by the Irish Ambassador, Mr Bobby McDonagh. The book, Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and after U2, co-written with Portballintrae man Noel McLaughlin from Northumbria University, has been widely acclaimed for its depth of research and was described by the Irish Times as 'the most comprehensive history and analysis of Irish popular music yet'. In launching the book, Mr McDonagh pointed out that the book would bring international attention to the rich tradition of popular music that has emanated from Ireland over the last fifty years.

The reception was attended by a host of Irish and British rock and popular music celebrities. Prof McLoone admitted that it was a particular pleasure to meet one of his musical heroes, fellow Derry man, Feargal Sharkey, former lead singer with the Undertones. 'The Undertones were one of the best bands in the world in the late 1970s and early 1980s, even if they didn't realise it themselves', he joked. 'I hope the book goes some way to explain why'.

Prof. McLoone admitted that he was very excited to have the book chosen for an Embassy launch in London. ' I feel deeply honoured that our book was selected for this launch and I would like to thank the Ambassador for hosting the event. Ireland's rich literary and theatrical traditions and their contribution to world culture have long been acknowledged. We hope that this book will do the same for Irish popular music.'

Irish Academic Press and the Authors would like to invite... you to a reception to celebrate the launch of:

Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2

by Noel McLaughlin and Martin McLoone

RSVP Colin Eustace:

colin.eustace@iap.ie

T: 00353 1 298 9937

To interview the author and for further information please contact Colin Eustace

Guest Speaker: Sean Campbell

author of the award-winning, Irish Blood, English Heart: Second-Generation Irish Musicians in England (Music Book of the Year for both Hot Press and the Sunday Times)

Live Performances / Refreshments

Noel McLaughlin, University of Northumbria and
Martin McLoone, University of Ulster

To mark the publication of their book, Noel McLaughlin and Martin McLoone will make a presentation as part of the CMR seminar series on Wednesday, Feb 22 at 1.30 pm in the Link Lounge at Coleraine.

The book offers a detailed history and analysis of the development of popular music in Ireland from the 1960s to the present day and discusses many of the finest and most important artists to have emerged from Ireland, north and south over this period. There are particular discussions of Van Morrison and Them; Henry McCullough, Rory Gallagher, Stiff Little Fingers and The Undertones as well as Horslips, The Boomtown Rats, U2 and Sinéad O'Connor. The authors will discuss the book and the issues that their analysis raises.

The book is published by Irish Academic Press. Inspection copies will be available at the seminar and a discount order form is attached. After the seminar the CMR invites participants to share in a glass of wine/soft drinks to mark the publication.

Check out the book...

A one-day workshop on Friday 9th December 2011 (Dr Robert Porter)

At this one-day workshop, Dr Robert Porter of the CMR will be launching his his new book entitled Dramatizing the Political (Palgrave 2011) Please download the pdf here for full details or email B.Dillet@kent.ac.uk

Political life is full of drama and dramatic works are saturated with politics but the relationship between political studies and theatre studies remains underdeveloped. Can this relationship be established without the appropriation of one discipline by the other? Are there conceptual issues, methodological concerns and practices of resistance common to both? At what points do the theoretical trajectories of these disciplines converge and diverge? The workshop will examine these and other questions in a relaxed and open format with the emphasis upon discussion and participation.

Paddy Hoey, Lecturer, Liverpool Hope University

In the years prior to, and immediately after, the signing of the Good Friday/ Belfast Agreement in 1998, a new body of dissenting Irish republican writing emerged to challenge the narratives of Sinn Féin and the Peace Process. Fourthwrite, The Blanket and Forum magazine were magazines which sought to use established forms of journalism and new technologies of the internet to critique the direction of Official Provisionalism. In doing so, they presaged and inspired the emergence of later political groups like Eírígí and the Republican Network for Unity.

Stephanie Dennison, Reader in Brazilian Studies, University of Leeds

Focussing on filmmaking in Brazil, this paper shifts away from the (still productive but increasingly limiting) tradition of understanding filmmaking within a 'national' paradigm, and considers instead Brazilian cinema in the context of Hispanic/Latin American cinema. One of the key questions to be addressed is the following: if Latin American cinema's "continuing imperative [is] to bear witness to local histories" (Chanan,2005), does this rule out the possibility that co-production and co-financing initiatives are helping to forge a cinema that is instantly recognisable as "Hispanic"? And what might the place of Brazil be, if any, within such 21st-century notions of the Hispanic?