Huston School of Film & Digital Media, NUI Galway PhD Research Symposium 2017

The annual PhD research day of the Huston School of Film & Digital Media, NUI Galway will be held on Monday May 29^th.

Huston currently has ten PhD students engaged in a variety of pioneering research projects, both traditional and practice-based. These include projects examining punk cinema, digital comics, what New Media can learn from film, video and altermodernity, comedy in contemporary art practice, awe and the sublime in cinema, augmented reality, media practices and Irish identity in the United Kingdom, and transnational science-fiction. Huston’s research day will also include a screening of the essay film Dúshlán Lurgan (The Lurgan Challengem), the final project of Huston practice-based PhD candidate Uinsionn Mac Dubhghaill. Dúshlán Lurgan  examines the production of Irish-language versions of popular music videos in English at Coláiste Lurgan, an Irish summer college in Connemara. The guest speaker for this year’s research day is Dr. Roddy Flynn (Dublin City University) who will be presenting on the topic of “Broken beyond repair? Irish Broadcasting policy in the 21st century”. Dr Flynn is Chair of the MA in Film and Television at the School of Communications, Dublin City University. He writes and researches extensively on film and broadcasting policy in Ireland and Europe and is author (with John Horgan) of Irish Media History to be published by Four Courts Press in Autumn 2017.

The Huston School of Film & Digital Media is the leading centre for research and teaching in film and digital media in the West of Ireland. The school offers teaching and research programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels (up to PhD), including pioneering MA degrees in Film Studies: Theory and Practice, Film Production and Direction, Digital Media, Arts Policy and Practice, Public Advocacy and Activism, and Film and Theatre.

Samples of film work and ongoing research in Huston is also available at https://www.youtube.com/user/hustonfilmschool

Roddy Flynn bio and abstract

Bio: Dr Roddy Flynn is Chair of the MA in Film and Television at the School of Communications. Dublin City University. He writes and researches extensively on film and broadcasting policy in Ireland and Europe and is author (with John Horgan) of “Irish Media History” to be published by Four Courts Press in Autumn 2017.

Abstract: Irish broadcasting has experienced a succession of “perfect storms” since the beginning of this century. An increasingly crowded marketplace has meant intensive competition for audiences and advertising revenue: Irish advertisers could place their commercials on five channels in 2000 but in 2017 there are 48, most of which are based overseas. There is also increasing competition from non-linear television: having launched in 2012, Netflix is available in one in five Irish homes and in late 2016 was joined by Amazon Prime. Though radio and television have retained audiences in absolute terms (indeed the Irish as a while watch more daily television in 2017 than they did in 2007), they face increasing competition for attention from other screen media: by 2015, media accessed online were not merely on a par with with television as a source of news for Irish audiences but far exceeded the influence of print and radio as media. The ongoing impact of the post-2008 crash has seen broadcast revenues collapse while appeals to the state for greater public funding have largely fallen on deaf ears (due in part to European Commission restrictions on state aid to public broadcasters). This presentation seeks to delineate the various political, economic, social and technical influences on the current Irish broadcasting landscape, to identify their impact and to prognosticate as to the likely future shape of broadcasting in Ireland.