Media and Communication Studies (Peer-reviewed publications)

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A review of "Men and Popular Music in Algeria, Modern Middle-East Series No. 20" by Marc Schade-Poulson
(Cambridge University Press, 2002) Langlois, Tony
Rai is a form of popular music most closely associated with the city of Oran (Waharan) in the northwestern corner of Algeria. Marc Schade-Poulson's book considers the social significance of the genre in its place of origin and, in particular, its role in describing the complex gender relations prevailing there.
A review of "Maroc: The Art of Maroc: The Art of Sama in Fez" recorded by Ted Levin
(Taylor & Francis [Routledge], 2004) Langlois, Tony
The Orchestra Ahl-Faˆhs, under their director, Muhammad Bennis, performs all the music featured on this contemporary recording. It illustrates the exclusively male tradition of religious song and chant collectively known as samaˆ’ (literally meaning ‘‘audition’’), most associated in Fez, Marocco, with Sufi fraternities. Because of their origins in ritual (or, at least, ritualistic) performance, three of the four pieces presented here have fairly basic instrumental accompaniment, as the choir’s vocal role takes priority. Two broad forms of music are included in this record: first, those that are based upon religious poetry, which have much in common with the more secular Andalus art music tradition; second, those which are essentially in the form of a chant, presumably drawn more from the dhikr ceremonies of Sufi brotherhoods. These include the repetition of sacred formulas, such as the shahada: the first part of the Islamic profession of faith (La ilaha illa Allah _/ ‘there is no god but God’), sometimes delivered with the exaggerated exhalations associated with these ritual contexts. In common with the Andalus vocal style, the sung poetry is effectively heterophonic; here the lead singer accompanies the chorus with a melismatic embellishment of core melodies.
A review of "Niger, Musiques des Tuaregs, Vols 1&2 (Azawagh and In Gall)" recorded by François Borel (Pre-published version)
(Taylor & Francis [Routledge], 2004) Langlois, Tony
This excellent pair of CDs is largely compiled from recordings made by Francois Borel between 1971 and the late 1990s. Each takes a specific regional community as its focus and provides a comprehensive cross-section of its musical culture, representing, we assume, an indigenous typology. The illustrated notes (in French as well as English) that accompany the discs provide brief but adequate explanations of the social contexts in which the recordings were made. Biographical details of some individual musicians are also included, which not only informs a listener’s understanding of their role in society but can also illustrate their performative intentions. We are told, for example, that the song ‘‘Amellokoy’’ (vol. 2, track 6) is performed by a man in his sixties who ‘‘has lost some of his vocal capabilities’’ but has ‘‘retained the distinctive traits of the Air style’’, which are subsequently described. For listeners unfamiliar with Tuareg musics these notes are invaluable, as they draw attention to aspects of the recordings that would otherwise be missed. Being personally more familiar with northern Berber musics, I could certainly identify strong ‘‘family resemblances’’ with the rhythmic and melodic structures found here, particularly in the use of the anzad (one-string bowed lute), though associations might just as easily be made with genres found in Mali or even Mauritania. As traditionally transhumant societies, whose neighbours refer to them as Tegareygaret (‘‘in between’’ people), Tuareg groups have clearly played a significant role in the transmission of musical styles across the Sahel, through trade, migration or seasonal interaction with settled communities.
The Gnawa of Oujda: music at the margins in Morocco
(VWB - Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 1998) Langlois, Tony
This paper describes some of my fieldwork encounters with the Gnawa, a group of eth- nic minority musicians living in Oujda , north-eastern Morocco, where I conducted re- search in 1994. I recount how I met the group and some impressions of the places where they lived and worked. After discussing the structure and nature of the musical events through which they interacted with the rest of the population , I describe their instruments and comment upon their repertoire. The economic and political circum- stances in which the Gnawa appear to live are considered, and I offer an explanation as to why women comprise the greater part of their audience. Returning to the perfor- mance itself, I observe its most dramatic high point, a gestured self-mutilation, which both raises the level of excitement of the event and serves to reinforce the belief in the Gnawa 's supernatural powers. Finally, the relationships between Gnawi music, local saintly figures and colour are discussed. I conclude that the group's precarious eco- nomic and social niche depends upon their manipulation of their ' otherness the maintenance of secrecy surrounding their practices, and the need of local women for the catharsis their rites allowed.
A review of "Berber Culture on the World Stage: From Village to Video" by Jane E.Goodman
(VWB - Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 2006) Langlois, Tony
Based upon field research amongst the Kabyle "Berber" communities of Algeria and Paris, Goodman's book succeeds elegantly in the daunting task of drawing together a very wide range of materials and experiences in a unified, compelling argument. Berber Culture on the World Stage is centrally concerned with the negotiation of identity through music, dance, lan- guage and other social institutions. This process is shown to operate in various cultural spaces and in several geographical locations simultaneously. For example, whilst ' Amazigh ' lan- guage activists in Tizi Ouzou demand recognition of linguistic rights within an officially "arabist" Algerian state, and others use theatre to challenge the established oligarchy of village councils, so their counterparts (and close relatives) in Paris strive for "progressive" social or- ganizations which are more inclusive of women than traditional structures allow.
‘Don’t tell me I’m still on that feckin’ island’: migration, masculinity, British television and Irish popular culture in the work of Graham Linehan (Pre-published version)
(Sage, 2015) Free, Marcus
The article examines how, through such means as interviews and DVD commentaries, television situation comedy writer Graham Linehan has discursively elaborated a distinctly migrant masculine identity as an Irish writer in London. It highlights his stress on how the working environment of British broadcasting and the tutelage of senior British broadcasters facilitated the satirical vision of Ireland in Father Ted. It focuses on the gendering of his narrative of becoming in London and how his suggestion of interplays between specific autobiographical details and his dramatic work have fuelled his public profile as a migrant Irish writer.
Diego Maradona and the psychodynamics of football fandom in international cinema (Pre-published version)
(Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2014) Free, Marcus
Taking a psychoanalytic approach, the article examines and compares how three films explore the psychodynamic processes of fan investment in Argentine former football star Diego Maradona. These films illustrate how his meaning as an international cultural icon is refracted by specific fan experiences and fantasies, and are variously informed by, and critically explore, the myths of virtual death, resurrection, redemption and geopolitical opposition to global capitalism associated with him. In the 2007 British documentary In the Hands of the Gods, five ‘freestyle’ footballers from the UK embark on a pilgrimage to his home. Their geographical movement through North and South America is presented as an opportunity for psychological rebirth and self-realisation through their affinity with him as a supremely gifted individual, rather than a representative of the disciplined world of team sport and its international rivalries. The 2006 Argentine road movie El Camino de San Diego ironically depicts its fan protagonist’s obsession with Maradona as a misguidedly narcissistic distraction from a geographically fractured and enduringly economically weak post-crisis Argentina. Finally, Emir Kusturica’s 2008 movie Maradona by Kusturica reflexively explores how Maradona’s enigma and contradictions as an object of fan investment and political figure of redemption confound his attempts to explain him. Kusturica’s fantasies return inevitably to himself, raising the possibility that ‘Maradona’ may be a ‘neutrosemic’, or inherently meaningless, fan text.
Failure, guilt, confession, redemption? Revisiting unpublished research through a psychosocial lens (Pre-published version)
(The Association for Psychological Studies, 2017) Free, Marcus
This article offers some critical reflections on a case of failure to bring a qualitative research project to completion and publication earlier in the author’s career. Possible explanations are considered in light of insights derived from the ‘psychosocial’ turn in qualitative research associated particularly with Hollway and Jefferson’s Doing Qualitative Research Differently (2001/2013). The project was an interview-based study of the life experiences of middle aged and older Irish emigrants in England, conducted in the late 1990s in Birmingham and Manchester. The article considers the failure as a possible psychic defence against the anxiety that completion and publication would be a betrayal of the interviewees, many of whom described experiences distressing to themselves and the interviewer. The psychoanalytic concepts of ‘transference’ and ‘countertransference’ are used to speculate as to the role of the unconscious at work in the interview encounters and how, despite class and generational differences, psychodynamic fantasies relating to both interviewees’ and interviewer’s migration histories and experiences may have impacted upon each other.
‘Smart, clued-in guys’: Irish rugby players as sporting celebrities in post-Celtic Tiger Irish media (Pre-published version)
(Intellect, 2018) Free, Marcus
Ireland’s ‘Celtic Tiger’ economic boom ended with the 2008 global financial crisis. There followed a series of severe ‘austerity’ budgets and public service pay deals involving cuts in public service provision and employment reform. These were accompanied by approving Irish media narratives of atonement for Celtic Tiger ‘excess’ and, more recently, of corresponding ‘recovery’ through collective and individual discipline and entrepreneurial endeavour. This article focuses on the interplay between Irish media narratives of austerity and recovery and constructions of gender, class and national identity in representations of rugby players as celebrities. It explores how elite players have been presented as exemplary of the neoliberal management of physical and economic risk, and how the repeated focus on successful struggles with diet and injury and post-career educational and business investments highlights their optimising of the physical and social capital afforded by celebrity status. The emphasis on discipline and ‘smart’ economic management chimes with the hegemonic political and media discourse of ‘no alternative’ government austerity, and with economic recovery through individual acceptance of responsibility.
Envy, guilt, symbolic reparation and images of whiteness in contemporary Hollywood sport themed films
(FA [Free Associations], 2015) Free, Marcus
Taking a primarily Kleinian psychoanalytic approach, the article first examines how the Rocky series of boxing films (1976-2006) illustrates the displacement of a problematic of downward economic mobility onto race in contemporary Hollywood cinema. The theme of white man as innocent casualty of a society that rewards style over substance evinces an enduring envy of the exalted status of the ‘black athlete’, who in these films is taught a moral lesson in ‘heart’ and commitment. At the psychodynamic core of their narratives is an embedded, but disguised envy of the supposedly natural ability of African American athletes. His defeat in the ring enables the redemption of the white protagonist and, figuratively, the white working class community he represents. The article then considers how more ostensibly liberal and reflexive films, which acknowledge and explore the psychodynamics of racial envy and resentment, might be seen as a form of symbolic Kleinian ‘reparation’. It is argued, however, that these films tend to privilege the enlightenment, learning and capacity for empathy of their white characters. Superior psychological complexity reproduces a racial hierarchy that the narrative challenges. Even films that highlight and problematise whiteness as constructed through envy of the ‘black’ other share this hierarchisation by distinguishing ‘good’ from ‘bad’ white people, or by associating whiteness with cleverness and dissimulation, or with lost innocence, boyhood, tradition and community. The films considered here are The Hurricane (1999), O (2001) and The Fan (1996).
Secularization in Ireland: Analyzing the relationship between religiosity and demographic variables in Ireland from the European Social Survey 2002-2012 (Pre-published version)
(Common Ground Research Networks, 2014) Breen, Michael J.; Healy, Amy
This research will explore both of these theories, secularization and existential (in)security, within Ireland against the backdrop of the recent economic crisis of 2008 using the first five rounds of the European Social Survey.
Homilies for July (C) (Pre-published version)
(The Furrow, 1998) Breen, Michael J.
Homilies for April (Pre-published version)
(The Furrow, 1993) Breen, Michael J.
Maternity services in the Irish mass media: an analysis of media content from 2007–2012
(BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2013) Breen, Michael J.; Devereux, Eoin; Marron, Aileen; Burke, Gerard
The mass media play a key role in informing the public about matters of public interest and, critically, in the actual shaping of public opinion about those matters. With this in mind, the purpose of this study was to examine Irish media content and the manner in which it portrays the maternity services in Ireland.
Language Change and Ideology in Irish Radio Advertising
(Dublin Institute of Technology, 2016-11) O'Sullivan, Joan
Language ideologies have been defined as ‘sets of representations through which language is imbued with cultural meaning for a certain community’. These representations can be seen as ‘ways of understanding the world that emerge from interaction with particular (public) representations of it’ (Cameron, 2003: 447-448). Therefore, language ideologies emerge from the way language is represented, particularly in the public sphere. More specifically, the relationship between the media and ideologies of language has been well researched and documented (Spitulnik, 1998; Johnson and Ensslin, 2007; Coupland, 2010). In relation to the medium of radio, Spitulnik (1998) points out that this medium has a role in the establishment of language ideologies and is in turn shaped by such ideologies. Coupland observes the influence of the mass media on ‘the evaluative and ideological worlds in which language variation exists in late modernity’ (2010: 56, 69). Turning more specifically to the area of advertising in the media, because advertisers are required to reflect the attitudes and aspirations of their audience, the analysis of advertising can function as a way of ‘taking the ideological temperature’ in a particular society (Vestergaard and Schroder, 1985: 120). Similarly, Lee (1992: 171) sees advertisements as ‘the meeting place of many different ways of speaking’, which reflect the discursive practices of the society in which they function. Lee’s research illustrates not only how advertisements echo ways of speaking in a particular society, but also highlights ideological dimensions of language use in advertising.
Standard Southern British English as referee design in Irish radio advertising
(Linguistics Journal, 2016) O'Sullivan, Joan
The exploitation of external as opposed to local language varieties in advertising can be associated with a history of colonization, the external variety being viewed as superior to the local (Bell 1991: 145). Although “Standard English” in terms of accent was never an exonormative model for speakers in Ireland (Hickey 2012), nevertheless Ireland’s history of colonization by Britain, together with the geographical proximity and close socio-political and sociocultural connections of the two countries makes the Irish context an interesting one in which to examine this phenomenon. This study looks at how and to what extent standard British Received Pronunciation (RP), now termed Standard Southern British English (SSBE) (see Hughes et al. 2012) as opposed to Irish English varieties is exploited in radio advertising in Ireland. The study is based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of a corpus of ads broadcast on an Irish radio station in the years 1977, 1987, 1997 and 2007. The use of SSBE in the ads is examined in terms of referee design (Bell 1984) which has been found to be a useful concept in explaining variety choice in the advertising context and in “taking the ideological temperature” of society (Vestergaard and Schroder 1985: 121). The analysis is based on Sussex’s (1989) advertisement components of Action and Comment, which relate to the genre of the discourse.
Diaspora and Rootedness, Amateurism and Professionalism in Media Discourses of Irish Soccer and Rugby in the 1990s and 2000s
(Irish-American Cultural Institute, 2013) Free, Marcus
This article explores the tensions between conceptualizations of the nation in terms of diaspora and rootedness, and between amateurism and professionalism, in Irish media discourses of Irish soccer and rugby in the 1990s and 2000s. Given the article’s broad scope and limited space, detailed theoretical elaboration and extensive examination of discursive data will not be possible. Rather, the article offers a tentative overview of how these tensions have been manifested in Irish print and broadcast media, and of how they have evinced fantasies and anxieties about sporting achievement as indicative of collective national achievement.
Keeping Them Under Pressure: Masculinity, Narratives of National Regeneration and the Republic of Ireland Soccer Team
(Routledge, 2005) Free, Marcus
Since 1988 the Republic of Ireland soccer team has been cast, in Irish media, as both symbol and material example of social, economic and cultural regeneration in Ireland. This paper argues that such claims are narrative discursive constructions, ways of collectively imagining national identity and interpreting recent social change by elevating individuals within the national team to the status of heroic national representatives and conjunctural markers of the tension between tradition and modernity. Two versions of this narrative are identified. The first is the construction of the team in terms of a narrative of postcolonial national ‘becoming’, which characterised the early years of Jack Charlton’s managerial reign, Charlton himself being the key symbolic figure. The second is the more recent figuring of the team as symbol and example of the recent ‘Celtic Tiger’ economic boom, the key player in which was Roy Keane. In both narratives, aggressively competitive masculinity is romanticised as a gauge of national achievement, and narrative progression is figured as the progressive displacement of outmoded masculinities by new forms. The interplay of constructions of national identity and masculinity reflects the interdependency and contingency of both forms of collective identity.
The rise of secularism and the decline of religiosity in Ireland: the pattern of religious change in Europe
(Common Ground Publishing, 2011) Breen, Michael J.; Reynolds, Caillin
The European Values Study is a pan-European project which utilises an omnibus survey focusing especially on values associated with work, religion, lifestyles and other issues. Its most recent data gathering exercise was in 2008, the fourth of its kind. This study focuses on changing religious values in Ireland over the span of the EVS (1981-2008) and examines the rise in secularism and the rapid decrease in church participation, which brings Ireland much close to European norms. The data to hand suggest a variety of important social questions: If religious and social values and attitudes are changing, what are the implications for Irish society? As we become an increasingly educated society in quantifiable terms, what is happening to our value and belief systems? Does the erosion of church practice mean the erosion of values or are we simply witnessing transference of allegiance from institutions to self? Some commentators suggest that reduction of care and concern for others, a reduced sense of God, and a minimised approach to things religious, allied with a rise in liberalism, are not of themselves harbingers of prosperity and joy for society; the opposite they contend is true, and will result in decreased happiness and increased alienation. Is it incontrovertible that Ireland will be different in the future, that the social map will have very different contours, especially in relation to institutional religion. As the Irish let go of things deeply rooted in their culture and tradition, is this simply a matter of becoming a mature nation amongst the nations of Europe?
Introduction: non-western popular music
(Ashgate, 2011) Langlois, Tony

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