DL929 - MA Media Narratives
+ Storytelling

What is Media Narratives + Storytelling?

Do you work in the creative and cultural industries and need to upskill in content production? Would you like to learn the audio and visual skills for making catchy videos and engaging podcasts? Have you a flair for writing and would like to develop this narratively and for storytelling in a range of media forms? This is the MA for you.

Are you curious about the role narrative and storytelling plays in our culture and society? Would you like to delve deep into history and across a range of media to explore critically and creatively the field of storytelling?

This course will equip you with the technical ability to navigate new media forms; to explore your own expression in diverse ways in this creative space; and the critical skills to reflect, test, discard, develop and complete all forms of your storytelling expression.

Who is the MA in Media Narratives + Storytelling for?

This course is for:

• Practitioners working in the creative and cultural industries who want to know more about new media and storytelling and want to produce content in a diverse and cutting edge environment. This could be a journalist who produces videos for online platforms; somebody working in a cultural organisation such as a gallery, a theatre or a museum who needs to develop storytelling skills for a variety of communication platforms; those working in film, art, literary or theatre festivals who produce content as part of their social media communications and online platforms and / or creative professionals (writers, filmmakers, etc.) who require skills for professional promotion reasons.
• Recent graduates seeking a career specialism with an interest in short form narrative production. These graduates are likely to be from humanities, social science, business and arts disciplines but may also be from engineering, architecture or IT whereby they seek to develop their creative and critical communication skills.

What modules will I study?

• Narrative Traditions, Theories + Concepts – explore narrative theory as a tool of analysis for structure and form in a historical context.
• Narrative Genres + Forms – study short films, short stories, flash-fiction and podcasts.
• Contemporary Screen Narratives  – explore changes in narrative form and content in contemporary screen media.
• Narrative Production Techniques – the grammar of film, television and media production, particularly questions of narrative, storytelling, framing, composition, movement, editing, sound and lighting.
• Non-fiction Narratives – creative non-fiction, micro-docs, folklore + spoken word, and ways in which these work as narrative forms and creative constructs.
• Creative Use of Archives – a workshop-based module to explore the potential offered in digitised archives for the creative practitioner.
• Narrative Publishing + Portfolios – explore the stage you will go from completing a piece of work to accessing an audience, providing a bridge from study to work.
• Final Narrative Project – produce a project comprising a significant narrative production in your preferred medium together with a critical production report.

Future Careers

Graduates may work as a Content Writer and Editor, Video Content Specialist, Multimedia Co-Ordinator, Social Media Manager, Communications Officer, or in the Creative and Cultural Industries in video and podcast production.

Testimonials

‘This much-needed MA in Media Narratives and Storytelling will be greatly valued by published authors who increasingly require an online presence to promote their work and lack the skills to provide it.’ Derek Landy, author of Skulduggery Pleasant Series, (HarperCollins: 2007-2014).

‘This unique course will provide students with invaluable training on how to convert their abilities into a range of imaginative narrative forms. There is a wealth of untapped, original material in Irish archives that is ripe for creative use in visual and literary formats. This MA will be welcomed by creative students and professionals alike and provide them with the necessary skills to break into new markets in a stimulating environment.’ Dr. Barbara Hughes, author of Between Literature and History: The Diaries and Memoirs of Mary Leadbeater and Dorothea Herbert (Reimagining Ireland Palgrave: 2010).