Postgraduate Researchers

PhD Research Student - Media

Project Title: The Power of the Storyteller: Irish Screen Stories as Tools for Socialisation and Critical Media Literacy  

Project Abstract: 

This research examines how storytelling in Irish television is shaped by structures of production and how these stories function as mechanisms of socialisation and critical media literacy. It considers how narratives are developed, mediated, and received within Irish screen industries. 

Situated across screen studies, screen production studies, and cultural studies, this research centres on key decision-making roles within television production. These are the spaces where creative and editorial authority is exercised. Attention is paid to the presence and influence of underrepresented professionals in positions of creative, editorial, and institutional decision-making, and how their inclusion, or absence, shapes both the stories that are told and how they are told.

Using a qualitative and practice-based approach, this research engages with both content and discourse analysis to examine how storytelling contributes to the reinforcement of societal norms and the development of critical media literacy. It considers how audiences come to understand and interpret media through repeated narrative structures, representations, and industry practices. 

To develop and test these ideas, the project is undertaken as a PhD by practice. This includes the development of a television series set in Ireland. This creative work operates as both a site of inquiry and a means of demonstrating how alternative approaches to storytelling and production might contribute to more critically engaged approaches within television production. 

Supervisors: Dr Caroline O’ Sullivan and Dr Mary Ann Bolger

Funder: Research Ireland 

Researcher Bio: 

Rose Ugoalah is a PhD researcher and Assistant Lecturer (HPAL) in the School of Media. Her research, The Power of the Storyteller: Irish Screen Stories as Tools for Socialisation and Critical Media Literacy, is funded by Research Ireland and examines how storytelling in Irish television is shaped by structures of production and how these narratives function as mechanisms of socialisation and critical media literacy.  

  Her work focuses on decision-making roles within television production, with particular attention to the influence of underrepresented media professionals. Situated across screen studies, screen production studies, and cultural studies, her project adopts a practice-based approach through the development of an original television series.  

  Rose holds an M.Phil (First Class Honours) in Creative Writing from the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing at Trinity College Dublin, and a BA (First Class Honours) in Journalism and Visual Media from Griffith College Dublin.  

 She has a forthcoming book chapter on her practice-based research and is a writer working across television, film, and prose, with credits including continuing drama on RTÉ. She has received multiple awards and residencies for her creative work.