Why is Wales treated differently?
The referendum may be over but the waters are far from calmed. Both sides are still effectively at each other’s throats if Facebook and Twitter is anything to go by, and the consequences of Brexit are...
View ArticleThe BBC and Wales – Time To Deliver
Lord Hall, Director General of the BBC, this morning has a session with the Assembly’s Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee (CWLC). And so…? And so this, in itself, demonstrates a...
View ArticleThe BBC’s portrayal of Wales and the Welsh
His State Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest: This month the Director General of the BBC appeared before the Assembly’s Culture, Welsh...
View ArticleWaiting for the Money – Funding English language TV in Wales
Sodom and Gomorrah came to mind as I watched the Assembly’s Culture, Welsh Language and Culture Committee’s scrutiny session with Lord Tony Hall last month. The Director General of the BBC proved...
View ArticleThe BBC and Wales’ information deficit
Wales has a serious problem with its media. Of course, the UK as a whole is hardly a paragon in this regard, with its rabid tabloid press out to distort and manipulate at every turn. Yet Wales suffers...
View ArticleWe need European regulation of Facebook and Google
Last month, Facebook sent me a link to a video they had made of my activity on their site over the last year. To my mind, that was more proof, if any were needed, that Facebook is a media company,...
View ArticleOpening up the Assembly….
In September, it will be twenty years since the people of Wales voted, by a small majority, to have their own National Assembly. It’s the only political institution the people of Wales have voted to...
View ArticleBig Ambitions in “The Big Picture”
Any report whose first word is ‘Although’ is usually heading for a ‘Nevertheless’. ‘Although’ signals an intention to strike out beyond, or push ahead despite, some obstacle, towards a goal that...
View ArticleOnline Welsh-language journalism: A second ‘golden age’?
One of the topics under scrutiny at the Institute of Welsh Affairs Media Summit on 29th March will be how can the media best serve the Welsh language community. The discussion will no doubt focus to an...
View ArticleRwy’n gwrthod talu fy ffi drwydded nes bod darlledu yn cael ei ddatganoli
Mae rhywbeth mawr o’i le ar y cyfryngau yng Nghymru. Mae cipolwg ar ystadegau moel y sefyllfa yn adrodd cyfrolau. Mae yna doriadau o 40% i gyllideb S4C ers 2010. Mae’r oriau darlledu hynny gan ITV...
View ArticleHow can devolved politics be more effectively communicated?
In 1999 UK politics dramatically changed with the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Major areas of policy such as health and education have now been devolved, with distinct...
View ArticleOur digital democracy
Devolution’s birth coincided with that of digital television. In a pamphlet published in 1999 by the Wales Media Forum, Not by Bread Alone, Geraint Talfan Davies, then controller of BBC Wales, hoped...
View ArticleArts Broadcasting in Wales: An Invisible Nation?
Last year an estimated 35,000 people descended on the streets of Cardiff in celebration of the centenary of one of Wales’ literary greats, Roald Dahl. Taking place over a weekend in September, City of...
View ArticleAccess and Opportunity in Wales’ creative screen industries – Making Wales count
The challenge of tackling the lack of diverse representation across the UK’s workforce in the creative screen industries is at the top of the agenda for industry organisations and policymakers alike....
View ArticleWorking in Commercial Radio in Wales
Within Nation Broadcasting we often talk about how we have ‘grown up’ in the past few years. Since 2001 the company has grown from a single start up with Radio Pembrokeshire to a group comprising 17...
View ArticleBuilding Capacity and Agility in the Workforce – a provocation
When I came back to Wales to start Ffilm Cymru Wales just over ten years ago, there had been very little in the way of sustained filmmaking activity in the nation in contrast to a thriving television...
View ArticleITV Wales fights back
Last week ITV Cymru Wales won a prestigious award. This is significant for two reasons. The Aberfan Young Wives’ Club is a moving documentary about the infamous disaster told through the eyes of seven...
View ArticleTV Writing for Wales: The cultural dividend is within our grasp
Last Friday, more than 150 writers gathered at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff for a new festival that sits at the heart of the BBC’s plans to improve the way we reflect the whole of the UK on...
View ArticleThe future of media in Wales: policy challenges
Representing Wales: funding and portrayal of Wales by PSBs Both the BBC and S4C (a Welsh-language public-service television channel located in Cardiff) have endured substantial funding cuts since 2010...
View ArticleBroadcasting and devolution in the general election
According to Theresa May, the general election was triggered by Brexit and the UK’s ongoing negotiations with the EU. However, our latest research of television news coverage shows that, while Brexit...
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