Yearly Archives: 2017

A New Normal – BBC Religion & Ethics Review

The BBC’s Review of its Religion and Ethics output and programme-making practice has important immediate and long-term implications. I want to focus not so much on what programmes will get made as a result of its findings but on the change to media culture that I believe will follow from the implementation of its decisions.

This change will be seen in:

*the training of journalists of the future;

*the rising prominence of religious literacy as a concept, as a skill worth cultivating and an essential tool of self-understanding and of any claim to be an interpreter of the times;

*the development of a type of ‘belief literacy’, beyond religious literacy and well beyond the BBC.

The Review has launched a set of new norms, along with a raft of new means of consolidating and progressing them.

Mark Friend, who led the Review process, facilitating the roundtable consultation in Cardiff

Continue reading A New Normal – BBC Religion & Ethics Review

The Chimes – Dickens for our times

Don’t miss ‘The Chimes’ in its London run from 19th – 30th December. This staging of Charles Dickens’ second ‘Christmas Book’ as musical theatre is strikingly confident in its mix of professional actors and ‘an ensemble of men and women who have been homeless and are re-building their lives’.

The high quality of the songs  by Conor Linehan with musical direction by Cathal Synnott plus their excellent delivery by a well-drilled cast make this a real treat.

Trotty Veck (Matthew Jure) & Meg (Lucy Benson Brown)

The script, while staying close to the original story,  blends in contemporary resonances a-plenty. Continue reading The Chimes – Dickens for our times

The Hidden Story: Understanding Knowledge Exchange Partnerships within the Creative Economy

The Hidden Story: universities & knowledge exchange in the creative industries published its report on 4th December. There are many implications for Wales. As the report states:

‘The Creative Industries are a significant sector for the success of the UK economy contributing £87.4bn GVA in 2015 (DCMS). It is therefore important that we use the research funds allocated to university support for this sector (over £46 million in 2015) as effectively as possible. To do this, we must understand the distinctive nature of knowledge exchange relationships between universities and enterprises within this sector. ‘

The Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations at USW was the main Case Study from Wales. Continue reading The Hidden Story: Understanding Knowledge Exchange Partnerships within the Creative Economy

TV Commissioning: Demand & Supply

For decades I have, without knowing it, been walking past the place where Broadcasting in Wales began. It launched on 13th February 1923  in the building that’s now a NISA store, opposite Cardiff Castle. I spotted the commemorative plaque only recently.

Mostyn Thomas sings ‘Dafydd Y Garreg Wen’ in the first BBC broadcast from Wales, 1923

Continue reading TV Commissioning: Demand & Supply