Category Archives: Portfolio

The Politics of Celtic Media – Get Your Facts Straight

Blog, Media, Portfolio, PortfolioTelevision, Television

During this year’s Celtic Media Festival in Dungarvan I was on a panel about factual tv.  I took immediate issue with the assumption behind the session’s brief – The most prolific and successful genre in the Celtic nations is factual, both in English and in the indigenous languages. Is  factual prolific and what is the measure of success? But further, I question the festival’s decision to ignore the biggest challenge to the factual genre – adequate media policy.

Crumlin RTÉ 1 Best Factual Series

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Future of PSB TV Inquiry – Wales

Blog, PortfolioTelevision, Television

PSB Television in a digital world – what’s the recipe for Wales?

On April 6th there was a chance to get Welsh voices on the record at the session for Wales of David Puttnam’s Future of PSB TV Inquiry. The event was hosted by Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. This independent inquiry is gathering evidence from around the UK and will report in June.

I spoke for the Institute of Welsh Affairs alongside Angharad Mair (Tinopolis, BAFTA Cymru), Huw Jones (S4C), Rhys Evans (BBC Cymru Wales) and Ian McKenzie (Nations and Regions, Channel 4).

See Future of TV Inquiry  – Content and Platforms in a Digital Age

“The Inquiry has been set up to consider the nature, purpose and place of public service television today and for the future. It aims to address how public service content can be most effectively nurtured taking into consideration a range of services, platforms and funding models. Continue reading Future of PSB TV Inquiry – Wales →

Merthyr Meirionnydd – A Welsh Martyr

Blog, Portfolio, PortfolioTelevision, Producer

“Here’s a man who plays hide and seek with the secret police and cuts his prison cell bars to escape as he faces the gallows”, says Guto Harri in this 60-minute documentary about St John Roberts (repeated on Sunday, 3rd April at 10pm on S4C with English sub-titles). “He acts more like James Bond than a saint. The issues underlying the history are echoed today, dealing as they do with someone considered to be a religious extremist, living abroad and considered a threat to the very fabric of the state.”

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Debating the BBC (and more!) in Wales

Blog, Industry, Media, Portfolio, PortfolioTelevision

Broadcasting in Wales: the Future of the BBC Charter, an event organised by the Wales Governance Centre. will scrutinise the future of the BBC in Wales (6pm Tuesday 15th March, Millennium Centre, Cardiff).

At a time when the future of the BBC’s Charter is being debated in public, and with politicians in Cardiff Bay  and Westminster looking at the future of the media, this is a crucial time for broadcasting in Wales. This event will look at the key topics emerging from these debates and how they might influence the future of the BBC in Wales. Continue reading Debating the BBC (and more!) in Wales →

Fear and Faith – Radio Wales

Portfolio, PortfolioRadio, Radio, Uncategorized

I was a guest on ‘All Things Considered’, going out on BBC Radio Wales on Sunday 13th March at 9am here. The topic was Fear.  Also in the discussion were Dr Richard Hain, a specialist in Paediatric Palliative Care; Shereen Williams, Director of the Henna Foundation and the Jesuit, Fr Roger Donovan, Director of St Beuno’s Ignatian Spirituality Centre. Continue reading Fear and Faith – Radio Wales →

Pitch Your Ideas Workshop

Industry, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint, PortfolioTelevision, Uncategorized

I never fail to be impressed by how well participants in this workshop grasp the pitching principles I offer. I am convinced that most people are aware of what it takes to make a good sales pitch but perhaps have not had the opportunity to pull what they know together and also to reach for the sales person hidden inside each of us. And it’s fun – as you can see  in the photograph above – happy faces at the end of the workshop I delivered on 10th March! Continue reading Pitch Your Ideas Workshop →

ACS & DOCS Cardiff University

Portfolio, PortfolioTelevision, Teaching, Television

Another fascinating group of people on my workshop for academics about involvement in tv documentary on 1st March.

This three-hour session for Cardiff University Graduate College covers what an academic needs to know about how tv documentary gets developed, commissioned and made and how academics can contribute successfully and enjoyably. Universities commonly offer training in how to engage with news via sound-bites but seldom on what it means to be involved in long-form output or series.

The feedback was uniformly excellent.

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Small World: Coverage of International Issues WCIA

Blog, Dialogue, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint, Print

photo credit: Emyr Jenkins

On December 3rd the Welsh Centre for International Affairs hosted an excellent joint event with Cardiff University School of Journalism about reporting on international news stories. I was keen to hear from the panel  of very experienced journalists and it was indeed a treat to have them all in Cardiff for the evening as they certainly did give us entertaining and valuable insights into their field of expertise in both broadcasting and the press. See reports below from Maria Diaz and William Hayward.

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