On 14th December Hywel Wiliam and I gave evidence to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee inquiry into broadcasting in Wales on behalf of the IWA.
Our written evidence submitted in advance.
Category Archives: Portfolio
Commissioning for Television – University of South Wales
On the University of South Wales BA Hons Media Culture and Journalism I led a workshop on Commissioning for Television as part of the Contemporary Popular Television module. 20th November 2015
Continue reading Commissioning for Television – University of South Wales
Gen Verde – On the Other Side
All Things Considered Radio Wales – Gen Verde On the Other Side
Roy Jenkins interviews the members of the Gen Verde performance group who spent a week with pupils from two secondary schools in Torfaen preparing them for a concert at the Newport Centre on 12th November. Impressive contributions to the programme from the young people about this experience of seeing life from someone else’s point of view. It was a privilege to help organise this fantastic project.
The Wales Report – Broadcasting in Wales
On the day of the IWA’s Cardiff Media Summit I fronted an analysis of the challenges facing broadcasting in Wales shown on The Wales Report BBC One Wales ahead of Huw Edwards’s interview with BBC Director of Strategy, James Purnell.
BBC ‘committed’ to Welsh broadcasting BBC News
See article on IWA Audit and associated issues:
Analysis – IWA Wales Media Audit BBC News
S4C ‘cycle of decline’ funding fear BBC News
‘Lamentable’ lack of BBC Wales TV programmes in English BBC News
What’s in it for Wales? Tony Hall’s new BBC
“This is the story I want to focus on this evening.” said Tony Hall, Director General of the BBC in a speech given to Cardiff Business Club on Monday 23rd November. “The BBC as a home for distinctive quality and creativity, supporting the best talent and brightest ambition – a driving force behind the UK’s extraordinary global competitiveness in the creative industries.”
Continue reading What’s in it for Wales? Tony Hall’s new BBC
Television from Small Nations – Internationalisation
How big is ‘small’ in terms of a nation? And to what extent should size determine the value of a culture? Or should cultural value be kept separate from political clout? These questions matter increasingly in many arenas but on 16th November I spent a day at the first of three University of South Wales workshops with people who address them in terms of tv. It was fascinating and inspiring.
I loved the trailer we were shown by the producer of Norskov, a new Nordic detective story set in a fictional regional town in Denmark. A cheerful character addresses a huge, jovial crowd:
“Some people say Norskov’s out on the edge. I guess they don’t know the world’s round!”
Roars of approval.
The centre is where you are, is the message. Because you matter. Your culture. Your place. Your language. You are the hub of the universe. Continue reading Television from Small Nations – Internationalisation
DNA Cymru – Cyfres Series
Mae Cymru DNA Wales yn brosiect aml-gyfrwng sydd ag uchelgais mawr – dim llai nac ateb yr hen gwestiwn: o ble daeth y Cymry?
Who are the Welsh? What links us to the rest of the world? And what sets us apart? Continue reading DNA Cymru – Cyfres Series
IWA Wales Media Audit and Cardiff Media Summit
“get reading this thorough and classy piece of work”
I had the pleasure of chairing the second Cardiff Media Summit on the 11th November at the Wales Millennium Centre. The first summit was held in December 2014, a half-day event. It was clear then that in order to address the problems and take advantage of the opportunities facing the media in Wales there was an urgent need for objective facts as the basis for policy recommendations. Just under a year later we have the IWA Wales Media Audit 2015 , launched at the summit.
This is an update to the Media Audit done by the IWA in 2008. The 2015 Audit offers information about provision in Wales of press, online and broadcast media, includes a review of all major policy statements since the last audit and, drawing on the information gathered, makes 37 recommendations. Continue reading IWA Wales Media Audit and Cardiff Media Summit
Is the BBC Trust getting the message from Wales?
The BBC Trust held a seminar in Cardiff ‘as part of the Charter review process’ on 20th October. It was open to the public but the majority of those present were media workers, academics or correspondents. The Western Mail report on it is accurate but conveys nothing of the atmosphere among the attendees which was, at times, mutinous and, finally, outspokenly critical. These sore spots have to be examined or they will go on festering to no good purpose.
Continue reading Is the BBC Trust getting the message from Wales?
Beyond Rhetoric – IWA Media Policy for Wales
“as slow to be set on fire as a stomach”
I wondered, while listening to Rhodri Talfan Davies speak this week on two occasions at the National Eisteddfod, if some version of that sentiment ever entered his mind. It certainly entered mine. It’s a striking phrase coined by George Eliot to express her frustration at her contemporaries’ failure to grasp the spirit of the times. How slow we are – those of us not touched by genius such as hers ̶ to see the writing on the cultural wall in front of us. A new dispensation is coming and we need the ideas to meet it.
Continue reading Beyond Rhetoric – IWA Media Policy for Wales