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.
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.
From the many strands in the Government Green Paper on BBC Charter Renewal I’d like to tease out two. A failure to convince the UK that these strands are vital parts of the broadcasting web, and not mere loose ends, will cost us dear in Wales.
A WORKSHOP for CARDIFF UNIVERSITY GRADUATE COLLEGE
11TH February
This is the fourth year I’ve presented this 3-hour workshop. I designed it as a contribution towards bridging the gap between the media and academia. I believe it still to be an unusual offer amongst university training because media training offered to academics is usually in the area of short-form and news-related input, not in long-form documentary. Between these two forms there are significant differences in working practice for journalists and, from the academics’ perspective, the skills needed to have a happy time as a contributor to a documentary are different to those that will produce a snappy sound-bite.
Academia and the media are two worlds which can intersect very fruitfully. However, when they don’t understand each other’s priorities and practices there are sometimes tears before bedtime.
By using the most advanced testing in the world to sample the DNA of the modern population of Wales, we can trace the story of an ancient people far beyond the limits of written records.
a joint RTS / Cardiff University School of Journalism (JOMEC) event
Contributors:
Professor Justin Lewis and Llion Iwan, Content Commissioner, Factual and Sport, S4C Consumerism, the hidden driver behind all TV production?
Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen and Ashok Ahir, of Communications Agency, mela; former Head of Politics, BBC Cymru Wales Impartiality and representation of opinion on TV news
Dr Cindy Carter and Huw Foulkes, Broadcast Journalist, Ffeil & Newyddion 9, BBC Cymru What TV news provision does the younger teen audience want?
Dr Ross Garner and Mike Talbot, Series Editor, Wales This Week, ITV Wales Producing the ‘Mainstream’ in Wales
Professor Jenny Kitzinger and Erika Hossington, Series Producer, Casualty, BBC Cymru Wales How can TV drama represent family experiences of long term ‘coma’?
Dr Cindy Carter, Llion Iwan, Dr Ross Garner, Erika Hossington, Prof Jenny Kitzinger,
Ashok Ahir
Prof Justin Lewis, Mike Talbot, Angela Graham, Huw Foulkes
An enjoyable and thought-provoking event resulting in 3 on-going partnerships:
Prof Jenny Kitzinger and Erika Hossington: a potential new storyline involving coma next year for ‘Casualty’.
Dr Ross Garner and Mike Talbot: collaboration on producing tv in Wales for the mainstream.
Dr Cindy Carter and Huw Foulkes: collaboration on News for young teenagers.
“There are now plans to reflect adverts off the moon,” said Professor Justin Lewis as he argued that all television is ultimately driven by a hidden consumerism. That was just one of the many insights gained as the Wales Centre paired academics with television professionals for one-to-one dialogue and debate at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies.
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen reported that the BBC is still trapped in a two major party world when it comes to political reporting, while Jenny Kitzinger told us that the portrayal of people in a coma in hospital drama is not only wrong but actually misleads the public. Other subjects discussed included news provision for the younger teen audience and an attempt to define what the ‘mainstream’ means within commercial British television.
Mike Talbot from ITV Wales said that cage fighting and cuts to council services were both current and mainstream, but that only one was really popular with audiences. So which programme offered true public service broadcasting? As the academics would say – discuss! Tim Hartley
Television is the British public’s main source of knowledge about science. On network television, science is an established and popular part of the viewing menu, yet in Wales, apart from ecology and nature programmes, science is seldom commissioned for the small screen.
Elis Owen, Llion Iwan, Elin Rhys, Hywel Wiliam, Wendy Sadler, Prof. Julie Williams
S4C ended a long dearth this year with science series, Dibendraw, so will English-language television follow suit? Does the scarcity of TV science in Wales affect public attitudes to the funding of research and to science education? Does it confirm that the Welsh are not a nation of scientists?
The panel debated the role of science on Welsh television and the role of television in Welsh science.
The fifty people who attended were left in no doubt of the passionate commitment in all three areas of expertise: scientists, programme makers and tv commissioners – but also of the clearly expressed appreciation of, and need for, more opportunities for science and the media to understand each other better. Continue reading Science on Television in Wales→
44 mini-documentaries, Welsh and English – Welsh history for schools 7 – 16 years; presenter, Huw Edwards. A Green Bay Media Production for Welsh Government
View More from this Provider. Interactive Timeline of Welsh History.
The CEWN TV Documentary Project is a study of the methodologies of academic and media research with Academic Partner, Jayne Hall (Senior Lecturer, Design Theory, University of South Wales). This was part of an AHRC – A4B/Welsh Government project linking creative academics and businesses in Wales. Funded by Creative Crucible.
This project aims to explore the methodologies of academic and mediaresearch in order to assess whether there are principles in each which could positively affect the other’s practice. The aim is to lead to improved Research Impact and Public Engagement on the one hand and, on the other, to better application of academic research in the broadcast media. Both methodologies will be brought to bear collaboratively on an under-explored episode in Wales’s recent history – the ‘Brown Babies’ story – to produce, ultimately, a proposal for a TV documentary. Continue reading CEWN TV Documentary Project→
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