Media in Wales

The media in Wales provides services for people in both English and Welsh, and plays an important role in modern Welsh culture. BBC Wales broadcasts since the 1930s have helped to promote a form of standardised spoken Welsh, [The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press 2008] and one historian has argued that the concept of Wales as a single national entity owes much to modern broadcasting. [Davies, J. (1994) "Broadcasting and the BBC in Wales". Cardiff: University of Wales Press.] Most national broadcasters are based in the capital, Cardiff.

Broadcasting

Television

BBC Wales is based in Llandaff, Cardiff and provides two television stations for Wales, BBC One Wales and BBC Two Wales (analogue only) and BBC 2W (the digital version of BBC Two Wales). BBC Wales produces the most-watched Welsh news programme 'BBC Wales Today', current affairs programme 'Week In Week Out', sports coverage in 'Wales on Saturday' and 'Scrum V', drama including 'Belonging' and factual programmes such as 'X-Ray'.

ITV Wales is based in Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff and produces regional news and politics programmes such as ‘Wales Tonight’ and the weekly Welsh politics show ‘Waterfront’. ITV Wales no longer produces any network programming.

S4C is the main Welsh language station and has its headquarters in Llanishen, Cardiff. The channel features around 10 hours a week of programmes made in Welsh by BBC Wales, such as 'Newyddion' (News) and 'Pobol y Cwm' (a long-running soap opera) as well as programmes made by independent production companies. On terrestrial television it takes most of Channel 4's programmes, usually scheduled a little later, but its digital counterpart S4C Digidol is broadcast entirely in Welsh.

Radio

The BBC produces two national radio stations, BBC Radio Wales in English and BBC Radio Cymru in Welsh. There are also a number of independent radio stations throughout the country which broadcast in both Welsh and English. The main commercial radio stations serving South Wales are the Cardiff-based Red Dragon FM, Swansea-based The Wave/Swansea Sound, and Neath-based Nation Radio. [ [http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php RAJAR Listening Figures - Quarterly Listening] ]

Print

Newspapers and news magazines

Unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Welsh 'national press' is limited. The only Wales-based national newspaper is the Western Mail produced by Trinity Mirror; its Sunday counterpart is the Wales on Sunday, a personality and sports-driven tabloid. When Wales won the Six Nations Grand Slam in 2005 the Wales on Sunday almost doubled its sales.

One study in the 1990s found that the most-widely read newspaper in Wales was The Sun. [Mackay, H. and Powell, A. (1997) 'Wales and its Media. Production, Consumption and Regulation'. Contemporary Wales vol. 9, pp. 8-39.] Despite the popularity of London-based newspapers in Wales, most UK newspapers do not produce regional copies for the Welsh audience, although up until 2003 The Mirror was branded as the Welsh Mirror. Since the 1970s, there has been a decline in the number of Fleet Street newspaper journalists based in Wales; now all national UK newspapers rely on the Press Association reporter in Wales. [Williams, K. (2000) 'No Dreads, only Some Doubts: The Press and the Referendum Campaign' in Barry Jones, J. and Balsom, D. (eds) "The Road to the National Assembly for Wales". Cardiff: University of Wales Press.]

The most popular local newspapers are the Cardiff-based South Wales Echo, the Swansea-based South Wales Evening Post, and the South Wales Argus, which is published in Newport. The North Wales edition of the Liverpool Daily Post is popular in that region. The Evening Leader is the main evening newspaper for north east Wales. A Welsh-language daily newspaper, Y Byd, was planned to launch in Spring 2007, but it failed to publish due to a lack of funding.

"Planet", a bi-monthly magazine covering the arts, literature and politics in Wales and the wider world, is produced in Aberystwyth. Each edition features poems and short stories alongside cultural reviews and political analysis. [ [http://www.planetmagazine.org.uk/index.htm Planet Magazine] ]

Zines

There are a large number of specialist zines produced in Wales, including 'Gagged!' the South Wales anarchist newsletter, 'The Free Flyer' the free paper for "Brecon, Builth, Crickhowell, Hay, Llandovery, Llandrindod, Llanwrtyd, Talgarth and Rhayader", and the 'Cambrian snooze' newsletter in Aberystwyth.

References

ee also

*S4C - 'Sianel Pedwar Cymru'
*BBC 2W
*Welsh topics
*Welsh language
*Television
*Mass media

External links

* [http://www.icwales.co.uk ICWales.co.uk]
* [http://www.newswales.co.uk NewsWales.co.uk]