December 2014: Uninformed Wales?: Broadcasting in the Changing Union

The final panel at the IWA Cardiff Media Summit on December 3rd 2014 The governance of Wales has changed significantly since 1999, but the way the Welsh public consumes news content hasn’t. The vast majority of people in Wales read London based newspapers whilst the majority of their news consumption on TV and radio is not Wales focused. This is an opportunity to discuss the way Wales is portrayed, to discuss the way the broadcast sector in general covers the issues that matter to Wales and to address any democratic deficit. All of this in the light of any further changes that are likely to flow following the Scottish referendum. Panel Members: Chair - Ruth McElroy, Reader in Media and Cultural Studies, Uni. of South Wales Rhodri Talfan-Davies, Director, BBC Cymru Wales Angela Graham, TV Producer Glyn Mathias, Content Board member for Wales, Ofcom Slide 1: Over 50% of respondents either did not know that the Welsh Government is mainly responsible for the NHS in Wales or incorrectly attributed responsibility to the UK Government 38% of respondents either didn’t know who had the main responsibility for Education or incorrectly attributed it to the UK Government Only 50% of respondents correctly attributed main responsibility for Policing to the UK Government. Slide 2: Most readers of daily newspapers in Wales read UK newspapers which include little content that relates to Wales and the National Assembly for Wales Wales has higher usage of social media as alternative news sources on the internet compared to the rest of the UK Slide 3: ‘There are some aspects of national life in Wales that are not sufficiently captured through our English language television output, and I would include comedy, entertainment and culture in those categories. Does this matter? Of course it does: the vitality of any nation must surely rest on more than its journalism. One cannot fully realise a nation’s creative potential or harness its diverse talents through the important, but narrow, prism of news’ (Tony Hall). Slde 4: Wales has seen the biggest decrease, by more than a fifth, in spend on nations’ programming since 2008 Wales has seen 30% growth in online usage for TV Slide 5: People in Wales listen to 21.7 hours of radio per week, higher than the UK average. BBC Network accounts for 51% of total share of listening hours in Wales – driven by Radio 2 and Radio 4 Listening hours for local commercial stations is lowest in Wales