Media of Wales

See also: Media in Cardiff

The media in Wales provides services in both English and Welsh, and plays a role in modern Welsh culture. BBC Wales broadcasts since the 1930s have helped to promote a form of standardised spoken Welsh,^[1] and one historian has argued that the concept of Wales as a single national entity owes much to modern broadcasting.^[2] The national broadcasters are based in the capital, Cardiff.

Broadcasting

Television

BBC Wales is based in Broadcasting House, Llandaff, northern Cardiff and provides BBC One Wales and BBC Two Wales television channels. BBC Wales produces the most-watched Welsh news programme BBC Wales Today, current affairs programme Week In Week Out, sports coverage in Scrum V and Sport Wales,, science-fiction programmes including Doctor Who and Torchwood, and factual programmes such as X-Ray.

ITV Wales is based in Culverhouse Cross, western Cardiff and produces regional news and factual programmes such as Wales Tonight, Wales This Week, Sharp End and The Wales Show.

S4C is the main Welsh language station and has its headquarters in Llanishen, northern 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.

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 broadcasting from South Wales are as follows :

• Cardiff
  • Red Dragon FM - locally orientated contemporary and chart music and information station for under 44s
  • Real Radio - full service adult contemporary music station for South Wales, targeting 25-54 year-olds
  • Gold - classic pop music station, with local information, targeted at 35-54 year-olds
  • Radio Cardiff - MOBO orientated station, such as reggae, r'n'b and hip hop
• Swansea
  • The Wave - contemporary and chart music and information station for 15-44s
  • Swansea Sound - classic pop hits and information station for over 40s
  • Bay Radio - easy listening and adult orientated
• Neath/Port Talbot
  • Nation Radio - modern rock station for 15-34 year olds
  • Afan FM - Chart radio with specialist programmes throughout the week
• Carmarthenshire
  • Radio Carmarthenshire - local news, broad music and information service
• Pembrokeshire
  • Radio Pembrokeshire - locally orientated music, news and information station for adults in the area

Print

Newspapers and news magazines

See also: List of newspapers in Wales

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. 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

The most popular local newspapers are the Cardiff-based South Wales Echo, the Swansea-based South Wales Evening Post, and the Newport-based South Wales Argus. The North Wales edition of the Liverpool Daily Post is distributed 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.^[5]

A Welsh edition of the Times Educational Supplement, called TES Cymru, dedicates a number of pages of coverage to the country's devolved education system, with a reporter based in Cardiff.

Your Wedding Day is the biggest bridal magazine in Wales.

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 on Wye, Llandovery, Llandrindod, Llanwrtyd, Talgarth and Rhayader", and the 'Cambrian snooze' newsletter in Aberystwyth.

See also

• BBC Wales Drama Village
• Welsh language
• Television
• Mass media

References

1. ^ The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press 2008
2. ^ Davies, J. (1994) Broadcasting and the BBC in Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
3. ^ Mackay, H. and Powell, A. (1997) 'Wales and its Media. Production, Consumption and Regulation'. Contemporary Wales vol. 9, pp. 8-39.
4. ^ 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.
5. ^ Planet Magazine

External links

• ICWales.co.uk
• NewsWales.co.uk
• Around Town Bridgend Magazine