Monday 25 January 2016

How Welsh Journalism Works


If there had been  a appalling "Trolling" over the programme  in on the questions newsreader Lucy Owen was  asking herself as she starts thinking about which secondary school her seven-year-old should attend, then we would have Media coverage not only Wales but in the UK media.

You know the likes of

"Vile Welsh Language supporters attack Lucy".


There may well have some idiots who might have responded in such a way but in stead the BBC and the Wasting Mule have become the story because of  the line in the Mule that has since bee n retracted  on the Online page. I covered this yesterday here.

Here it is again.



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If you follow the link you will find a mealymouthed attempt at apology at the bottom of the article


We sincerely apologise, of course, for unintended offence caused by the use of the word 'despite' in the Western Mail version of this article and in an earlier online version. The context of the piece is about the merits of Welsh medium education, which we love and admire.
The reporter's intention was to make the point that having to or choosing to study later in English at university did not create a disadvantage for a pupil taught in the Welsh language. Far from it, in fact. We are mortified that a different view has come across.

And that is it despite the Twitter Storm where Welsh speakers responded with ironic humour  rather than nastiness  the story has received no further coverage .

The BBC web pages and the Mule have not responded to a story which at one stage was the third most trending Twitter talking point in the UK.

So there appears no coverage of the "Twitter" storm and other Social media responses.

Is it it because the response can't be labelled under the  CyberNats catch all?

The Lucy Owen programme may be a genuine investigation into problems which may occur within families where parents do not speak Welsh but  by the use of just one word in an accompanying article  in which the BBC and the Wasting Mule seem to have collaborated to promote the programme an unfortunate reaction may have appeared on Social media even by those who have not seen it.

 But because the reaction  has been often brilliantly funny and because what are probably the biggest media outfits in Wales (BBC and Wasting Mule) are now the story these two "worthy" institutions  are reluctant to cover it.

With hardly any other major mainstream Welsh media when what we have ,leave out such stories, we have a huge democratic deficit.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The sorry episode proves in 2016 ingrained hatred of the Welsh language is still with us and needs to be challenged daily.

But more than anything else the Western Mail ‘story’ and Twitter reaction yet again showed up the lack of non Trinity Mirror newspapers in Wales. If a hash-tag similar to #despitebeingtaughtinwelsh had happened in England or Scotland then rival newspapers and journalists would have reported the initial comment and the online reaction and ensured it a national UK story, embarrassed their competitors and undermined their credibility with the public.

As it turned out the only media reaction came from BBC Wales reporting on the Fail’s non apology yesterday and it was unsurprisingly well hidden on its homepage.

WelshnotBritish said...

As a general rule of thumb the following appears to happen when a story involving Cymraeg breaks.

If it is about falling numbers of speakers, increased funding or anything that can be spun to make Welsh appear to be a burden on Wales then it will receive blanket coverage.

If it is negative towards Welsh, such as discrimination then it will receive virtually no coverage. Sometimes the EBC will report these stories on its Welsh language service but it doesn't believe they are relevant to its English language audience.

A stark example was the family who were refused a prescription in Bangor Morrison because it was in Welsh. This was covered in extensively on ITV as well as the Mirror and its local rags. Even the Daily Mail ran with it.

The EBC ignored it, when challenged they responded with the following. "Unfortunately due to limited resources we aren’t able to report all stories and make editorial decision regarding which stories to feature". But they had the resources to report on a woman biting a car.

We also have to remember that 'old media' is scared of the new media.