Author: Inclusive Journalism Cymru
Deadline: Midnight, 9 October
Understanding Our Past to Know Our Present: Marginalised journalists and creatives invited to respond to material from the Wales Broadcast archive
We need your voice!
One of Inclusive Journalism Cymru’s aims is to create and offer opportunities for those of us who may have been marginalised or excluded by the media industry. That’s why we’ve partnered with the Wales Broadcast Archive on an exciting project that will publish work from three of our members.
The Wales Broadcast Archive is the first of its kind in the UK, tracing almost a century of broadcasting. It brings together material from BBC Cymru Wales, ITV Cymru Wales, S4C and The National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive collections. By preserving, cataloguing, and digitising this material and presenting it on a fully searchable website, the National Library of Wales and the Wales Broadcast Archive is committed to making this collection accessible to all.
The idea is that the process will be as inclusive and supportive as possible. It’s open to anyone who’s a member of Inclusive Journalism Cymru. Membership is free and you can join by completing the quick form on our website.
This will be a paid opportunity for marginalised journalists and creatives to respond to material from the Wales Broadcast Archive in three separate commissions. A series of events will follow the completion of this project, showcasing the work and offering an opportunity to meet and learn from other members. There will be a conscious decision to select a candidate from north, mid and south Wales to reflect as wide a range of geographical perspectives as possible.
How will the final pieces look and feel?
If you’re successful, your work could take the form of video, audio or an essay – and although your initial application should be in English or Welsh, the final piece can be in any language. Wales is a multilingual country and we want to showcase this.
If you choose to write a piece, we’re thinking somewhere between 5000-7000 words long. If in a video format it would probably be 10 to 30 minutes long. If you choose to respond in the medium of audio, as a podcast episode or similar, it might be 30-50 minutes in length. Once you’re commissioned, we’ll obviously agree together on the shape of your final piece.
The essay / video / audio / podcast should respond to a chosen piece from the Wales Broadcast Archive, which houses decades of documentary and news archives from the main broadcasters in Wales, in both Welsh and English. The responses should be thought provoking and hold up an honest mirror to life in Wales. All ideas will be considered, but you could respond with:
A comparison of how things have changed in Wales, between then and now
How material from the archive elicits you to consider your own personal experience or ideas
An analysis of historic discrimination or misrepresentation in the Welsh media that needs to be deconstructed
A piece learning from the past in order to imagine our collective future in Wales
What support will be available?
If you’re commissioned, you’ll be supported by a dedicated Editor from the Inclusive Journalism Cymru team, who’ll work with you to make sure you have everything you need to help you produce your best possible work.
You will also be able to attend a workshop (local to you) run by the Wales Broadcast Archive in order to browse the archive and find the material you would like to respond to. Some clips are available online and a team member from the Wales Broadcast Archive will also help you access the whole archive so that you can choose a clip you would like to respond to in your piece.
Will I be paid?
Yes. It’s important to us that marginalised journalists and creatives are paid fairly for their work, so each successful candidate will receive £1000 for their piece, to be paid on completion (i.e. after the final draft).
What's the timeline?
Submissions open on the 9th of September
Closing date for submissions will be the 9th of October at midnight
We will notify the successful applicants on the 30th of October
The collection will be published in February 2025
Following the completion of the collection, a series of events across Wales showcasing the work will be held in the localities of Bangor, Aberystwyth and Cardiff
How do I apply?
To make the application process as easy and fair as possible, we’ve chosen a clip from the archive at random for everyone to respond to. You can view the clip here and we simply ask that you respond to it in 200 words or a 2 minute video or audio recording.
This should give us a sense of the style and approach of your work – so originality and depth as well as something that will grab the attention of the reader or viewer would be great.
Remember to try and look behind the clip itself, and not only at what’s there, but what isn’t there and what this means.
Fill in this Google form by midnight 9th October (you’ll have the option to upload your response). Remember, this opportunity is only open to members of Inclusive Journalism Cymru, so please use the email address that you used to join the network. Don’t worry if you’re not a member yet though, it’s completely free to sign up and it only takes a couple of minutes!
We’ll let you know about our decision on the 30th of October, and will aim to offer supportive feedback to anyone whose idea isn’t commissioned.
If there’s anything we can do to make this process more accessible for you, just let us know at silvia@inclusivejournalism.cymru and we’ll work with you to find the best solution.
The final pieces will be published online on Inclusive Journalism Cymru and National Library of Wales’s websites. They will also be showcased in a series of public events.