The need for a Welsh media has never been stronger

Before I go any further this isn’t a wallowing post following defeat or a nationalist call to arms, I was thinking the same last week amid the hype ahead of the semi final match last Saturday.

The Welsh Rugby’s team performances in New Zealand have been great to watch and lifted our spirits at a time when things at home have been pretty grim, however much of the deserved credit Warren Gatland and his team have received and the hype surrounding them has been generated by media in other countries enjoying our boys playing rugby and with pages and air time to fill and added to that the limited and threadbare nature of the Welsh media which struggled to be heard.

Why does this matter I hear you say as long as the stories are being written and Wales is getting exposure, because our attitude, expectations, sentiments and emotions both last week in the build up to the match and this week in defeat have been shaped by editors and journalists in UK and global media who either aren’t from Wales or who don’t know enough about Wales to be more objective and realistic. It may sound glib but where was the balance nowhere did I see (except in French papers) from sports journalists and pundits (including Welsh ones) the merest hint that Wales could lose on Saturday, it was all about destiny and being written in the stars that we would be in the final. The reality sadly was somewhat different.

Welsh confidence is a brittle thing at the best of time and we don’t have many opportunities to stand on a global stage and remind the world where Wales is and as a result when these opportunities come we aren’t fully prepared for them. A stronger Welsh media giving us Welsh a truer picture of ourselves for good and bad day in and day out might have curbed the excess of the extreme highs of last week and extreme lows this last week that many of us feel.

I have written many times of the need to strengthen the welsh media particularly in relation to politics and the economy which most people have little interest in. Maybe we stand a better chance of change after the rugby hysteria of the past weeks and the cuts to BBC Wales because a stronger Welsh media would also make us more rounded individuals in a less chippy nation.Any source