University of Glamorgan Journalism students take to the streets of Cardiff and learn about the stories of real people

In recent years local journalism has been reportedly under threat. At a journalism conference in 2010, a report highlighted the fact that local and regional media have struggled to take advantage of the internet. Despite this, logic suggests that communities most naturally form locally, so a journalism aimed at linking people at a local level should be able to succeed. Masters students studying journalism and radio at Glamorgan University decided to pioneer their own form of local journalism, as part of a new project in Cardiff aimed at forming a creative and interactive relationship between students and the population of the city in which they live and study.

The students immersed themselves in the Cardiff communities of Grangetown, Splott, Rumney, Riverside and Plasnewydd and engaged with members of the communities there. In collaboration with the non profit organisation ‘People’s Voice,’ students attended community meetings, visited schools and other community groups, found out success stories and wrote up events in the time – honoured fashion of the local newspaper journalist reporting a patch. Members of the communities were invited to collaborate with the students in the production of a local community news website which ran for over 6 weeks in the spring of 2010.

The rationale behind the project was that members of the community would be empowered to express themselves and make their voices heard by publicizing their stories. It was hoped that the health and wellbeing of the people living in the areas would benefit from the increased flow of news and information, and from the opportunity for people to make their voices heard.

Students involved in the project at the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries at Glamorgan University benefitted by engaging with real people in the real world, moving from the classroom into the community.

The leader of the project Diana Brand is the head of Broadcasting, journalism and media technology at the University of Glamorgan. She said:

‘Too often, the inhabitants of areas suffering from multiple deprivation find themselves merely the ‘subject’ of traditional journalism – a resource to be mined by the media. This project aimed to educate students in a more intimate and responsible style of journalism and provide wider opportunities for community involvement.’

‘The students were confronted with the questions of accountability and responsibility which are inescapable in the practice of truly local journalism. They learnt that journalism is about real lives – and affects real people.’

The project proved successful in some ways, but also highlighted the difficulties of sustaining local journalism and creating a faithful readership. Members of the community and the students benefitted because they developed multimedia journalistic techniques, however the students found it difficult to get community members to contribute to the website.

Diana Brand said:

‘One successful element of the project was that it brought our students into contact with certain groups, for example ethnic minorities, teenagers, and travellers who do not usually have access to the media.’

‘It has developed in the students a realisation that local issues are not well covered in the mainstream press and that their futures could lie outside of the traditional media.

‘However, it also highlighted the fact that community journalism is not easy to manage and requires energy and skill in encouraging the involvement of non-specialist community members. Just because an outlet is available does not mean that people will be clamouring to use it.’

In spite of the limitations of the project, it provided a very useful learning ground for future work in hyper local journalism that will no doubt be undertaken by the project team at the University of Glamorgan. The project also rediscovered the value of getting out into the area and talking to people – and reflecting the community’s stories in the news.

Lead: Diana Brand, Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Glamorgan