Media Wales

Media Wales

While Media Wales provides excellent and informative news for the entire country, our coverage of Cardiff - our capital city - is exemplary. With its unique culture and history, there are more than a few avenues to explore in our writing. Whether this is language, gentrification, redevelopment, or its colourful characters. But like others across the UK, crime, and social inequality blight the city. I have chosen to include some entries which show our broad range of reporting of the community - or communities - of Cardiff.

My first entry is a feature on the growing epidemic of knife crime in Cardiff that highlights the extent of the problem through the lens of those whose lives have been utterly devastated by these atrocities. This piece gave them the opportunity to tell their story, while also emphasising the extent of the problem. This was compiled over the course of several weeks and required extensive research to track down relevant people affected - from victims to families, to bystanders. This piece has been the cornerstone of my reporting of knife crime in the city and has allowed me to build relationships for further work. This piece was used as a special report in the South Wales Echo and was featured in HoldTheFrontPage. It was viewed online 10,607 times. My second entry is an interview with a young man who found himself homeless at the height of the first coronavirus lockdown. I first came across Morgan through the social media app TikTok where he detailed his struggles of sleeping rough through a series of videos. After some research I realised he was from Cardiff and managed to get in contact with him to find out more about his situation. What emerged was a poignant interview which emphasised that while most of us were being asked to stay at home, there were thousands out there who were unable to do that, who found themselves - quite literally - alone on the streets. While we were already acutely aware of homelessness in Cardiff, this piece highlighted the reality of how a national issue was impacting our communities. My last entry is a feature on Cardiff’s iconic Queen Street, which was once the retail hub of the city but is now largely an atrophying derelict wasteland. I spent a day on the street speaking to traders and shoppers about their memories of the high street and attempting to understand what had changed. In order to compile this piece, alongside the interviews, I researched crime levels, looked in the archives at the history of the street as well as plans for projects to rescue the thoroughfare. This article was incredibly impactful in the city but also further afield. After publication, I received several messages of people recounting their memories and asking me to look into certain areas of the street specifically. It was featured in the Western Mail Magazine as well as the South Wales Echo. It was viewed online 35,547 times.