What will Swansea media learn from Westminster event?

Researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London, are among the organisers of an event which will interest many of those in the Swansea Bay media.
Their Westminster meeting is titled Democracy Without Journalists: The Crisis in Local News. It will reflect the fact that, as around Swansea, the local media is changing more quickly than ever.
The event will be hosted by the uni's Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy on March 17.

The gathering features some speakers with much to say on the issue of the UK's evolving local media.
Speakers include broadcaster Steve Hewlett, Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre director Prof James Curran and Leeds University Professor of political communication and director of research Stephen Coleman, right.
Also on the top table will be National Union of Journalists (NUJ) general secretary Jeremy Dear, Natalie Fenton, editor of journalism and democracy study New Media, Old News and Angela Phillips, founder of local news-and-info web platform East London Lines.
The event's blurb states: "Industry body The Newspaper Society notes that 101 local newspapers closed down between January and August last year while ITV has said it can no longer afford to provide a regional news service.
"Buffeted by the recession and the impact of the internet, the current business model for local news is facing collapse and, perhaps with it, the pursuit of local news that is in the public interest. The government has responded by setting up pilot Independently Funded News Consortia (IFNC) while the Conservatives have promised to scrap the pilots and to relax local cross-media ownership rules to safeguard the provision of local journalism."
This event could make the future of local news an election headline.
Organised by Goldsmiths researchers and the NUJ), it will highlight the importance of robust news coverage for local democracy.
Speakers will address:
• why politicians and the public should care about local news;
• the significance of local news for meaningful local democracy;
• the viability of the IFNC scheme;
• the need for public policy action to ensure a future for local news;
• possibilities for new initiatives in the provision of local news.
For more details, click here.