Student assists on major S4C series asking who are the Welsh youth?

A Bangor University student has had a fantastic opportunity to work on a major TV series for S4C which aims to produce an honest portrayal of the lives of young people in twenty-first century Wales.

Having already graduated with a first class degree in Sociology and Social Policy at Bangor University, Shan Pritchard has been working on a series of programs in partnership and television production company, Cwmni Da, as part of her Masters degree.

'Dyma Fi' is an exciting multiplatform series that reveals the results of questionnaires distributed to young people across Wales. The questionnaire, which covers a wide range of subjects, such as interests, experiences and especially the way they use technology, is of great interest to Shân’s research into the use of Welsh in the digital revolution. Shan’s main duty was to analyze the data from the questionnaires to find the interesting statistics that underpin the series. The campaign, which is being led by the Children's Commissioner for Wales, puts emphasis on destroying negative stereotypes and promote a positive image of youth Wales.

Says Shan; "I have been extremely fortunate to have the experience of working in such an exciting field. It was great to have the opportunity to implement social science research methods in a meaningful way within the world of work."

According to Siwan Haf, producer and director with Cwmni Da:

"I had the idea for a television program which tries to establish who are the young Welsh of today by creating a huge questionnaire asking their opinion, but this meant having support specialists, so I turned at Bangor University."

"Shân Pritchard, a research student at the University, under the KESS scheme analyzed more than 1,000 questionnaire responses from secondary school pupils from across Wales. I did not envy Shân her task, but it proved an essential part of the program as she analyzed the results that have been received so far, to be seen in the series."

Young Welsh people between 15 and 18 years old can still take part in this massive questionnaire by visiting www.dymafi.tv. The series is part of  a 'Dyma Fi’ season beginning on November 17 starting at 7.55pm and 8.25pm, every evening throughout the week.

Shan Pritchard's research scholarship was funded under the Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS) Programme. KESS is a major European Convergence programme led by Bangor University on behalf of the HE sector in Wales. KESS is part-funded by the Welsh Government’s European Social Fund (ESF) Convergence programme for West Wales and the Valleys, KESS supports collaborative research projects (Research Masters and PhD) with external partners based in the Convergence area of Wales (West Wales and the Valleys).  Both the Research Masters and PhD elements are integrated with a high-level skills training programme, leading to a Postgraduate Skills Development Award. KESS will run until 2014 and will provide 400+ PhD and Masters places across Wales.

Publication date: 19 November 2014