If there was one nation within the United Kingdom watching the Scottish independence referendum with great interest it was Wales. Historically, Wales has followed Scotland's political lead, albeit a little more tentatively and less enthusiastically. Independence for Wales, however, has never been as popular with the Welsh electorate as with their Scottish counterparts. A YouGov poll held in April 2014, prior to Scotland's independence referendum, showed that only 12 per cent of the principality's electorate would support Welsh independence if Scotland became an independent nation. Nevertheless, given that the referendum, regardless of the result, would potentially have an effect on Wales's constitutional future, it was certainly worthy of news coverage within Wales. This chapter examines that coverage.

First, the chapter will examine the Welsh media landscape, including the historical weaknesses of the Welsh media and the lack of engagement with Welsh politics. Second, the chapter will discuss the contrasting political trajectories between Scotland and Wales – Wales historically has always looked towards Scotland as a more powerful and autonomous nation – and consider the possible effect of the result on Wales's constitutional and political make-up. Then the chapter will examine the coverage of the referendum both in the press and in broadcasting and will also look at the coverage of previous referendums in Wales. Finally, the chapter will suggest some conclusions about the coverage of the Scottish referendum within Wales and discuss whether that coverage had an effect on people's understanding of Welsh politics and Welsh identity.

The Media Landscape in Wales

Wales's weak media and press industry has been widely discussed and is often compared unfavourably to the Scottish media industry. While Scotland has three national daily newspapers (The Scotsman, The Herald and the Daily Record) and two strong regional dailies, based respectively in Aberdeen and Dundee, Wales only has the Western Mail, whose circulation has fallen since the beginning of devolution in 1997 from around 55,000 to under 24,000 in mid-2014, and the Daily Post, which has a circulation of around 28,000. There are differences too between the readers in north and south Wales; for example, the Western Mail is not largely read in the north of the country and the Daily Post is not sold in the south.