C1- Radio Flashcards
Who are the current Women’s Hour’s presenters?
Anita Rani
Nuala McGovern
What does Women’s Hour set out to do? (As said by their website)
women’s voices and women’s lives- topical conversation to inform, challenge and inspire
What does quite a lot of their output focus on?
Talking about women’s shared experiences and raising awareness of certain topics
What theorists link well to Woman’s Hour
Stuart’s Halls reception theory- how the preferred reading of Women’s Hour articles are focuses on raising awareness and reframes things to be positive, whereas oppositional reading of their articles would be look at how gossiping is mainly done, and not being very sympathetic
What’s the BBC remit?
Inform, educate and entertain
How does the radio service fit within the overall remit of the BBC?
There is a broad range of stations, such as the 4 under the Radio 1 banner, which caters for 16-34 year olds, Asian Network for the British Asian community, Radio 6 music for music fans, specifically indie music fans, and Radio 3, for Classical and Operatic music fans. Also, podcasts range from true crime to more lifestyle chat, again aiming for a wide range of audience.
How does BBC Sounds revolutionise the way people access radio programmes?
is a streaming and download service, which is a walled garden, which means once you have the app, you can access all their context. For example, it features live broadcats for the radio programmes, podcasts, and on-demand episodes from radio programmes previously boradcats. This provides a vast level of content for their audience, to ‘pick and mix’, linking to a media theory.
Radio 4 information
-the 2nd most popular domestic radio station in the UK
-sister station, 4 Extra, plays repeats from Radio 4 archive, extended versions of Radio 4 programmes and supplements to long running series, such as Desert Island Discs.
-Well-known for it’s news coverage and bulletins
-Famous for having the longest running programme in raido history, the Shipping Forecast, which in 2017 celebrated it’s 150th year on the airwaves.
Woman’s Hour context
-Broadcast on Radio 4 since 1946, originally called BBC’s Light Programme.
-Originally presented by a man, Alan Ivimey.
-considered a ‘talk radio’ show, as discussion on key topics, and no music
-on average 3.7m listeners weekly
-original time slot of 2pm was intended to coincide with the moment housewives would ‘put their feet up’ before the children returned home from school. Now moved to 10am, with previous episodes available on BBC Sounds.
-covers ground-breaking topics
-Show known for starting a conversation on female masturbation
How Woman’s Hour fits into being broadcast on the BBC
-potentially could be seen as ‘niche’, therefore wouldn’t air on commercial radio stations, as they focus on mainstream content
-broadcast on a daily basis
-made of largely female contributors and is made up mostly of unadorned dialouge (no music, no sound effects, no jingles or studio intents)
-topics discussed on the show are often explored using intellectual and specialised vocabulary
-As the discussions ar emoderated and populated by a range of different opinions and views the show can be seen as being impartial and in many ways balanced- one of the BBC’s values.
Conventions of ‘Talk Radio’
Presenter: the presenter in speech-led programmes acts as an anchor to guide the discussion between various guests
Discussions: A group of people discussing a range of topics. This sub-genre of programme is often a key part of Radio 4’s schedule
Phone ins and listener involvement: these are effective and chepa ways of involving listeners, who are encouraged to take part in the programme and offer their point of view. As Women’s Hour is broadcast live, presenters encourage listeners to text, email or contribute their views via their social media chaqnnela such as Twitter.
Contributers: News programmes such as Today and PM on Radio 4 invite guests onto the show who tend to be experts or knowledgeable in the topic under discussion. In our chosen examples we hear from an MP, a charity organiser, a doctor, a comic book author and a stand-up comedian, showing it’s diversity.
Outside Broadcasts: reporters, presenters, and mobile studios bring stories and features from different national and global locations, The flexibility of the radio medium means that it does not have to rely on visual images and therefore reports can be more immediate with the focus on the human voice and sound effects.
why do certain topics appear on Women’s Hour and why? +examples
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and RAYE
-using topical subjects and world exclusives to hook listners
-NZR targets activits and thos interested in humanr rights.
-R targets fans of RAYE and people interested in music and headlines of the week.
theories linked to this media product
Stuart Hall’s reception theory: how the media products have preferred, negotiasted and oppositional reading, and on the whole, the p is women and feminist, n is not the primary audeince who want to educate themselves, and the o is misogynist
conglomerate ownership
A larger company that owns multiple different smaller companies, potentially rather is different stages of media production (i.e.- Film production) or companies that all do similar things (i.e.- all companies distribute films)
Bauer media group
Bauer media group is one of the world’s biggest publishers, owning and operating over 600 magazines as well as a further 400 media products. It is currently run by the 5th generation of the Bauer family since it’s inception in 1875. It made over €2.3 Billion in 2015.
