Late Night Woman's Hour

Question 1

What are the social and cultural contexts?

Answer 1

• Changing roles of women in the UK over the past 70 years life is different from the 1940s woman’s hour podcast as we progressed from 1950s housewife to independence of young women in the 1960s.

Question 2

What does Hygge mean?

Answer 2

• Hygge is a Danish word adopted by the British meaning to enjoys life‘s simple pleasures e.g. home cooking food and family - a feeling of contentment.

Question 3

How are audiences grouped and categorised?

Answer 3

• Audience grouping and content is for a specific niche audiences.
• The gender biased subverts the usual male audience of Radio 4 and the likelihood of these men would listen to the show.
• Lauren Laverne with her indie music background and edgy content of the show can be explored against traditional demographic of radio four.

Question 4

How can audiences interpret the media?

Answer 4

• Consider a male response to show as even Loose Women with all female members they still have male guests on the show.
• Response on Twitter and other social media platforms created a Twitter storm and the broadcast has been designed to invite audience members to enter the discussion through social media platforms. This may highlight strong responses and polarise opinion.

Question 5

How media organisations reflect the different needs of mass and specialised audiences including through targeting?

Answer 5

• PSB could invite discussion about the BBC attempts to produce content for audience demographics and appears to be specifically designed for an educated and female audience as part of the remit of the organisation itself.

Question 6

How can Stuart Hall’s reception theory be applied?

Answer 6

• Oppositional readings could consider a gendered approach due to the lack of male representation.
• Preferred readings that are also gendered encourage female dominance. Consider how likely it is that males dominate media texts.

Question 7

What was BBC’s ban?

Answer 7

• In 2014 the BBC famously introduced a ban on all male TV and radio panels to offset their dominance.
• Therefore, following on from Hall, the preferred readings of late-night women’s hour should consider why it might be particularly welcoming to some audiences.

Question 8

What’s the significance of economic factors on production?

Answer 8

• License fee funding
• This podcast may be too niche for commercial radio broadcast.
• With only female contributors, no music, sound effects etc, the topics being explored using intellectual vocab all of which commercial institutions are less likely to produce through similar products.
• Podcasts have relatively low production costs, a wide range of topics and genres, inexpensive hosting and digital distribution offer producers opportunities to take risk and develop adventurous content that still manages to reach diverse international audiences.

Question 9

What’s the significance of technological change?

Answer 9

• The switch from analogue FM radio to digital audio broadcasting so we can now listen to podcasts on digitally convergent platforms.
• DAB technology offer audiences more freedom, the late time slot also allows broadcasters freedom to make challenging or controversial content in the knowledge that it can still reach audiences.

Question 10

What’s the significance of an 11pm time slot?

Answer 10

• The airing time may lose significance due to the DAB technology.
• Audiences can now listen on devices and download podcasts that they can enjoy in their own leisure.
• However, it does direct a specific audience due to the late timing.

Question 11

Whats the significance of Lauren Laverne as host?

Answer 11

• She is more readily associated with alternative music and her links with Radio 6 rather than Radio 4.
• Her relative youth and reputation for being outspoken and irreverent might be seen as a deliberate attempt to court the relative controversy surrounding some use of bad language and content in some episodes of the show.
• LNWH has been designed specifically to suit her persona rather than being a broadcast she has asked to be on.
• Some radio presenters (often white males) have carried a statues that means their personalities dominate broadcasts, can she be seen in the same way?