Late Night Woman's Hour

A level Media Studies Fact Sheet Late Night Woman’s Hour (‘Home’ October 28, 2016) A level Media Studies Fact Sheet Late Night Woman’s Hour (‘Home’ October 28, 2016) http://www.bbc.co.uk/ to inform, educate and entertain. Consider programmes/b0801ql5 whether the broadcast is typical of products created for the BBC and explore the hallmarks AS Component 1: of productions made for this institution. Investigating the Media • Consider the significance of license fee funding A level Component 1: Media Products, and compare this to the financial considerations Industries and Audiences of commercial radio e.g. would this broadcast be too “niche” for commercial radio? The Focus areas: broadcast has only female contributors, Media Industries is made up predominantly of unadorned Audiences dialogue (without music, sound effects etc.) Media Contexts and the topic is explored using intellectual and specialised vocabulary. Learners might discuss why purely commercial institutions would PRODUCT CONTEXT be less likely to produce similar products. • Late Night Woman’s Hour is a spin-off from the long-running BBC Radio 4 daily Consider recent technological change and media magazine programme, Woman’s Hour. production, distribution and circulation and the • Late Night Woman’s Hour is broadcast impact of digitally convergent media platforms: once a month, late at night, is presented • The broadcast offers a number of ways to by Lauren Laverne and features a explore recent changes to the radio industry number of female panellists. in relation to digital technology such as the • Each episode focuses on a particular profound changes that have been brought theme relevant to its female audience about by switching from analogue FM radio e.g. ‘home’ and ‘forgiveness’. to digital audio broadcasting (DAB). • A brief history of radio before the mid 1990s should allow learners to appreciate the PART 1: STARTING POINTS – Media Industries significance of podcasting and listening to Historical Contexts: broadcasts on digitally convergent platforms Woman’s Hour was first broadcast in the 1940s, so such as computers and smartphones. it worth considering the historical and social shifts • Scheduling - Late Night Woman’s Hour has that have occurred since the show’s inception. The an 11 p.m. broadcast timeslot. Consider how original show reflects possible tokenism (a show set this slot might limit audience share prior to aside for women might imply all other radio content DAB. Audiences can now listen on devices was oriented towards men). Late Night Women’s other than radios and download podcasts to Hour features frank and open discussion, and enjoy at their leisure which means the time a demonstrates societal shifts and increased gender broadcast airs live might be less significant. equality although some of the issues raised reflect • It might also be argued that DAB technology the fact that society is not yet completely equal. affords broadcasters more freedom. The Consider the specialised and institutionalised late night slot (after the watershed) allows nature of media production and the broadcasters freedom to make challenging significance of economic factors to or controversial content in the knowledge media industries and their products: that it can still reach audiences. • Explore issues relating to Public Service Consider how media producers Broadcasting and consider the extent to which maintain varieties of audiences: Late Night Women’s Hour meets the BBC remit • Lauren Laverne is an interesting host for a Radio 1 A level Media Studies Fact Sheet 4 broadcast. She is more readily associated with costs offer producers (and often prosumers) alternative music (both from her career as a opportunities to take risks and develop musician and her links with Radio 6 and BBC adventurous content that still manages to music festival coverage) than with Radio 4. reach diverse international audiences? Candidates might compare her to other female presenters on Radio 4 (such as Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs with her experience as PART 2: STARTING POINTS – Audiences a news reader) and consider the ways in which Social and Cultural Contexts: she might appeal to a wider range of listeners. A gendered discussion of the broadcast is likely • Laverne’s relative youth and reputation for to benefit from some context regarding the being outspoken and irreverent might be changing roles of women in the UK over the past seen as a deliberate attempt to court the 70 years. Woman’s Hour was originally broadcast relative controversy (at least in comparison in the 1940s and candidates might consider how to other Radio 4 content) surrounding some different life in the UK is for women now (possibly use of bad language and the content in some focusing on shifts from the 1950s housewife episodes of this show. Laverne’s credentials towards the independence of young women in the also extend to being a published author. 1960s and comparing this with present day). • Consider the extent to which Late Night Woman’s Candidates may use this information to consider the Hour has been designed specifically to suit way that audience responses to, and interpretations Laverne’s persona rather than being a broadcast of, media products reflect social and cultural she has been asked to present. Some other radio circumstances. Is there now an audience for a presenters (often white males) have carried a late night talk shown aimed at women specifically status that means their personalities dominate because of their social status? How might original broadcasts (Chris Evans, Chris Moyles et al.); 1940s women have responded to the broadcast? might Laverne be considered in the same way? Consider how audiences are grouped Consider theoretical approaches: and categorised by media industries, Power and media industries - Curran and Seaton including by age, gender and social class, • It could be argued that Late Night Woman’s as well as by lifestyle and taste: Hour challenges the idea that media is • Late Night Woman’s Hour offers clear examples controlled by a small number of companies of audience grouping and content being driven by the logic of profit and power. developed for specific (possibly niche) audiences. • Whilst the BBC is inarguably a large, significant • The audience for Radio 4 can be categorised company, the nature of PSB (discussed above) in terms of age, social class and expected and the content of the broadcast seem to be levels of education. Candidates might at odds with the “logic of profit and power”. consider if there is any institution more Consider the funding of the BBC in comparison likely to target a highly educated, elderly, with commercial organisations. Candidates upper class audience than Radio 4. might explore the extent to which the license • Then consider the extent to which Late Night fee frees BBC producers from the pressure Woman’s Hour challenges the established to generate profit and the way in which this audience of this channel. Some examples of impacts the content of their broadcasts. these challenges to the Radio 4 audience might • Late Night Woman’s Hour (or at least include the obvious gender bias, the presence of the fact that it is available on podcast) Lauren Laverne and the nature of the content. might also be used to support Curran and • The gender bias of the show could be Seaton’s idea that socially diverse patterns explored by considering the traditional male of ownership help create conditions for audience of Radio 4 and the likelihood that varied and adventurous productions. these men would listen to the show. Similarly • Candidates might consider the proliferation the presence of Lauren Laverne (with her of podcasts across a wide range of topics indie music background) and the “edgy” and genres in recent years. Do the relative content of the show could be explored against low production costs of this medium and the traditional demographic of Radio 4. the inexpensive hosting/digital distribution 2 A level Media Studies Fact Sheet Consider how audiences interpret the media, has been designed to explicitly appeal to a including how and why audiences may specialised (educated, female) audience as interpret the same media in different ways: part of the remit of the organisation itself. • Candidates might consider a male response • An extension of this discussion might to the content of the show. They might explore whether there are any other media consider how many other media texts are products that appeal to this specific target composed of only female members (even audience on the radio (BBC or otherwise). Loose Women for instance has male guests) Consider theoretical approaches: and how this might be unsettling or alienating Reception theory - Stuart Hall for male listeners. They might compare this to a female audience and question whether • Discuss possible different readings of the or not this same gender composition might broadcast. There may be some particularly be appealing to some female audiences. interesting oppositional readings (largely in relation to a perceived masculine response). • Explore responses to Late Night Woman’s Hour A gendered approach may consider the lack on Twitter and other social media platforms. of male representation. Candidates might The Spectator described the initial response to compare this to preferred readings along the show as a “twitter storm” and candidates similar gender lines. They could be encouraged might discuss the ways in which the broadcast to consider how often this female dominance has been designed to invite audience members is reversed and the ways in which it is often to enter the discussion through social media likely that males will dominate a media text. platforms. Might the controversial nature of some of the episodes have been designed to invite • In 2014 the BBC famously introduced a ban strong responses and polarise audience opinion? on all male TV and radio panels to offset this dominance.

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