Late Night Women's Hour - Set Text

Late Night Women's Hour facts:
- Spin-off of a BBC Radio 4 Women's hour daily programme
- Hosted by Lauren Laverne and other panellists
- Broadcast once a month
- Each episode focusses on a different theme relevant to its female audience
- Began in 2015
- Known as a 'magazine show', which means they discuss new topics each time
- 'Round table discussion' displays how they took turns with the discussion

TARGET AUDIENCE - OLDER FEMALE, MIDDLE CLASS
BROADCAST TIME - 11pm FRIDAY NIGHT (also called a graveyard slot, due to the time of night as many people won't listen). Also available as a podcast.

Notes on Episode:

• Subject of 'home' is very stereotypical of women
• Explores wider culture i.e. hygge, Danish panellist
• Seems to express the need for comfort, striving for perfection
• Family oriented, possible for mums who have the time to stay at home, caring for people
• Author of cookery book, stereotype of females cooking
• Maybe has links to the hegemony of women being sociable and liking to chat and gossip
• Obviously for a more educated audience as it uses quite big words, some discussions of feminism, politics as well as the home (i.e 'democratisation', 'antithesis', 'egalitarian')
• Panellist who enjoys 'craft', a typical female activity
• Even though they talk about other cultures, still has lots of very typical British elements such as the Cricket dolls (cricket is stereotypically British sport)
• Discusses individuality and personality, and the way that people are overtaken by Ikea and commercialised images of home "I knew my marriage was over when we bought an Ikea wardrobe"
• A sense of inclusivity between individuals, the feeling of how you bring each other together
• Not a lot of focus on strong, feminist perspectives, but more about the way that women had been expected to do in the past and still are today
• Some conversation on emotion, which men may not typically understand, however if men listen to the show they may get a greater understanding from the show of how the women in their life feel
• Binary opposition of emotional women and masculine, hard working men
• Weirdly specific about 'winter mugs' etc which displays a middle-class mode of address
• One member of the panel says "I only have 20 books" is a middle class lifestyle
• Paints a 'Utopia' to the audience, a solution to a shit world and makes it better

Meets Needs - needs for perfection, the way the audience wants to feel with the trends, possibly the need to know about culture

Regulatory Issues- although it is on at a time not typical for a younger audience, it can still be listened to by anyone and also accessed online at any time without restrictions. There is nothing controversial about this show as it includes no sex or swearing. However, other episodes have had a lot more swearing, for example in one 15 minute clip they used 'fuck' 4 times, 'shit' twice, 'bastard' twice and 'ass' twice. (regulated by ofcom)

As the BBC - it fits perfectly with their image, nothing daring, quite polite and very inclusive, however middle class and very snobbish

The BBC is a 'Public broadcasting Service', or 'PBS', which means that it is run without advertisements and uses a TV license which the public pays for. Their shows must be informative and useful for the audience as they are paying for it. They have a 'remit', and this is an agreement that they create shows that will appeal to a range of audience types - it is a show that has to display diversification. It is the biggest PBS in the world. It is an institution which is there to make a profit and is held in such high regard that they almost become pretentious and views and presenters on the channel frown upon others - for example, when the GBBO was sold to Channel 4, presenters Mel and Sue and judge Mary Berry left as they did not want to work on the show if it was not on the BBC. They are highly conscious of their image, and cultivate it. 

Women's Hour facts:

- Began in 1946, right after WWII

- Aired at 2pm to fit in with 'Womanly Chores'

- Due to the war, women had become more independent, however afterwards the men expected them to fulfil more feminine roles. The show gave women their freedom again

- Themes of cooking and cleaning was the key theme of the show at the time

- It enabled women to become educated whilst they were doing the housework as they may have had little time to themselves

- Moved from BBC1 to BBC4 in 1973, with a smaller audience. This is because it was seen as much more sexist and the women's movement was prominent in this time, meaning it had a much smaller audience itself and the listeners for BBC1 were more diverse.

Criticisms:
- boring
- classist (too middle class and unrelatable)
- fairly sexist however towards women (topics of conversation)
- also sexist as it rarely includes male input
- separation from the 'common people'
- exotiscm of the show is quite exclusionary
- aspiration and cultural capital of interior design
- they way they talk about food is very extravagant and luxurious however it is a basic need
- eviction being talked about as though they were having an adventure

RECEPTION THEORY  - target audience identifies with it (preferred reading) whereas some audiences feel excluded (oppositional readings), promotes a middle class ideology (negotiated)

HOW HAS DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY CHANGED THE WAY WE CONSUME RADIO?

• podcasts mean that you can listen without a radio
• shows have a less standard format
• shows on actual radio have more music however online less music
• you are able to skip to what you want
• can listen wherever or whenever you want
• added visual element (such as BBC radio 1) makes it easier to listen to
• gives audience a more direct address as though you are with the people on the show
• archiving the show so you can listen again or carry on listening if you miss it
• social media makes it easier to interact with the show
• apps mean that you can have a better user experience, accessing the service without searching
• can download the product in order to be able to access it at all times
• us of thumbnails add a visual aspect
• regulation is ineffective as you can access it whenever you want

'Plurality' is where the media product has to give voice to a wide range of ideological perspectives. The BBC's funding means that it is essential for it to use plurality as people are paying for it, and due to the wide range of people paying for it, they have to appeal to a wide range of people with different ideological perspectives. The BBC have several channels which cover several topics.