key text: late night woman's hour

CONTEXT

History and background of BBC:

Supposed to create content that satisfies all its audiences.

History and background of LNWH:

Late-night edition of Woman's Hour (a radio program from BBC Radio 4) on air since 1946, created by Norman Collins & originally presented by Allan Ivimey (Radio Times: specialist in "writing for and talking to women").

Weekly podcast format (+ modern, similar purpose as the re-branding from BBC iPlayer Radio to BBC Sounds).

Summary of content and audience of Radio 4:

• Spoken word
• Middle class, 40-60 women

TEXT

Themes and subjects covered:

From older feminist issues such as the pill to recent ones like makeup on public transport. Plus notable attempts to reach out to a modern audience and be more on-trend with 'James Charles/ Tati Westbrook' and 'Love Island'.

Structure and content of typical episodes (interviews, feature pieces, discussion, phone-in, etc)

Interviews conducted with various female professionals of different backgrounds e.g. 'Love Island' had a Danish comedian and body positivity campaigner Sofie Hagen and journalists Zing Tsjeng and Yomi Adegoke. Formal audio code-wise with the BBC Sounds intro but informal in tone as there's swearing and conversational language. Mode of address isn't necessarily direct as it's a light-hearted discussion between the women present.

However, there's an attempt to reach out to its audience, e.g. in 'Makeup on Public Transport' they lead listeners to their Instagram poll (Opportunities for audience feedback)

Most episodes have adverts at the end of the podcast. 'Makeup on Public Transport' had a 30sec advert for BBC Sounds podcast Planet Puffin. It seems to be only BBC content that is advertised as in 'Home' Lauren refers to 'one popular book website' without naming it.

LAUREN LAVERNE: 2015-18

• 41
• Sunderland; criticised for regional accent
• English radio DJ, model, TV, presenter, author, singer (pop-punk band Kineckie at 16), comedian

EMMA BARNETT: 2018- present

• 34
• Surrey
• British broadcaster and journalist, The Telegraph editor and BBC Radio presenter
• Previously on 5 Live

The target audience of LNWH (age, gender, class, use of media, etc.)

35 to middle-aged women, middle class, various interests but aware of current issues of mostly progressive views, technically-savvy due to text format (not radio programme but podcast)

THEORIES

Hall's reception theory: 

A male audience, part of Radio 4, might respond negatively

A young audience might not resonate with episodes like 'Love Island' and the podcast in general

White middle class

Curran and Seaton's media industries and power theory:

Giant corporations= less creative, imaginative and interesting content

No pressure to make money- publicly funded

Giant corporation