Late Night Woman's Hour - BBC Radio 4 podcast A level Media Studies Fact Sheet - WJEC
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A level Media Studies Fact Sheet Late Night Woman’s Hour - BBC Radio 4 podcast
A level Media Studies Fact Sheet
Late Night Woman’s Hour
- BBC Radio 4 podcast
AS Component 1: Consider the specialised and institutionalised
Investigating the Media nature of media production and the
A level Component 1: Media Products, significance of economic factors to
Industries and Audiences media industries and their products:
• Explore issues relating to public service
Focus areas: broadcasting and consider the extent to which
Media Industries Late Night Woman’s Hour meets the BBC remit
Audiences to inform, educate and entertain. Consider
Media Contexts whether the broadcast is typical of products
created for the BBC and explore the hallmarks
of productions made for this institution.
PRODUCT CONTEXT
• Late Night Woman’s Hour is a spin-off from • Consider the significance of license fee funding
the long-running BBC Radio 4 daily magazine and compare this to the financial considerations
programme, Woman’s Hour. It began of commercial radio e.g. would this podcast
broadcasting in 2015 on a limited basis but be too “niche” for commercial radio? The
was so popular that it began a permanent run broadcast has only female contributors, is
as a monthly, then in 2018, a weekly podcast. made up predominantly of unadorned dialogue
(without music, sound effects etc.) and the topic
• Late Night Woman’s Hour is recorded weekly,
is explored using intellectual and specialised
hosted by Emma Barnett (occasionally
vocabulary. Learners might discuss why
with founder Lauren Laverne) and features
purely commercial institutions would be
female guests from a range of backgrounds
less likely to produce similar products.
including science, health and entertainment.
• How significant is the move from broadcast
• Each episode focuses on a particular theme
to podcast? What could this tell us about
relevant to its female audience e.g. ‘Lost
the changes in the media forms the BBC is
Friends’ and ‘Extreme Breastfeeding’. The
producing and the way they distribute them?
original broadcast was at 11pm on Thursday
nights, which meant explicit and honest Consider recent technological change and media
discussions could be had. Since becoming a production, distribution and circulation and the
podcast, the show has been less controversial. impact of digitally convergent media platforms:
• The podcast offers a number of ways to
explore recent changes to the radio industry
PART 1: STARTING POINTS – Media Industries in relation to digital technology such as the
Historical Contexts: profound changes that have been brought
Woman’s Hour was first broadcast in the 1940s, about by switching from analogue FM radio
so it’s worth considering the historical and to digital audio broadcasting (DAB), and
social shifts that have occurred since the show’s the boom in downloading and streaming.
inception. The original show reflects possible
• A brief history of radio before the mid-
tokenism (a show set aside for women might
1990s should allow learners to appreciate the
imply all other radio content was oriented
significance of podcasting and listening to
towards men). Late Night Woman’s Hour features
broadcasts on digitally convergent platforms
frank and open discussions and demonstrates
such as computers and smartphones.
societal shifts and increased gender equality
• In November 2018, the BBC launched its
although some of the issues raised reflect the
BBC Sounds streaming service, featuring
fact that society is not yet completely equal.
live broadcasting, audio-on-demand
and podcasts. This a good example of
technological convergence as Sounds is
1A level Media Studies Fact Sheet
available on PCs, laptops, tablets, phones. content to the Woman’s Hour brand, which
• Late Night Woman’s Hour used to have an previously had a ‘safe’ reputation.
11pm broadcast time that was suitable for the • The podcast format - available without age
adult discussions taking place. The switch to restrictions or post-watershed scheduling -
weekly podcast gives the producers more time may have needed a less controversial host.
to discuss a greater range of issues, but the • The topics are not strictly based around female
topics and discussion are less explicit. Episodes experiences. Though topics like ‘extreme breast-
can be any length, usually 10-30 minutes. feeding’ are female-centric, other discussions
• Podcasts have soared in popularity in the past about grief, male/female friendships and
few years, with many - such as Serial - becoming modern slavery offer a female perspective on
cultural events in their own right. Minority issues that would also interest male listeners.
groups who have traditionally been excluded
Consider theoretical approaches:
from mainstream radio have used podcasts
Power and media industries - Curran and Seaton
to find a voice, and producers have utilised
the lack of regulation to discuss controversial • It could be argued that Late Night Woman’s
issues, especially personal or sexual matters. Hour challenges the idea that media is
controlled by a small number of companies
• Female-produced podcasts such as The High
driven by the logic of profit and power.
Low and The Broad Experience not only
explore issues affecting women in society, they • Whilst the BBC is inarguably a large, significant
also attract high profile guests that rival those company, the nature of PSB (discussed above)
of traditional radio. Comedy podcast Dope and the content of the broadcast seem to be
Queens even had Michelle Obama as a guest! at odds with the “logic of profit and power”.
Consider the funding of the BBC in comparison
• BBC Radio, whilst being a traditional
with commercial organisations. Candidates
media institution, does not treat these
might explore the extent to which the license
independent podcasts as competition. Rather
fee frees BBC producers from the pressure
they build a symbiotic relationship with the
to generate profit and the way in which this
presenters, often inviting them to guest on
impacts the content of their broadcasts.
BBC Radio programmes (Radio 1, 4 and 6
particularly do this). This could be seen as • Late Night Woman’s Hour podcast format
an example of cross-media convergence. might also be used to support Curran and
Seaton’s idea that socially diverse patterns
• A good example of this is regular LNWH
of ownership help create conditions for
guest Chidera Eggerue, who writes and
varied and adventurous productions.
presents The Slumflower blog and podcast.
Controversial comments she made about • Candidates might consider the proliferation
race and feminism were re-tweeted and of podcasts across a wide range of topics
shared across social media, creating debate and genres in recent years. Do the relative
and promoting the ‘edgy and candid’ brand low production costs of this medium and
identity of both The Slumflower and LNWH. the inexpensive hosting/digital distribution
costs offer producers (and often prosumers)
Consider how media producers opportunities to take risks and develop
maintain varieties of audiences: adventurous content that still manages to
• The current presenter is Emma Barnett, a reach diverse international audiences?
journalist and broadcaster, who also presents
Regulation ‐ Livingston and Lunt
the BBC Radio 5 Live late morning show. She
also writes the ‘Tough Love’ ‘agony aunt’ • As a PSB, the BBC has quite strict guidelines
advice column in the Sunday Times Magazine, about what content can be broadcast or
where she explores extremes of peoples’ published. BBC1 for instance rarely features
personal lives. Her style therefore is light- sex, nudity or swearing, and all the broadcast
hearted yet unafraid to explore emotionally channels (TV and radio) follow the ‘watershed’.
sensitive issues. This suits the LNWM format. • The original LNWH was broadcast at 11pm
• Barnett took over from founding presenter on Radio 4, where shocking discussions and
Lauren Laverne, who was renowned for swearing were acceptable. The podcast version
bringing controversial, adult and explicit is somewhat ‘safer’ and less controversial, whilst
having uncompromising and honest discussion.
2A level Media Studies Fact Sheet
• This seems to challenge Livingston and • Explore responses to Late Night Woman’s
Lunt’s assumption that ‘new media’ is Hour on Twitter and other social media
harder to regulate. The BBC has considered platforms. The Spectator described the
the access of potential audiences and initial response to the show as a “twitter
regulated within the institution. storm” and candidates might discuss the ways
• The sacking of Radio 2 DJ Danny Baker in in which the broadcast has been designed
May 2019 after an inappropriate tweet shows to invite audience members to enter the
how strictly the BBC regulates their content. discussion through social media platforms.
• The topics in the podcast tend to be more focused
PART 2: STARTING POINTS – Audiences on personal experiences, some serious (e.g.
‘taking your child to work’) some more light-
Social and cultural contexts: hearted (e.g. ‘objects you just can’t throw away’)
A gendered discussion of the podcast is likely to compared to the broadcast version. This may be
benefit from some context regarding the changing intended to create discussion on social media.
roles of women in the UK over the past 70 years. • Candidates could conduct some audience
Woman’s Hour was originally broadcast in the research into male and female responses
1940s and candidates might consider how different to the podcast - what do male audiences
life in the UK is for women now (possibly focusing find interesting (or not)? Does it make a
on shifts from the 1950s housewife towards the difference if the guests are all women?
independence of young women in the 1960s and
comparing this with present day). What about
the changes to a male’s role in society and their Consider how media organisations reflect
representation in the media? Candidates may use the different needs of mass and specialised
this information to consider the way that audience audiences, including through targeting:
responses to, and interpretations of, media products • A return to the remit of PSB here could invite
reflect social and cultural circumstances. discussion about the BBC and attempts to
There has been a raised awareness about inequality produce content for all audience demographics.
between males and females in the media, and Candidates might ask whether the broadcast
the BBC has made efforts to address gender has been designed to explicitly appeal to a
imbalance. With a roster of female presenters specialised (educated, female) audience as
across it’s radio channels, some people have part of the remit of the organisation itself.
questioned the relevance of a show just dedicated An extension of this discussion might explore
to women, and then having a ‘late night’ spin-off. whether there are any other media products
The impact of the #MeToo campaign and other that appeal to this specific target audience
social media campaigns highlighting sexism, and on the radio (BBC or otherwise).
the popularity of women’s podcasts, show there is a • In 2014 the BBC famously introduced a ban
diverse and engaged audience for ‘women’s media’. on all-male TV and radio panels to offset this
dominance. Candidates might use this as a
Consider how audiences interpret the media,
discussion point to consider preferred readings
including how and why audiences may
of Late Night Woman’s Hour and why it might
interpret the same media in different ways:
be particularly welcome to some audiences.
• Candidates might consider a male response
to the content of the show. They might
consider how many other media texts are Consider theoretical approaches:
composed of only female members (even Reception theory ‐ Stuart Hall
Loose Women, for instance, has male guests) • Discuss possible different readings of the
and how this might be unsettling or alienating broadcast. What is the intended meaning?
for male listeners. They might compare this What might be a negotiated meaning
to a female audience and question whether (e.g. from a male audience member)?
or not this same gender composition might What might be an oppositional response
be appealing to some female audiences. (e.g. from a sexist male listener)?
3Feminist theory ‐ Van Zoonen Feminist theory ‐ bell hooks
• To what extent does LNWH achieve Van • Radio 4’s audience is often pigeonholed as
Zoonen’s suggestion that gender stereotypes being white and conservative middle class.
in the media can only change if more women Bell Hooks has written about how women
produce and appear in the media? of lower class or different ethnicity are even
more oppressed by patriarchy. To what extent
does LNWH challenge this by featuring guests
and issues that reflect the diversity in the
female audience? Think about regular guests
Chidera Eggerue and Ambreen Razia.
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