Radio - LNWH

Product context

• Late night woman's hour is a spin off from the long running BBC radio 4 daily magazine program, woman's hour
• Its a broadcast once a month, late at night, presented by Lauren Laverne and features a number of female panelists
• Each episode focuses on a particular theme relevant to its female audience 
• Broadcasted Friday nights 11pm, niche audience 
• monthly

Late night woman's hour:

• Cultural - talking about Danish culture, food, social norms, inclusive - 'Hygge' - being cosy with life 
• democratisation - sophisticated lexis 
• British culture is expanding, the domestic 
• Target audience - middle class, middle age women
• Digital culture 
• Craft - homemade, handmade - domestic
• Food - home cooking, collective element (Danish)
• Focus on Ikea, "I knew my marriage was over when we bought an Ikea wardrobe"
• Home as a sanctuary - historical references, gender roles - After ww2 Men came home to the women - paints a utopia (perfect world)  
• Consumerism 
• Lauren Laverne - working class Geordie accent but uses complex lexis
• style of show- magazine show and a round table discussion (Egalitarian)
• 'Winter mug'
• Mode of address - extremely middle class
• 'square scarf selection', "only 20 books"
• Show may be sexist - full female panel and a show about housekeeping 
• It draws a binary between men and women - hard working men and emotional and women 
• Regulated by OFCOM 
• BBC is a public broadcasting service (PBS) -inform, educate and entertain. have a remit have to show a range of shows for a range of audiences

The telegraph - women's hour

• first broadcasted 1946 ( after WW2)
• Show featured music 
• First 45 mins debates and interviews 
• Used to start around 2/3pm
• 1970s it changed shows - diversification of audience 
• Criticism of being sexist towards both men and women
• "How to hang your husbands shirt"
• Show has been criticised for being too middle class 

Criticisms of Late Night women's hour:

• Boring and dull radio 
• Has an extremely middle class focus (topic- Hygge, not relatable to majority of audience)
• All female panel - sexist 
• The show is not relatable (problem with Ikea, make out that Ikea is too common) so quite snobby and the 'winter mug' comment 
• Exoticism - Scandinavian topics and Danish guest - Cultural capital, middle class 
• Middle class - food as a luxury, Chef on the panel, being evicted is seen as an exciting adventure whereas normal people would be in trouble over that situation - oppositional reading 
• promoting middle class ideology  

• The BBC has a remit (something the must do) they have to put out a diversification of shows to target different audiences. They need to have different voices 
• The BBC is a public Service (PBS) paid for by taxes, tv licensing 
• The BBC were criticised for selling the British Bake Off to cut costs and it was one of their biggest shows 
• The BBC is an institution that has a certain cultural capital wrapped in snobbery 
• The BBCs output is mainly due to economic factors and the remit 
• BBC 4 was kept on rather than BBC 3 as they wanted to keep their middle class image 

How have digital platforms changed the way we consume radio?

• You can stream radio shows online BBC sounds 
• you can download podcasts to your phone, can skip to the bits we want to hear - don't need to listen to it live
• Can watch the presenter talking live so there is a visual element 
• Radio gives audiences a more direct address to the audience and allows the audience to relate
• Archiving - You can listen whenever you want
• Social media allows audiences to interact with it 
• apps for radio shows, they offer a better user experience for the user 
• digital radio - reception is better, more channels
• Can use you phone anywhere 
• Give it a visual aspect, thumbnails for podcasts

DIGITAL CONVERGENCE - radio being used on phone

Audio streaming - The ability for audio streaming to be accessed via the internet has added a global reach to radio output as listeners abroad can tune in 

Digital Audio Broadcasting - The use of DAB has increased the amount of stations allowing for niche programming and also improved quality to encourage more listeners 

Podcasts - Listening to radio programming in podcast form is more flexible for audiences and if you miss it you can still watch it

Cross platform - the combination of media platforms has allowed radio to utilise visual elements such as web cams to remain appealing to a modern audience 

OFCOM regulate radio

- Nothing controversial about Late Night Women's Hour

- Regulation is largely ineffective as use of the internet, digital technology and podcasts, can watch anytime of the day

Localness - Talking about local topics, but Late Night Women's Hours is on a national station so not relevant 

Plurality - Where a media product/organisation needs to give voice to a wide range of ideological perspectives 

Swearing on Late Night Women's hour, news article posted by The Sun:

4 Fucks

2 shits

2 arse

2 bastard

Radio 1 - younger audience 

Radio 2 - 20+ 

Radio 3 - classical and art

Radio 4 -Drama, stories and discussions

Radio 5 - spot





How does LNWH abide by OFCOMs regulatory framework?

• "ensure a wide range of services and a wide range of appeal"
• "Maintain plurality in broadcasting" - Danish chef brings up different cultures
• "Protect audiences from offensive or harmful material" - This show often does swear
• "protect audiences against unfairness or infringement of privacy" - No mention of anyone else
• LNWH abides by OFCOMs regulatory framework

Diversity and creativity in the media

Curran and Seaton claimed that the media are controlled by a small number of companies driven by profit and power. They claimed that the concentration of media is limiting variety, creativity and quality and that if ownership of media can be more diverse this will help to create more varied and adventurous productions.

If only one organisation owns everything/most media products, the audience only get one ideology 

Singular stereotypical ideology if all are about the same thing

The Times - published by News UK

LNWH - its comfortable

- All women Panel

- Relaxed conversation

- Slow paced and repetitive 

- Offers a place of non judgement, they don't scream or argue over each other

- Promoting a utopia for the audience

Slow TV, train moving in Norway 

- Watch to destress 

- Watch in the back ground 

LNWH is now twice a week so growing audience 

One of the most important things for a media product is it needs to have authenticity
Hashtags are a way of sharing information quickly
They mention the hashtag LNWH but there isn't much information online about it
Example of viral marketing, media students
allows people who are not the target audience to relate

Participatory Culture