Late Night Women's Hour: initial analysis

Before we start...

Who are these guys, and why should we care?*

Stuart Hall – reception theory 

Henry Jenkins - Fandom

Clay Shirky – the end of audience

 Initial analysis 

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Late Night Women's Hour is broadcast on BBC Radio 4, with previous episodes and edited highlights also available to download or stream from the BBC Sounds website. In what ways does this distribution model allow the show to target multiple audiences?

Late Night Woman's Hour is an occasional and irregular spin-off of the long-running magazine show Woman's Hour. Broadcast late at night, it's content can, at times be considered more niche, edgy or more potentially controversial than the main broadcast.

Each episode focusses on a particular theme relevant to it's female target audience.

For our study, there is no 'set episode', though we will be listening to a variety of clips from the show.

Click here to listen to a 13 minute excerpt of the show. You can either stream or download this content, but remember youwill need to sign up to BBC Sounds first!

Questions for discussion

• Being as specific as possible, who is the target audience for this show?
• How does this episode use lexis to appeal to its target audience?
• Analyse this episode's modes of address
• Stuart Hall suggests that audiences can negotiate the ideological perspective of any media product. What might the preferred and oppositional readings of this show be?
• Would you listen to this show? Explain your answer

*Because you should be referring to them in your written responses, obviously. But why else? How can these theorists help us to make sense of the world around us?