In this session, you will be exploring important aspects of the radio industry, as it relates to the BBC and Late Night Woman's Hour. Please follow these tasks through in order, making sure one is complete before you move on to the next one.
1 - Exam feedback
Before you start the industry work below, it is essential that you check your email and read what grades, marks and feedback you have been sent.
Then, please take the time to read through this post that gives feedback and suggests content that you could have included. Please read THE ENTIRE THING. Don't skip anything. This post tells you step by step how to achieve an A* grade for the TV unit.
If you've already addressed your feedback, then you can skip this step!
2 - Do your mock!
A few of you haven't done your mock yet, for various reasons. If you haven't, please do it now. Here are the questions:
1 - Explore how Humans and The Returned both target and maintain a specialised audience [30, 50 minutes]
2- To what extent do the representations in Humans reflect the time in which it was made? [15 marks, 25 minutes]
3 - Explore how The Returned has been shaped by the contexts of its ownership [15, 25 minutes]
Of course, if you've done your mock, please skip to the next task!
3 - Power and the media industries
Curran and Seaton argue that because only a few organisations actually own media products, there is a severe imbalance of power in the media industries. They argue that media conglomerates are motivated by power and profit, and this presents a limited choice for audiences.
However, we are going to argue that the BBC is NOT for profit, and presents a plurality of voices and ideologies that commercial services simply cannot.
Power Task - choose one of the BBC's commercial competitors. I recommend Netflix or Disney +, as both are funded through subscription. Either by scrolling through the BBC iPlayer app and the Netflix app side by side, or simply googling for a list of programmes currently on these services, compare and contrast the content presented by these two different services.
To what extent can it be argued that the BBC challenges the idea that all media products exist to make money?
4 - Regulation and the BBC
Livingstone and Lunt argue that the regulation of media industries is ineffective, essentially because digitally convergent media allows producers to bypass regulations. Radio is regulated by OFCOM. To make things nice and simple, OFCOM monitor media products to ensure they do not have material that is likely to HARM AND OFFEND.
Regulation Task 1 -Using your notes from the 'vaginas/pockets' episode of Late Night Woman's Hour, what material here is actually likely to harm or offend? Is there anything to force the BBC to apologise, or to remove this content? Try and think beyond the word ' vagina', and consider the presenters, the subject matter, and the concepts they are talking about. Does this show meet the needs of it's audience?
Unless you are very uptight, then there is NO MATERIAL LIKELY TO (seriously) HARM OR OFFEND used in Late Night Women's Hour. The reason for this is that the BBC practice SELF-REGULATION. This means they deliberately moderate their own content so as not to upset audiences, and to be criticised by the UK news media. However, there have been some examples of criticisms of the BBC and its content
Regulation task 2 - using google, find examples of the following:
- A BBC show (radio or TV) that has been complained about by audiences for depicting drug use
- A BBC show (radio or TV) that has been complained about by audiences for depicting sex
- A BBC show (radio or TV) that has been complained about by audiences for depicting violence
- Criticisms and controversies surrounding the BBC itself
- A story in a tabloid newspaper that criticises the BBC
- Criticisms about BBC Radio 4
5 - Hard facts
- Who produced LNWH?
- When did LNWH start broadcasting?
- Give three ways in which LNWH is distributed to it's audiences
- Who is the target audience for LNWH?
- How would you describe the production values for this show?
- How can audiences use digitally convergent media to access LNWH?
- Who regulates the radio industry?
- In what ways could an episode of LNWH harm or offend it's audience?
- What measures are put in place to stop younger people from listening to this show?
- How is LNWH an example of media plurality?
- How successful is LNWH from a global perspective?
- How can audiences use or take pleasure from an episode of LNWH?
- Is the BBC vertically or horizontally integrated?
- How does the BBC make money, and how is this different to Netflix?
- What is one obligation the BBC has that Netflix does not have?