Researching Media In Everyday Lives

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100

HOUSEWIVES AND THE MASS MEDIA 95

Housewives and the mass media*

Dorothy Hobson

Mass communication, in the form of radio and television, has emerged as an important aspect of the day-to-day experience of the women in the study.1 Television and radio are never mentioned as spare-time or leisure activities but are located by the women as integral parts of their day. (The exception to this is the television viewing which is done after the children are in bed, but even then the period is not completely free for the woman because she still has to provide drinks or food if her husband wants them.) There is a separation between the consumption of radio and television, but both provide crucial elements in the experience and management of their lives.

Radio
Copyright © 1991. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.

You’ve got a friend, the happy sound of Radio 1. (Radio 1 jingle)

I have various people in mind. One is a man working in a small garage where perhaps there are two or three mechanics clonking around with motor cars but have the music on. And they’re enjoying it as a background. And then there is this dreaded housewife figure [sic] who I think of as someone who, perhaps last year or two years ago, was a secretary working for a firm, who is now married and has a child. She wants music that will keep her happy and on the move. [Derek Chinnery, Head of Radio 1, in an interview published in Melody Maker, July 1976, quoted in Happy Birthday Radio 1, BBC Publications 1977]

‘Dreaded’ or not, the housewives in this study do listen to Radio 1 and find the experience enjoyable. The radio, for the most part, is listened to during the day while they are engaged in domestic labour, housework and child care. As Anne said, ‘It’s on in the background all the time.’ In some cases switching on the radio is part of the routine of beginning the day; it is, in fact, the first boundary in the working day. In terms of the ‘structurelessness’ of the experience of housework, the time boundaries provided by radio are important in the women’s own division of their time.

Lorna We do have the radio on all day. You know, from the time we get up till the time the tele comes back on. I usually put it on at 4 o’clock for the kids’ tele….

Linda I listen to the radio. I put it on as soon as I get up.

Anne Six o’clock I get up (laughs), er, put on the radio full blast so that me husband’ll get up…*

The constant reference to time during the programmes on Radio 1 also helps to structure the time sequences of the work which women perform while they listen to the radio. Programmes are self-definitional, as The Breakfast Show, Midmorning Programme, which includes Coffee Break at 11 a.m. At the time of the study Tony Blackburn was running the morning show (9 a.m. -12 noon), in which he had the ‘Tiny Tots’ spot at 11 a.m., during which a record was played for children and Blackburn attempted to teach a nursery rhyme to the children listening while the ‘mums’ had a coffee break. During David Hamilton’s afternoon programme (2 p.m. -5 p.m.) the ‘Tea at Three’ spot is included, when once more women are encouraged to ‘put their feet up’. The disc jockeys (DJs) use points of reference within the expected daily routines of their listeners, and some of these references are responded to by the women in the study. The programmes which are listened to are Radio 1 and BRMB local radio, the former being the more popular. Responses to questions about radio are always given in terms of the disc jockey who introduces the programme, with the records referred to in a secondary capacity. Pat

P. I like Radio 1. Tony Blackburn. I think he’s corny but I think he’s good. Dave Lee Travis I like and Noel Edmunds. Noel Edmunds, I think he’s absolutely fantastic….

D. So do you prefer the radio?

P. During the day, yes.

D. Would you have the radio on while you were doing housework?

P. Oh yes, yes.

D. Why do you like the people you like?

P. Erm . . their personality—it comes over on the radio. Noel Edmunds, I think he’s really fantastic, you know, the blunders he makes, you know, I like (inaudible). I think he’s really lovely (laughs). D. And do you do your housework at the same time? P. Oh yes. Anne

A. I listen to BRMB, you know, that’s quite a good programme. I like listening to the people that phone in, erm . . I like the conversations. D. Why do you think that is?

A. Er . . I suppose it’s ‘cos I’m on me own.

D. Is it the music as well that you like or….?

*This is an extract from Dorothy Hobson’s unpublished MA thesis, ‘A Study of WorkingClass Women at Home: Femininity, Domesticity and Maternity’.

A. Yes, ’cos I find that nearly all my records are a bit old-fashioned and I like to hear a bit of the modern music. ((Yes)) I don’t want to get way behind the times, you know.

The predominance of presenters or DJs in the respondents’ reactions to radio programmes can be seen from various aspects. First, it is necessary for the personality of the disc jockey to be a prominent feature in the programme, since all the records which are played throughout the day on Radio 1 are the same; the only variation which exists is in the chatter between records which the disc jockeys provide. Inevitably, then, it is their ability to form a relationship with their audience which gives the disc jockeys their appeal. The disc jockeys have become personalities in their own right, as have the presenters of television current affairs programmes, and the increasing professionalism and development of the necessary features and components of the successful disc jockey could be seen as analogous with the professionalization of other television presenters. As early as the first year of the existence of Radio 1, which began in November 1967, the following point was noted: ‘It soon became clear that Radio 1 DJs were going to be accorded almost as much attention by the media as the Royal Family.’ (BBC/Everest 1977) The disc jockeys are prominent as a structural feature of the production process of these programmes, and it is they who direct the discourse of the radio programmes towards their known audience—in this case the housewives. Secondly, the women respond to that notion of themselves as ‘feminine domestic subjects’ of radio discourse which is presented by the disc jockeys. In this study I have concentrated on the reactions of the women to the disc jockeys rather than on the production process of the media messages.2

Within the overall picture of isolation which has emerged in the lives of the women in this study, the disc jockey can be seen as having the function of providing the missing ‘company’ of another person in the lives of the women. As well as helping to combat isolation, it is not too far fetched to see the DJ as also playing the role of a sexual fantasy-figure in the lives of the women who listen. Pat’s comments about Noel Edmunds (above) are certainly not limited to his role as someone who breaks the isolation in her life; it includes references to his attractiveness and physical appearance, although she does not make this explicit. Nevertheless, my reading of the role of the DJs is that they play the role of a safe, though definitely sexually attractive man, in the lives of the women. The responses to other DJs confirm this assumption. Tony Blackburn is talked about more in terms of the content of his programme and his manner of presentation

*Key to transcripts

…or (pause) pause

() non-verbal communication, e.g. (laughs)

(()) phatic communication, e.g. ((Mm))

…speaker interrupted

than in terms of endearment or enthusiasm. However, Blackburn himself obviously realizes the potential for fantasy relationships with his audience. When he was suffering from a throat infection, which made his voice sound rather husky, he said: ‘I hope I am not turning you ladies on too much. I know your husbands have left for work, it’s you and I together, kids.’ (Recorded from Radio 1, autumn 1977)

Blackburn is a disc jockey whom it is impossible to ignore. Rather like Crossroads, the women either like him or hate him, but rarely do they remain indifferent to him. Blackburn himself provides interesting comments on his own views on radio and pop music, describing his show as ‘a pleasant bit of entertainment in the background if you like—inane chatter. I think there’s room for a station that comes on and is full of a lot of people talking a load of nonsense’. (Guardian, 9 January 1976)

Fortunately for him, he does not have to listen to his own programme for, as he says, ‘It would drive me mad if I had to physically sit down and listen to David Hamilton’s show, or mine, for that matter.’ (ibid) And fortunately for the women in this study, they do not have to sit and listen either; they can treat the programme as background chatter. But if by chance they happen to listen to what Tony Blackburn has to say, they will be subjected to an onslaught of chatter which definitely reinforces the ideology of the sexual division of labour and places women firmly in their ‘correct’ place—in the home. It is in the direct comments which he makes about the records and current topics of interest that Blackburn reveals the depth of his conservatism. The ‘working man’, strikers, punk rockers, women involved in divorce actions, (in the wake of his own recent divorce) all warrant criticism from him. Women who are playing their traditional role as housewives and mothers constantly earn praise from him. In one programme in which he was promoting a record by Nancy Wilson (which was supposedly sung by a woman who had enjoyed a ‘liberated’ life, yet still yearned for the love and security of a husband and family and wanted to tell her ‘sisters’ of the truth of her misspent life), Blackburn fervently ‘plugged’ the record and consistently reminded his listeners of the ‘truth’ of the theme, saying, ‘If you understand this, ladies, you understand everything.’ In case his listeners did not fully get the message of the song, he took the trouble to explain it, using his own interpretation: ‘I hope you understood these lyrics. Nothing is more important, no matter what the press and the media tell you, there is nothing more wonderful than bringing up a child, nothing more difficult either.’ (Recorded from Radio 1, autumn 1977)

Perhaps Tony Blackburn does represent an extreme form of the reinforcement of the ideology of domesticity of the housebound listeners of Radio 1, but far from providing background chatter which can be ignored, he obviously intends his comments to be heard by his audience—and he knows who his audience is. The reinforcement of the dominant ideology of domesticity is definitely a function of the encoded media messages emanating from Radio 1.

The disc jockey, as well as providing relief from isolation, links the isolated individual woman with the knowledge that there are others in the same position.3 Similarly, this can be seen as a functional effect of ‘phone-in’ programmes. One of the women says: ‘I like listening to the people that phone in. I like the conversations …. I suppose it’s ‘cos I’m on me own.’ These programmes not only provide contact with the ‘outside’ world; they also reinforce the privatized isolation by reaffirming the consensual position—there are thousands of other women in the same situation, in a sort of ‘collective isolation’.

Radio can be seen, then, as providing women with a musical reminder of their leisure activities before they married.4 It also, as they say, keeps them up to date with new records. Since they do not have any spare money to buy records, this is an important way in which they can listen to music. Since listening to music and dancing are the leisure activities which they would most like to pursue, radio is also a substitute for the real world of music and discos which they have lost. Also, it provides a crucial relief from their isolation. The chatter of the disc jockey may appear inane and trivial, but the popularity of radio, both in national and local terms and in the responses of the women in this study, would appear to suggest that it fulfils certain functions in providing music to keep them ‘happy and on the move’. Radio creates its own audience through its constant reference to forthcoming programmes and items within programmes. As the jingle at the beginning of this section suggests, the women in this study do appear to regard Radio 1 as a friend, and they certainly view the disc jockeys as important means of negotiating or managing the tensions caused by the isolation in their lives.

Television—‘two worlds’

Linda No, I never watch the news, never!

The ideology of a masculine and a feminine world of activities and interests and the separation of those gender-specific interests is never more explicitly expressed than in the women’s reactions and responses to television programmes. Here both class-and gender-specific differences are of vital importance, in terms of both which programmes the women choose to watch or reject and their definition and selection of what are appropriately masculine and feminine programmes and topics. Also, they select television programmes much more consciously than radio programmes. This must partly be a consequence of the fact that they have more freedom during the evenings, and they can make active choices because they are no longer subject to constant interruptions caused by their responsibility for domestic labour and child care. This is in contrast to their listening to the radio during the day, when radio programmes are selected primarily as ‘easy listening’, a background while they do their housework or look after the children.

There is an active choice of programmes which are understood to constitute the ‘woman’s world’, coupled with a complete rejection of programmes which are presenting the ‘man’s world’. However, there is also an acceptance that the ‘real’ or ‘man’s world’ is important, and the ‘right’ of their husbands to watch these programmes is respected: but it is not a world with which the women in this study wanted to concern themselves. In fact, the ‘world’, in terms of what is constructed as of ‘news’ value, is seen as both alien and hostile to the values of the women. For them television programmes appear to fall into two distinct categories. The programmes which they watch and enjoy are: comedy series (Selwyn Froggitt, Are You Being Served?); soap operas (Emmerdale Farm, The

Cedar Tree, Rooms, Crown Court and, predominantly, Crossroads and Coronation Street); American television films (MacMillan and Wife, Dr Welby, Colombo); light entertainment and quiz shows (Whose Baby?, Mr and Mrs); and films. All these programmes could be broadly termed as ‘entertaining’ rather than ‘educational and informative’. The programmes which are actively rejected deal with what the women designate the ‘real world’ or ‘man’s world’, and these predominantly cluster around the news, current affairs programmes (Panorama, This Week), scientific programmes (Tomorrow’s World), the subject-matter of politics or war, including films about war, and, to a lesser extent, documentary programmes. Selected documentaries will be viewed as long as the subject-matter is identified as of feminine interest. The following are extracts from responses to questions about television, and it can be .seen from these that there is a clear distinction between what men and women watch and what is seen to be the right of the husband to watch (news and current affairs programmes). Anne

D. What programmes do you watch on television?

A. Er…Crown Court, Rooms, Cedar Tree, Emmerdale Farm, Mr and Mrs.

What else is there? Dr Welby. Then there’s a film on of a Friday. D. This is all on ITV, isn’t it?

A. (Long pause while she thinks of other programmes) Yes, er…yes, that’s another programme. Whose Baby?

D. There’s a film on on Mondays as well, isn’t there?

A. No, no…oh, yes, there is. It’s Mystery Movie. I don’t like, I’m not very interested in them, you know. I sort of half-watch them.

D. So it’s more the short series. ((Yes.)) What do you like about the programmes that you watch?

A. Something to look forward to the next day ’cos most of them are serials.

D. Do you like them to…Which do you like the best, which type?

A. Er, I like The Cedar Tree more than Emmerdale Farm. I’m not really keen on that. I only watch it through habit. Er, more romantic, I think, you know, there’s sort of, er, family life, that is, more than Emmerdale Farm. I don’t know, I…something about that isn’t so good.

D. That only really takes you up to tea time, so do you watch the television at night?

A. Yes, in between half-five and eight, that’s me busiest time, feed him, change him, sometimes bath him. I don’t bath him very often, erm, get Richard’s dinner and I always clean up straight away, the washing up, and then I get everything settled and that takes me up to about 8 o’clock, ’cos I stop at half-past six to watch Crossroads (laughs). And then from 8 onwards I just sit and watch the box (laughs). D. Why do you like Crossroads?

A. Just that you like to know what’s going to happen next, you know. I mean they’re terrible actors, I know that, and I just see through that, you know. I just, now and then I think, ‘Oh my God, that’s silly,’ you know, but it’s not the acting I’m interested in, it’s what’s going on. I suppose I’m nosy…. D. The time then between that—do you watch the news?

A. I watch a little bit of it, erm (pause). I don’t really like the news much because it’s all politics, generally and British Leyland out on strike again, and this and that. I like to hear the news things if, er,—if there’s been a murder, I know that sounds terrible, but I like to hear—‘Oh what’s happening next, what have they found out?’ That sort of news I like, you know— gossip. ((Yes.))

D. Do you ever watch documentaries?

A. Now and then I find an interesting one. I watched one the other night about people who’d got diseases.

Lorna

L. We have the radio on all day, you know, from the time we get up till the time the tele comes back on. I usually put it on at 4 o’clock for the kids’ tele and they watch all the children’s programmes, and it might come back off at 6 and it might not go back on again till half-past seven. D. So you don’t watch the news?

L. No, I never watch the news, never.

D. Why don’t you watch it?

L. I don’t like it, I don’t like to hear about people dying and things like that. I think about it afterwards and I can’t sleep at all. Like when I watched that thing, World at War, and I watched it once and all I could see were people all over the place, you know, heads and no arms and that and at night I could not sleep. I can’t ask him to turn it over ‘cos he likes it, so I go in the kitchen till it’s finished.

It is clear that the news, current affairs, political programmes and scientific programmes, together with portrayals of war (real or in the guise of war films) are actively rejected by the women. They will leave the room rather than sit there while the news is on. The world as revealed through the news is seen to be (a) depressing, (b) boring, but (c) important. The ‘news values’, as realized in agendas, are ‘accepted’, but they have alternative values which the women recognize but do not suggest should form an alternative coverage. In fact, the importance of accepted ‘news values’ is recognized, and although their own

94 ETHNOGRAPHY

HOUSEWIVES AND THE MASS MEDIA 95

Hall, S., Hobson, D., Lowe, A., & Willis, P. (Eds.). (1991). Culture, media, language : Working papers in cultural studies,

1972-79. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_bl Created from sunderland on 2020-10-05 08:15:02.

Hall, S., Hobson, D., Lowe, A., & Willis, P. (Eds.). (1991). Culture, media, language : Working papers in cultural studies,

1972-79. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_bl Created from sunderland on 2020-10-05 08:15:02.

Hall, S., Hobson, D., Lowe, A., & Willis, P. (Eds.). (1991). Culture, media, language : Working papers in cultural studies,

1972-79. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_bl Created from sunderland on 2020-10-05 08:15:02.

ETHNOGRAPHY

world is seen as more interesting and relevant to them, it is also seen as secondary in rank to the ‘real’ or ‘masculine’ world. In terms of what the news is seen to present, they only select items which they do not wish to see. Comments or judgements are made in terms not only of what the items are but also of the effect which they have on the individual. Thus the items are not judged solely for their ‘news value’ but also for the way they affect the individual. There would appear to be a model for the programmes which are discussed and then rejected.

The news

The women’s interpretation of news and current affairs programmes is an accurate reflection of the news items which are contained in these programmes. They may mis-identify the foci of some news reports, but this perhaps reinforces their claim not to watch these programmes. For instance, when Lorraine says ‘It’s all Vietnam, on the news’, she is not necessarily identifying specific examples. In fact, Northern Ireland is much more likely to have been the exact focus of the news at the time. The general point is clear enough: ‘Vietnam’ has become a generic term for war.

The grouping together of the news and current affairs programmes by the women is a response to the circularity of these programmes, which is determined by the interrelation between the news and current events programmes and the prior selection of news items for their news value. A news ‘story’ becomes a ‘current events topic’, and the selection of news items according to the hierarchy of ‘news value’ puts political and military concerns, industrial relations and economic affairs at the head of topics for inclusion.5 The editorial selection of these items is premised on their ‘news value’, and this also reflects a masculine bias in terms of the ideology of the subjects of the items included. The women find little of interest for them in the news except for any ‘human interest’ items, which are necessarily low in news value and rarely occur. When domestic affairs do reach the news it is often in terms of deviation or murder, and this in turn reinforces the accepted absence of these items from ‘normal’ news bulletins. This is illustrated when Anne says that she likes to hear news about murders (see page 111 above). It is not the fact that someone has been murdered which she finds interesting in the news but the fact that there are elements within the situation to which she can relate.

The ideology of femininity and feminine values over-determines the structures of what interests women. It is topics which can be regarded as of ‘domestic’ interest which they see as important or interesting, and it is also significant that ‘domestic affairs’, constructed in terms of ‘news values’ to include the economy and industrial relations, are not defined as ‘domestic’ in the categories which the women construct for themselves. ‘Domestic’ clearly relates to their own interests and not to the definition which is constructed through the hierarchy of ‘news values’. It can be said that the majority of items which are included in news, current affairs and documentary programmes have a content which has little or no intrinsic interest for these women, and the way that they are presented means that they exclude these women from ‘participation’ at the point of identification with the items included. At the same time, the women accept that these are important, and this reinforces the split between the masculine values, which are interpreted as being important, and the interests which they see as representing their own feminine values.

The feminine ‘world’ of television

D. Do you like programmes that are like your life or that are entirely different?

R. I think I like things different really, ’cos if it’s like me life, it’s not very exciting ’cos there’s nothing much really ever happens. Something exciting, different. I like watching detectives, anything creepy like ghost stories, I love ghost stories, anything creepy like that.

First, in conjunction with the programmes which women reject, there are programmes which they choose to watch and to which they obviously relate.

These can be defined as those which are related to their own lives, the programmes which can loosely be termed ‘realistic’—Coronation Street, Crossroads, Emmerdale Farm, The Cedar Tree. Secondly, the programmes which can be described as having ‘fantasy content’ (horror movies, or American movies or television movies), although not seen as representing ‘real life’ in the women’s own terms, are seen as an alternative to the reality of their own lives. Finally, there are the programmes which can be categorized as light entertainment (quizzes, or competitions which often have an ‘everyday’ or ‘domestic’ theme, either because the contestants are seen as ordinary people or because of the subject-matter. In Whose Baby?, for example, the children of celebrity guests appear and the panel has to guess who is the famous father or mother—a direct link of parenthood between the ‘famous’ and the ‘ordinary’ viewer (in this case, the woman).

The programmes which are interpreted by the women as portraying ‘everyday’ or ‘family’ life are, in fact, far from portraying anything which has a point of real identification with the women’s own lives. The programmes may not relate to the everyday lives of the women in the study. Within the programmes which are seen as ‘realistic’ there are common elements of identification. Many of the

ETHNOGRAPHY

characters in the series Coronation Street and Crossroads are women who themselves have to confront the ‘problems’ in their ‘everyday’ lives, and the resolution or negotiation of these problems within the drama provides points of recognition and identification for the women viewers. It is in the ‘living out’ of problem areas that much of the appeal of the series is located. However, the resolution of areas of conflict, contradiction or confusion within a dramatic situation is double-edged. The woman can be confronted with the problems and also informed of the different elements which have to be considered in any ‘living out’ or resolution of problems. It is in the forms that the resolutions are made within programmes that the ideological basis of consensual femininity is reproduced and reinforced for women. As with the problems that are discussed in phone-in programmes and in the chatter of DJs, the very fact of recognition and seeming discussion or consideration by some ‘outside’ or ‘independent’ authority gives an impression that the problems have been aired. The outcome remains the same. The resolutions within either the soap opera series or the telephone conversations or talks are not revolutionary; what emerges is the reinforcement of the fatality or inevitability of the situation, without the need to change it.

It is impossible to attempt a detailed analysis of the decoding of the programmes which is made by the women because at this stage this would be only supposition.6 What is clear, however, is that the programmes which the women watch are differentiated specifically in terms of both class and gender. Overall the programmes fall into the categories of popular drama and light entertainment, and although it is obvious that the women reject news and the political content of current affairs programmes, it would be wrong to contend that they do not have access or exposure to news or politics. Within comedy programmes, news and current affairs topics are presented in a mediated form— and often in a more easily accessible or even ‘joking’ or parodying manner. The news on Radio 1, which is transmitted every hour, is relatively accessible; it is also introduced by music which is recognizable, bright and repetitive and demanding of attention. The women in this study are exposed to news in this form, but they do not mention finding that unacceptable. Clearly, what is important is the definition of specifically feminine interests which women select from media output and the rejection of items which they see as specifically of masculine interest. They combat their own isolation through their interest in radio programmes during the day, and they see television programmes as a form of ‘leisure’ or relaxation. Radio is integral to their working day, but earlyevening television is secondary to the domestic labour which they perform. The programmes which the women watch and listen to, together with the programmes which they reject, reinforce the sexual division of spheres of interest, which is determined both by their location in the home and by the structures of femininity that ensure that feminine values are secondary (or less

‘real’) than those of the masculine world of work and politics, which the women regard as alien, yet important.

Hall, S., Hobson, D., Lowe, A., & Willis, P. (Eds.). (1991). Culture, media, language : Working papers in cultural studies,

1972-79. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_bl Created from sunderland on 2020-10-05 08:15:02.

Hall, S., Hobson, D., Lowe, A., & Willis, P. (Eds.). (1991). Culture, media, language : Working papers in cultural studies,

1972-79. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_bl Created from sunderland on 2020-10-05 08:15:02.

Hall, S., Hobson, D., Lowe, A., & Willis, P. (Eds.). (1991). Culture, media, language : Working papers in cultural studies,

1972-79. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_bl Created from sunderland on 2020-10-05 08:15:02.

Researching Media In Everyday Lives

Dorothy Hobson

RadioCopyright © 1991. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.

Television—‘two worlds’

ETHNOGRAPHY

The feminine ‘world’ of television

ETHNOGRAPHY

Radio
Copyright © 1991. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.