Life Hacks

• BBC Radio 1
• Started in 2017 – overtaking The Surgery
• Programme including discussion of health and social issues such as exam stress, sexual health, alcohol and drugs.
• Cel Spellman, Katie Thistleton and Radha Modgil.
• Cel Spellman was replaced by Vick Hope in August 2020
• Sunday teatime slot
• Young hosts – young audience demographic.
• Guests that young people will know eg. Dianne Buswell – Online Influencer and professional dancer
• Public Service Status
• Funding for the programme through the licence fee that people have to pay
• A multi-platform media product. Can be streamed on the radio or online (new technology)
• Techniques used to attract young listeners such as young hosts and current music

War Of The Worlds

• An adaptation of H.G Wells’ novel ‘The War of the Worlds’ from 1898
• Columbia Broadcasting Company (CBC)
• Became famous for apparently causing stress amongst the audience who thought that aliens were actually invading.
• Starts as a normal radio show and then includes news flashes about explosions on Mars.
• Broadcasted on 30th October 1938

Passive to Hyperdermic message

The programmes show that there is a shift in media audiences – people are more in touch with the media and actually understand it now. People in the times of War Of The Worlds were less media literate. People in the 1930’s were more naïve and vulnerable.

Clay Shirky – End of Audience Theory

• Audiences like to talk back to producers and interact (new technology) so there is more equality of power.
• War Of The Worlds was passive and didn’t include the audience whereas Life Hacks is much more inclusive and has people calling in and being involved.
• By the end of October 1938, Welles’s Mercury Theatre on the Air had been on CBS for 17 weeks. A low-budget program without a sponsor, the series had built a small but loyal following with fresh adaptations of literary classics. But for the week of Halloween, Welles wanted something very different from the Mercury’s earlier offerings.
• The radio show (Welles’s Mercury Theatre on the Air) had made themselves a small following of listeners
• Had been on air for 17 weeks
• Audiences hadn’t been given a voice to contribute