Page 104 - Culture Media Language Working Papers in Cultural Studies

7
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
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….