Audience

• Historically radio soap operas have always focused primarily on women's lives, particularly family relationships, domesticity, and marriage. Therefore the target audience was traditionally women who looked after the home
• Listeners from different walks of life could engage with the show in different ways due to its multi-stranded narratives. As a listener you may personally identify with one particular character
• The Archers is perceived as a high-quality soap opera and distinguishes itself from TV soaps by providing soap for the educated middle class. Radio Four has a high cultural status and so the audience for The Archers consists mainly of well-educated middle-class professionals, most of whom are middle-aged and above, white women
• For many listeners, The Archers was a familiar friend which provided a comforting background and, until recently, there was an unwritten rule that nothing too terrible would happen.
• In many recent years some listeners have complained that The Archers is beginning to mimic the excesses of TV soaps such as Eastenders. For some listeners the show they used to consider light had morphed into actual mellodrama
• The new development of storylines that some may complain about has also been a move that attracted new listeners as they see society reflected in the show. This move has given the BBC the opportunity to open a conversation about topics like domestic violence
• Because the BBC can be accessed from around the world some of the online audience is global and can keep people in touch with British life.
• According to Uses and Grats, the audience may use the show for entertainment, information (about rural life/topical issues the storylines deals with), social interaction, and personal identity