BBC RADIO 4

PODCAST: NEW YEAR’S SOLUTIONS

EPISODE: Meat

DATE: Monday, 31st of December 2018

HOST: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Robert Nicholson

GENRE: documentary

The other episodes are focused also on the same subject (climate crisis): Lithium, Oil,
Children, Food, Flights, Space, Water, Clothes, Cars.

The podcast starts with a rhetorical question addressed to the listeners: Have you made
your New Year’s resolutions yet? And then she comes with a suggestion regarding what people
should think about at the beginning of this year. Through his questions she introduces the listeners
to the subject: what possible changes can we make in order to make a better world. Then a sound
effect (20-23s) is used in order to make the transition to another speaker. In the section where a
man is talking about the extinction of our natural world a dramatic sound effect is used again (30-
37s) in order to emphasis the importance if this problem. When the host is talking and asking
questions to her guests the music sounds happier (1:58-2:10). 3:30- positive music. Introducing a
short audio advertisement (6:24-6:30, 7:00-7:07)

REGISTER AND STYLE of the podcast: the register is semi-formal because

Can we talk about MULTIMODALITY? In a radio podcast we have only the sound. In
some specialty papers, communication specialists state that a disadvantage of radio is the lack of
image, so there is a possibility that people will not be so easily convinced to continue listening. A
great number of researches show that people are first attracted and interested in images (color,
shape, size) and then they perceive the text. But how can we make them to pay attention to a source
that is based only on auditory stimuli? People that are working in radio industry make use of special
sound effects such as sound bites, a certain kind of music that matches the context and the subject
(if we have a dramatic documentary we can easily find suitable music for it), the voice tone of the

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host that can catch our attention. In other words, such auditory elements can determine the listeners
to imagine the story they hear. Some researches demonstrated this theory (Miller and Marks):
sound effects have the ability to generate mental imagery because they have the benefit of being
dually coded in the memory.

SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE of the podcast: Basically, this series of episodes is a call for
action as the host stated: ,,So, here’s the plan, in each episode let’s try to do something differently
and get the experts to tell us what kind of impact it could have and then we’ll scale it up, imagine
all 7.7 billion of us will do the same thing every day and see where it will get us”. I think the main
objective of this podcast is to offer valuable information from specialists in order to change
people’s point of view on the state of our environment, to make them conscious about their every
day small choices.

BBC GIUDELINES

One of the editorial values is truth and accuracy (we will weigh relevant facts and
information to get at the truth. Our output, as appropriate to its subject and nature, will be well
sourced, based on sound evidence, thoroughly tested and presented in clear, precise language) –
the fact that they invited specialists from different domains related to the subject, some of them
give explanations in detail using true facts (cows digestive system, for example), using number in
order to show the exact impact (15%, a typical UK farm is using 10.000 meters square of land for
a year)

Impartiality lies at the core of the BBC's commitment to its audiences. We will apply due
impartiality to all our subject matter and will reflect a breadth and diversity of opinion across our
output as a whole, over an appropriate period, so that no significant strand of thought is knowingly
unreflected or under-represented. We will be fair and open-minded when examining evidence and
weighing material facts.

Specialist: Loren Witmash (professor at Cardiff University) studies how to determine

people to be more environmentally friendly. She is honest and say that she’s not vegetarian or
vegan because the vegan cheese is not tasty at all, but recognize that the best way to start carrying
about our environment is give up meat. She explains the reasons why it’s so hard for some people

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to give up meat: the taste of the meat, the habit of eating it (they can’t imagine living without
consuming meat), an association with masculinity.

Mike Burners-Lee, professor at Lancaster University, researcher and writer on greenhouse

gases. He explains how we can eat the same amount of protein and not cause a big carbon footprint
(the impact that we have on the environment by our daily actions-energy we use, transport,
manufacture, supply chains). And the important question is how can we measure this carbon
footprint? The specialist tells us that if we have a knowledge background about all these harmful
things we can develop an instinctive behavior that is orientated to be friendly with our
environment.

Joseph Por, management consultant, states that too much of our lands is farm land because
the consumers’ demand is high for meat and as a result 15% of the world’s greenhouse gases are
produced by animal farms. He explains in detail why animals like cows cause such a harm to our
environment: their digestive system use bacteria that don’t require oxygen. This time, he decided
to become vegan in order to show that he strongly believes in what he thinks. So, another way to
appear more convincing to the public is to invite people that have some beliefs and at the same
time they take action in that direction, in order to support their beliefs. Dr. Lenel, assistant
professor of public health policy at the University of Wisconsin, talks more about the
psychological impact of a plant-based diet on men.

Correlation between the political spectrum and not eating meat: people who are more on
the progressive side are likely not to consume meat and conservative people.

A Senegalese vet offers information about how nomadic people are growing their kattle:
animals are part of their families. Because they learned how to make yogurt from fresh milk they
made money and were able to send their children to school.

They offer interesting information on how our world would change if all of us stop eating
meat: the farm land that we now need would be reduced by 3.1 billion hactares (an area the size of
United States, Europe, China and Australia combined)-here they use this description in order to
help us to create a mental image of how much farm land that cause carbon dioxide we use now.
12:00 the guest is thinking about his answer, so we can say that the answers are coming naturally
and are not decided before the interview.

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 Why did I choose this podcast?

I consider that one of the most important problems that must be given attention is the
climate change, the impact of our actions on the environment (both nature and animals). I also
watched recently other documentaries on the benefits of giving up meat (The magic pill, Forks
over knifes, What the health), but they presented this subject in a different way: the benefits for
our health.

TARGET AUDIENCE and serving the public interest editorial value of BBC

The target audience is formed of people that usually listen to BBC podcasts, people who
are interested in learning more about this subject, people who already given up meat or try to do it
and want to know more information before making a decision.