Filtering women’s identity through podcast storytelling: the case of Desert Island Discs

The present research aims to explore how narrative storytelling shapes women’s identity by examining two women's portraits in the podcast Desert Island Discs by BBC Radio 4. The study uses a combination of conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis and sound semiotics to study the interconnection among narrative storytelling, music and sound in podcasting, as well as the degree to which these elements interconnect and the ultimate impact that they have on the representation of the guest’s identity. Results show that the Desert Island Discs podcast incorporates all the features of narrative storytelling such as the character and the voice of the interviewee, the voice of the singers, the dialogues etc. and this has a marked impact on the identity of the podcast and the woman presented.