Watching Talk: Gender and Engagement in the Viewing of Audience Discussion Programmes

I felt really good because I'd spoken because in the past I've actually spoken to friends about it and they hadn't been in difficult situations and so they couldn't quite relate and strangely enough the audience was really really sympathetic and I felt more empathy with them than I had with friends who hadn't been through it. It felt really like the audience was on your side so it was actually a really nice feeling, you felt like you were being supported. (Woman participant in a studio discussion)