As you know that when RadioButtonList renders on the web page, it wraps the items of the RadioButtonList with <span> </span>.
To get the radiobutton selected value use below code.
Assuming your RadioButtonList id is "radioApproved".
$('#<%= radioApproved.ClientID %> input:checked').val()
To check a particular radio button from RadioButtonList control using jQuery, use following code.
$('#<%= radioSendEmail.ClientID %> input:radio')[1].checked = true;
Hope this helps someone.