Hope Jacobs
Professor Karen McDevitt
New Media Practices
10/08/24
A podcast is a newer platform to come out of the media community. It’s seen as a good platform to have in the media world due to its rising popularity, uniqueness as a medium, easy accessibility and production along with doubling as an educational tool. As a media platform, it does have similarities to radio but tends to be more specific in topics whilst only broadcasting episodes once a week or so whereas radio as a platform tends to broadcast every day covering various topics.
Being a newer media platform one could wonder about the origins of podcasts. Martin Kuchta wrote an article on the subject titled “ Audio on the Internet: History and Evolution of Podcast”. Published on Google Scholar Kuchta goes in depth on the subject.
Kuchta started their articling defining podcast origin in December of 2005 when podcasts were declared the word of the year. “ The first podcast service, Libsyn.com (Liberated Syndication), founded by Dave Mansuet and Dave Chekan, was also launched in October 2004, offering creators a repository along with various RSS creation tools. Libsyn opened the door to the world of podcasts not only to companies but also to people for whom podcasts were a hobby. The service was also used by the popular comedy podcast Keith and The Girl, which won the People's Choice Award in 2007 (Libsyn 2021) “ Kuchta writes. With that being said it can be argued that podcasts are a technology medium that has evolved faster considering how young it is and how it can be labeled a part of the Gen Z generation of technology mediums.
One advantage of such a young technology medium that is argued by Kuchta is the simplicity in both the medium’s usability and financial usability being on the more affordable end. “As Christopher Lydon said in Hammersley's article, everything needed to make podcasts was cheap. Creation tools were available, and everyone claimed that they could be publishers or creators. Without having to satisfy the producers' ideas and the need to answer to the editors, along with the number of cheap tools available, the podcast allowed journalists to work directly with the audience. The combination of voice intimacy, blogging interaction, or the convenience and portability of a downloaded MP3 file combined the benefits from several areas. “.
In simple terms podcasts are agreed to be an advantageous medium seeing how they can be cheap to have, easy to access online, and easy to run. Podcasts are a newer media platform that has grown in popularity in the last two decades. They have recorded conversations held by people on various topics. They are a good platform because they connect listeners on a topic while the hosts converse with each other on a topic and educate the listeners on a topic.
Podcasts are a media platform that has been gaining attention from certain academics and educators. Kim Fox is a professor of practice in journalism and mass communication at the American University in Cairo Egypt. Professor Fox published an article on podcasting on The conversation.com on October 31, 2022.
Titled “Podcasting in Egypt- how feminist activism has Emerged through shared stories” the article dived into Professor Fox’s study of analyzing how podcasts help feminist activism through Egypt with their wonder of seeing how students grew in their developing knowledge of the topic along with their growing identities as feminists along with wanting to see the role podcasts played in being used for digital activism. “We took a qualitative critical analysis approach to examine narration, sound bites from interviews, music,c, and other podcast production elements. The feminist identity development model was a good fit for the research project as it allowed us to better understand our podcasters’ knowledge of feminism and their intention to select a socio-cultural topic for their podcast. The model covers a five-step process from passive acceptance to active commitment.”. With that being said Professor Fox’s study used four woman podcasters for case studies to help build their research for context on how Egyptian women gain awareness of social and cultural inequities as they grow in their Feminist beliefs.
Professor Fox writes of their findings in the study of the methods, topics, podcasters, noted findings, and why this study even matters. “ Feminist pedagogy (the method and practice of teaching) includes encouragement through professor and peer-led discussions. This enabled the podcasters to provocatively dissect traditional gender and socio-cultural norms.”. As a result, this lets the female podcasts in the case studies have more than enough content for their podcasts.
Of the various topics used there was a range from matchmaking to family involvement to women being married off to well-off families. Professor Fox even writes how one podcaster talked about the participation of women in the 2011 Egyptian revolution. “Our podcasters embodied diverse feminist perspectives, displaying multi-dimensional feminist origins. These included black, western, and post-colonial feminist views. Their lived experiences are a welcome contribution to the Egyptian digital sphere as they provide a counter-narrative to traditional patriarchal norms.”.
Professor Fox ends their article by arguing why this case study even matters and relates to podcasting. “We found that our Egyptian female podcasters utilized multiple feminist ideals in their podcasts. This research demonstrates the power of podcasts as a tool for digital activism. Speaking about their experiences and opinions allows young Egyptian women to exercise an otherwise muted voice in society. Podcasts are a vehicle for this.” Professor Fox writes. With that being argued well Professor Fox does admit in their conclusion that there can be disadvantages to podcasts as a media platform.
The main disadvantage mentioned was the podcasters mentioned being of the same social circles while having the same degree of education. “ A more diverse pool of podcasters would be ideal for future research on this topic.” Professor Fox writes. While Professor Fox makes a good point in admitting that there needs to be a vastly diverse array of podcasters to help share different points and experiences for any case study; it can also be argued that podcasting in general can be a beneficial platform to use to discuss case studies like this or important topics like feminism in countries that may need it.
This article can be a prime example of how podcasts are a media platform that can be beneficial tools to help spread information or ideas around the world and areas that may not have access to other forms of technology or media platforms like TV. Where podcasts can be used for information or background noises while one works; they also can be used for beneficial reasons like education, news reporting, or to simply help keep people informed about world events.
As previously mentioned above podcasts are a technology medium that can have beneficial use in education. Stanford University published a article on the topic of using podcast for the benefit of learning. Titled” How to leverage podcast for learning” the article was published on their website.
The article weights in on the pros and con of how podcasts would affect classroom learning. “ For decades, podcasts have been used for leisure and entertainment. However, in recent years, educators have started using podcasts for teaching and learning. For example, instructors can use podcasts for lecture delivery, student assignments, or community-building around interests “ Stanford's website writes in their article. It should be admitted that with anything there will be both cons and pros. Some of the cons mentioned by Stanford's article were lack of storage for podcast creation and equipment and teachers needing to learn how to use podcast equipment. Both are reasonable.
If podcast episodes are used to teach content a teacher would have to learn how to use podcast websites and applications like the Apple podcast app while potentially needing to have a subscription to such apps/websites depending on what platform they want to use. Also some educators may even go a step further and have students create a podcast for a assignment. This would require educators to get microphone and computer software to record for the podcast episodes while also having to learn how to record a podcast before teaching their students.
On the flip side of that topic Stanford’s article continues by discussing the pros of using podcasts in education. The pros mentioned by Stanford were “ Presents a wide range of subjects in a quick and efficient manner that is convenient for the instructors and students. requires minimal support for the users. podcasts are available on almost any device, introducing and supporting a broad array of narrative types that can improve student learning or understanding. Low cost or free to listen. Reduces screen time and Zoom fatigue. Simpler to create and edit than video recordings “. All of the pros listed can be argued to outweigh the cons mentioned in the same article.
Podcast episodes typically stretch from 15 to 60 minutes so an educator can use a podcast with three to four topics and break it down for a 45 minute class period. Secondly podcasts platforms tend to have a broader array of subjects compared to youtube due to how much easier it is to create podcasts.
All one does is use a microphone and a software like Audacity then cut out the few portions of silence before uploading. Having taken a podcast class in a previous college semester I it took me about forty minutes to record and editing takes about a hour. Editing videos for Youtube or social media can take two hours or more to record.
Stanford continue to write about how podcasts could be used in the classroom. One example could be generating a playlist with certain episodes to help engage the students. For most young students it’s easy to get bored at school when you sit in a desk for eight hours hearing teacher talk endlessly. Having podcast episodes incorporated in the classroom lessons plan can help make class more engaging and therefore more entertaining for students. With that being stated Stanford seems to rest its case on where it star with this article being published on its website.
Another topic related to podcasting is misinformation and AI use in podcasting. Like every other media platform that exists, podcasts do have to worry about the spread of misinformation or AI-generated content by podcasters and their listeners. One article that discusses this topic is an article written by Sachin Pathiyan Cherumanal, Ujwal Gadiraju, and Damiano Spina on the topic of misinformation and AI in podcasting published on August 1, 2024. Titled “ Everything We Hear; Towards Tackling Misinformation in Podcasts “; the three university professors go in depth about how both AI and misinformation pose a danger in podcasting and how they should be handled.
“ It is important to note that podcasts may sometimes unintentionally spread misinformation. One such example is when Joe Rogan’s influential podcast hosted infamous physician Dr. Robert Malone promoting COVID-19 conspiracy theories (Refer [7]). As a result, such podcasts may end up amplifying inaccurate or biased information to their listeners, which can negatively impact society. The democratization of podcasts and the lack of editorial oversight, fact-checking, or accountability mechanisms in the podcasting ecosystem may contribute to the spread of misinformation. Furthermore, podcast users are loyal listeners and this only exacerbates the issue of misinformation unless users are made aware [12]. This makes the problem of tackling misinformation still an open challenge in audio-based information access systems such as spoken conversational search (where communication between a user and system occurs verbally through audio) and podcasts” the three authors write on page one. It can be argued that misinformation can be a biased take that depends on one’s opinion. If there is a podcast reporting news or simply an opinion of a topic; a person listening with opposing views can call it biased or fake news just because they disagree with it.
But at the same time, that situation can be flipped. If there is a podcast reporting news or information proven to be biased, opinion-based, or misinformation, a disagreeing listener can call the information misinformation just because it disagrees with their personal opinion or proves their opinion to be false. This published article goes into depth on this problem of AI, misinformation, and how it should be handled.
Like any other type of technology podcasting and AI can be beneficial to people if used properly to help entertain, inform, or educate the general public. But it only takes one person or one invalid source of information to spread one piece of misinformation to hurt or mislead the general public. It can be argued that misinformation or AI-generated content is similar to gossiping lies about people. It only takes one person to believe and spread misinformation to another for such information to spread amongst the whole community whether it be spread in person, online, or on any technology-biased medium. Technology and various media platforms like social media or podcasts are the perfect enabling vehicle for misinformation, gossip, or AI-generated content.
In the article, all three professors talk about ways to combat misinformation. The first method discussed is obviously to fact-check information used during a podcast. “ Fact-checking is a long-standing practice in journalism that publishes an evidence-based analysis (i.e., reports) of the accuracy of a political claim, news report, or other public text [23]. Previous studies [55] show it’s effective against online misinformation. However, fact-check reports can be complex and require detailed reading on a screen. Recent research has explored different presentation strategies” the three professors write on page one.
This may seem a method that’s too obvious to mention but it is an essentially effective tool to help prove what’s validating the information and what was misinformation. When it comes to finding information online in this day and age one has to wonder about the validity and truth of it. Having a website, organization, or podcast platform have their information fact-checked on their platforms is a good tool to help educate the general public.
The second method mentioned was auditory intervention during podcast episodes. This idea is unique but could be of benefit to an audio platform like podcasts. “ We propose a novel approach to tackle misinformation in podcasts by harnessing auditory signals to alert listeners about potential accuracies within snippets of the podcast. By integrating such auditory signals we aim to empower listeners with real-time awareness.” the authors wrote on page four. With this angle, it’s easy to argue how having auditory invention can be of benefit to podcasts and other media platforms as a form of fact-checking.
The Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford’s website co-published an article titled “Five key ways in which podcasting may benefit your news operation” on how podcasting may be of benefit. Written by Paula Molina and published on November 29, 2022, the article offers five different methods that may be of help to podcasts and podcasters. “ It’s not just radio that stands to benefit: podcasting brings to all of journalism new opportunities for skills enrichment, to rethink the boundaries and meaning of our work, to find new ways to engage our public.” Molina wrote.
Where there are five methods in total I’ll only mention the first letting you all read the rest if it interests you. The first method discussed in Molina’s article was that Podcasts can diversify a news operation’s content. This was argued by Molina who wrote how “ For radio companies, podcasting breaks your content free from the time limits of synchronous programming and live broadcasting. For other news media (radio included) podcasts separate content creation from informative urgency, and open a space where new content and perspectives can breathe if the necessary resources for its development (time, tech, and talent) are identified and provided. “. This quote does have a valid point since it can be argued that the biggest advantage of podcasts is that they can dedicate the whole episode to one or two topics of their choosing.
Dr. Bharat Dhiman of J.C Bose University of Science and Technology in Faridabad, Haryana India published an article on Google Scholar on 1 August 2023 revolving around the topic of podcasts and how they impact information and news. Titled “The Power of Podcasts: Revolutionizing News and Information” the article goes in depth about how podcasts help evolve how we access information. The first point made in Dr. Dhiman’s article was how podcasts have played a part in the accessibility of media.
“ Unlike traditional media, which often requires significant financial resources and infrastructure, podcasts have lowered the barriers to entry, allowing individuals and organizations of all sizes to produce and share content.” Dr. Dhiman writes. This first point out of many made in this paper is a valid point due to how it’s easy to argue that technology and platforms like podcasting help with creating easier access to news and information. The rest of the article follows suit in discussing the topic that I’ll let you read for yourself.
Pew Research Center also had something to say on podcasts having published an article on Americans using podcasts for information. Titled “ How Americans use podcasts to get news and information” the article was published on April 18, 2023, and was written by Elisa Shearer, Jacob Liedke, Katerina Eve Matsa, Michael Lipka, and Mark Jurkowitz. “Many podcast listeners also say that the news they get there includes information they wouldn’t have heard about elsewhere. Nearly three-quarters of Americans who get news on podcasts (73%) say this happens at least sometimes, including three-in-ten who say they often hear unique news on podcasts.” the authors write.
This quote makes a good point due to how it helps the argument that podcasts help make information/news more accessible to people who might otherwise not watch TV or listen to the radio. The rest of the article I’ll leave to you to read at your interest but it does help cast podcasts as a media platform in a favorable light.
Also, it should be mentioned how podcasts can be used by the media and journalists to help them work. As technology evolved in the last one hundred years various media organizations and journalists have used technology to their advantage for their work. Unityjournalist.Org wrote a article on the role of podcasts in journalism in today’s work.
Titled “ The Role of Podcasts in Modern Journalism- Unity Journalism” the article was published on their website on August 8, 2024 and written by John Kinney. The article does in depth on the different advantages that podcasts have for journalism. The first argued advantage was how podcast serve for long form story-telling without the worry of taking up to much time or space is can posed a problem in traditional media formats.
“Additionally, the conversational nature of podcasts fosters a sense of intimacy and trust between the host and the audience, making it an effective medium for building loyal listenership.” Kinney writes. On top of that one additional characteristic of podcasts is their ability to server niche audiences interested in more niche topics. More often than not media organizations and social media tend to document news that is popular and trending.
Podcasts are more flexibility with what is discussed about during a episode. Traditional media often aims for broad appeal, sometimes at the expense of depth. In contrast, podcasts can focus on specific topics or communities, offering in-depth coverage and fostering a sense of connection among listeners who share similar interests. This has opened up opportunities for journalists to explore specialized subjects that may not receive mainstream attention.” Kinney writes. With that being said both news media organizations and journalists can use this tool similar to social media to benefit on the flexibility of the platform and to communicate with individuals.
The last source I’d like to use is an article published by the Wall Street Journal about the New York Times having podcasts only available behind a paywall. Titled “New York Times to move podcasts behind a paywall” the article was published on June 25, 2024, having been written by Anne Steele and Alexandra Bruell. While podcasts are a good media platform to make information and new accessible some organizations do try to monetize off of it which can be a problem depending on the subscription prices some organizations charge.
“U.S. podcast advertising growth slowed last year, increasing 5% to $1.9 billion, after years of double-digit gains, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, amid ad-market challenges. Revenue is projected to grow 12% to more than $2 billion this year and hit nearly $2.6 billion by 2026.”. This quote and article help show that with every productive new media platform, there will always be monetization of it. This type of behavior is nothing new but will always be a disadvantage to people accessing aforementioned media platforms like podcasts.
In closing it can be argued that despite this disadvantage of having to pay money or other disadvantages podcasts do have great potential and advantages being one of the newer media platforms that have gained popularity in the last 20 years. It can be used as a tool for education, entertainment, or informing the general public. It can be easily predicted and argued that podcasts will evolve into a major media platform similar to TV or social media.
Citations and references
(Cherumanal et al., Towards tackling misinformation in podcasts 2024)
(ohradiogirl, Egyptian female podcasters: Shaping feminist identities playlist 2022)
(Kim Fox, Professor of Practice in Journalism and Mass Communication, Podcasting in Egypt - how feminist activism has emerged through shared stories 2024)
(Dhiman, The power of podcasts: Revolutionizing News and information 2023)
(Steele & Bruell, New York Times to move podcasts behind Paywall 2024)
(Shearer et al., Podcasts as a source of news and information 2023)
(Molina, Five key ways in which podcasting may benefit your news operation | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism 2022)
(Stanford.Edu, How to leverage podcasts for learning 2021)
(Kinney, The role of podcasts in modern journalism 2024)
(Kuchta , (PDF) audio on the internet: History and evolution of podcasts 2021)
Σχόλια