Science in the Media: Podcasts

The Assignment

Podcast

Step 1: Background information

Before you do anything else, you’ll need to do some careful thinking about your audience(s) and the kind of story you want to tell them. Spending time brainstorming and framing your narrative will save you dozens of hours during production and post-production.

The worksheets linked on this page below—coupled with the wide range of resources included in this LibGuide—should help you on your way toward bringing your story to life in a way that aligns with your vision and resonates with your key audience(s).

Podcast Style Choices

Beyond using the "Support" checklist to evaluate a podcast for the quality of its information, we'd like you to consider these sample podcasts in terms of their production style. This will help you make some important style decisions about the podcast YOU will make.

Things to Observe:

-Intro. How does the podcast begin? Music? Standard intro? Jump straight into the talk?

-Format. What is the format? Some possible formats: one host, one guest. One host, multiple guests. More than one host, one or more guests. A group of hosts, no special guests. Also: note how they verbally "ID" each new speaker: introduce him/her, title, why he/she is on the podcast.

-Structure. What is the structure of the podcast? Possible structures: A theme for the episode, with questions or talking points. A Q&A based on listener (or predetermined) questions. An informal, meandering discussion. A formal, information-based lecture. Do they include call-in voices? Also: does it sound like it was tightly scripted or ad-libbed?

-Tone. How formal or informal is the tone of the podcast? Does it sound like chit-chat, a classroom lecture, or somewhere in between? Is there a lot of filler and banter (like on commercial radio), or is the dialogue pretty tight?

-Music/Sounds. Is there music (intro, segues, outro) or "environmental sounds" (background noise, like in a movie, to enhance what's being discussed) or neither?