About Podcasts
"Podcasts are audio stories that could be current or topical like news or sports and utilize immersive storytelling like the old radio shows. The storytelling uses audio as the medium and utilizes sound design and audio cues to help the listener understand what's happening and make sure they are going to receive the information they need to immerse themselves." - Jen Sargent (Wondery)
STARTER SURVEY
Before we take a deeper dive into the fascinating world of podcasts, this survey is a primer that prompts you to reflect on your own experiences and knowledge about podcasts so far. Have you listened to one before? What devices do you use to access podcasts? Do you have any podcasts you enjoy that we can add to our collaborative library?
What is a Podcast?
Previously known as audio-blogging, the term “podcast” is a portmanteau that combines the words “iPod” and “broadcast”.
Assigning a coherent definition for what constitutes as a podcast is a challenging task. On a technical level, it’s a non-musical audio recording that is saved digitally in a way that can be listened to by anyone, anywhere, on web browsers and mobile devices. These audio recordings, or episodes, form parts of series that usually focus on particular topics or themes featuring one or more recurring hosts. They can be scripted or improvised, and are broadly released as free public media.
Podcasting first really catered to the techie world, but has broadened to cover every topic under the sun since then. On podcast platforms you can find anything ranging from music to philosophy to sports; the freedom of blogging combined with digital audio technology means that there is an endless supply of content to choose from. Currently podcasts are also not regulated, meaning that podcasters can make and distribute content license free on any topic of their choice.
Just like blogging enabled anyone to be a writer or journalist, podcasts allow anyone to be a disc jockey or talk show host. Podcasts are thus similar to radio broadcasts, but they have no set lengths, release schedules, formats, or topics. A further difference between podcasts and radio is that it doesn’t require a listener to ‘tune in’. Podcasts can be listened to on demand via RSS feeds on devices. In 2019 there were an estimated 660,000 podcasts in production with approximately 28 million individual episodes that could be listened to!
Glossary of Terms
Podcaster (podder, one of the pod people) - A person who creates podcasts
Podosphere - Users that download podcasts, a take off on the word blogosphere
Narrowpodding - The process of creating new content for specific audiences
Chumcast (gabcast) - Where two or more people chat about something they feel strongly about.
Learncasting - Creating educational content
Godcasting (psalmcasting) - Religious content
Blogcasting - Blogger content
Vodcasting (vidcasting, vlogging) - Video podcasts
Mobilecasting - Creating a podcast specifically for a mobile phone
Phonecasting (voicecasting) - Launching a podcast directly from a cellular phone
Videocasts
A podcast that contains video content, including web-series.
Enhanced Podcasts
A podcast that includes links to other media synchronised with the podcast (think narrated slideshow)
Podcast novels
A fictional work recorded into episodes and delivered over a period of time (not readings of novels)
Live Podcasts
A podcast recorded in front of live audiences. Part of the movement to monetize this medium.
Videocasts are a wonderful potential bridge to the various benefits relating to the integration of video production processes and uses in educational settings. To learn more about this, feel free to explore this educational resource made by some scholars from the UBC MET program! You may find some inspiration on how to bring both podcasts and videos into your classrooms.
PODCASTING HISTORY
For best use of this image, either download it or open it so that you can zoom in and read the details and pieces of information!
As with the definition, the origins of podcasting differs depending on who you ask... however, this should be a good overview of the developments that led to the podcasting phenomenon we have today.
References
Burns, J. E. (2010). The Past, Present, and Future of Podcasting. In Dumova, T., & Fiordo, R. (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Social Interaction Technologies and Collaboration Software: Concepts and Trends (pp. 56-66). IGI Global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-60566-368-5.ch006 *Recommended Reading
Chester, A. (2018). Podcasting. In B. Warf (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of the internet (pp. 708-711). Thousand Oaks,, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781473960367.n207
Gray, C. (2020, January 29). How to listen to a podcast easily on any device. The podcast host. https://www.thepodcasthost.com/listening/how-to-listen-to-a-podcast/
Jovic, D. (2020, February 5). 40 Powerful podcast statistics to tune into. Smallbizgenius. https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/podcast-statistics/
McMahon, J. (2017, July 27). The beginner's guide to podcasts. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/podcasts-beginners-guide/
Newman, N. (2020). Podcasts: Who, why, what, and where? Digital News Report. http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2019/podcasts-who-why-what-and-where/
O'Connell, M. (2017). Turn up the volume: A down and dirty guide to podcasting (1st ed.). London: Routledge Ltd. doi:10.4324/9781315438764
RSS (n.d.). 7 Steps to starting a podcast [Infographic]. RSS.com. https://rss.com/blog/thinking-of-starting-a-podcast/
Thorpe, E. K. (2019). 5 key podcasting trends from the digital news report 2019. What’s new in publishing? https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/5-key-podcasting-trends-from-the-digital-news-report-2019/
Whitner, G. (2020, June 13). Podcast statistics (2020). Musicoomph. https://musicoomph.com/podcast-statistics/
Winn, R. (2020, April 21). 2020 Podcast Stats & Facts (New Research From Apr 2020). Podcast Insights. https://www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/