Reducing Barriers to Podcast Creation
Ian R Buck and Ryan Rampersad discuss the barriers of podcasting and the avenues in which our podcasting dreams might prosper.
Fringe episode: tf300
Intro of problem
Today we’ll be discussing the issue of how difficult it is from a technical standpoint to create a podcast.
Discussion of podcasting as a medium:
Seven concepts of new media from Nancy Baym’s Personal Connections in the Digital Age
- Mass media (one to many)
- Low interactivity
- Asynchronous
- We don’t do breaking news
- Auditory social cues
- Persistent (it is stored)
- Reach: a little complicated
- Has the potential to reach anyone with an internet connection who can hear
- Hindered by the fact that it is typically long-form, many people are not in the habit of listening to podcasts
- Mobility
- Listening is extremely portable
- Creation significantly less so
Podcasting has the same agenda setting effects as any other mass medium.
- Explain agenda setting
- Confess to using Eight Bit to set agendas
Adoption trends: a survey of college students in 2008 (so old!) reported that 60% of them listened to podcasts at least sometimes. On average they had been listening for 1.52 years (SD 1.04 years). On average they listened to 84.37 minutes a week.
- Technology attributes had less of an impact on podcast use than in previous studies
- Technological innovators had been listening to podcasts longer, and were more likely to start if they did not listen, but was not correlated to weekly podcast use
- Perceived value of information available through podcasts affected years of listening and likelihood of starting
- Perceived quality of podcast information affected weekly use and likelihood of starting
- Perceived social utility of podcasts did not affect podcast listening
- For non-listeners, perceived value and quality of information was a greater predictor of likelihood of listening than technological factors.
According to The Verge (a highly tech-focused publication), podcasting is going through a renaissance. Serial is the fastest-growing podcast of all time.
Can be used effectively to improve listening skills in a new language. In particular, metatextual skills were developed by the participant keeping a journal, and the researcher added ideas for her to journal about over the course of the weeks.
I (Ian) on the other hand, used podcasts as an anchor to Minnesota while I was in Sweden. Oops.
Technical Discussion of our proposed solution
Basically, we want to make it as easy as blogging or making a video series on YouTube.
Ian’s Wishlist:
- Free for creators and listeners (yes, it would have to be ad supported)
- Option to upload pre-edited episodes or record them directly in the browser
- Community stuff
- Pairing up with other hosts to record shows about subjects you are both interested in
- Control what accounts can edit your show: hosts, producer, etc
- Support in getting on iTunes, Stitcher, searchable in podcast managers
- An app
Ryan’s Wishlist
- WordPress.com/org model
- free: limited storage/bandwidth/themes, integrated domain
- paid: expanded storage/bandwidth, additional themes, multiple mediums (more than audio), domain attachment
- self-hosted: very flexible, plugin based architecture, scalable, themable
- Audio quality focused web streaming tool
- like Google hangouts, but primarily audio focused
- allows precise control of participants volume
- leverages new codecs for shifting bandwidths and latencies
Getting the word out about this
- Social marketing theory (usually used in politics)
- Target people who are likely to make podcasts. That would be people who listen to podcasts.
- Reinforce by other channels, encouraging people to spread the word
- Stimulate interest- how do we make podcasting cool?
- Activate audience- get people to actually use our tool
Citations
Agenda Setting reading CMR 4341 class notes & misc, retrieved 3/4/2015.
Baym, N. K. (2010). Personal connections in the digital age. Polity.
Benjamin, D. (2014, November 28). The Podcast Equipment Guide. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from http://www.podcastmethod.co/podcasting-equipment-guide
Cross, J. (2014). Promoting autonomous listening to podcasts: A case study. Language Teaching Research, 18(1), 8-32. doi:10.1177/1362168813505394
Pierce, D. (2014, November 28). The new radio stars: Welcome to the podcast age. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/28/7302227/the-future-is-podcasts
Social Marketing reading CMR 4341 class notes & misc, retrieved 3/4/2015.
Xigen, L., & Li, Z. (2011). Technology Attributes, Perceived Value of Information, and Social Utility: Predicting Podcast Adoption and Use. Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, 27(1), 69-83.