Some interesting thoughts out there this morning about the broadcast / podcast issue. Two of the blog/podcasts I listen two with devout reverence have both sparked off some great thoughts/ideas. So here I am to put my two bits into the discussion (why else did I get a philosophy degree at university?)

Dave Winer sparked everything off in his very thought provoking Morning Coffee Notes when he reveals he’s been asked by KYOU-AM in San Francisco to be the first podcast that they broadcast. Dave’s thoughts on the podcast/broadcast issue are very relevant to the continuing discussion about the direction podcasting is taking. In the UK Lloyd Davis continues his Morning Audio Blog series with thoughts on the Curry-Sirius Deal and Dave’s Broadcast dilemma. But where Lloyd shines is his insight into the benefits versus flaws in the business model for the future of podcasting.  Lloyd futher helps us understand and define just what it is about podcasting that is attractive to both ‘caster and listener.



As a listener one of the things which draws me to listen to podcasts is a key feature–the time shift. Podcasts are pause-able, portable, transferable nuggets of information or entertainment which don’t require me to be in any specific place or frame of mind to enjoy. There is a selectability as well. I often stop one podcast to listen to something else so that I can concentrait on the first one more fully later. Given the diversity of the content, there is also something for everyone. I try to listen to at least 4 shows of 3 new podcasts a week–some I keep, some I don’t. So far I have a collection of 28 regulars which I listen to more or less as I can. Radio/broadcasting doesn’t have that appeal. However, that being said, there are new elements which change the traditional radio paradigm. Thanks to Audio Hijack Pro and other programs and the Internet, we can now record radio and make it into MP3s and bring them with us–still doesn’t make it a podcast.



I think there is a crucial difference between podcasting and broadcasting in intent.  The are both so similar–they deal with the distribution (wikipedia ‘broadcasting’ definition) of content, but the method is markedly different and the reasons. Wikipedia likens podcasting more to publishing–which goes along with the blogging correlation and the subscription model which currently drives podcasting.  As a podcast listener I am also drawn to the intimacy of podcasts. It is like I am there with the podcasters. Their trials are my trails if I so choose them to be.  Lloyd, dashing for a train. An unwanted and annoying motorcycle starting up near Dave. Adam Curry spilling tea. There is a humanity and concurrancy of experience being displayed through podcasting which traditional radio broadcasting has sanitized away.



On the flip side, as a podcaster I enjoy podcasting because of its ease. It really doesn’t take much to record a bit of audio and fling it out into cyberspace. You can put more or less effort into it, and if anybody is listening–great!, if not–you still have done something personally worthwhile. I also enjoy the ability to capture moments and share them–one of the things which has always attracted me about photography and film. The advent of blogging and rss has aided distribution and brought it into the hands of everyone. Same is true of podcasting. Podcasts can be created anywhere, anytime. Soundseeing tours are fantastic. You can be somewhere, and live the audio experience and enjoy. They are one of the things that drew me into podcasting.  While broadcasting has to take place in a fixed time and location, podcasts have creativity and randomness which make them more like real life than any staged radio show. I tend to shy away from podcasts which either are radio redistributed, or are like traditional radio shows. I want to hear life as other people live it.



One last thought–I promise. . . .

Blogging, podcasting–the new paradigm–has shrunk the world through rss in a way that media hasn’t done before. Sure I can watch the BBC World News, or CNN, or other satellite program from across the globe, but the pictures and images are one-sided. Those newscasters, correspondants, broadcasters are not crafting something personal, for a target audience–they are flinging themselves to the masses.  They don’t post their reports themselves–they are removed from the total experience of what they are creating.

Podcasting–even if I don’t percieve a target audience–is individuals engaging individuals. It is now a global, social phenomenon.  Amsterdam, London, Austrailia, Nashville, Florida, and others are now places I care about because someone has led me to know about issues, geography, people in those places. As in life we select the people we surround ourselves with as friends, so too in podcasting. I don’t think podcasting broadcasts, or broadcasting podcasts will break the social community which is developing, but I do think that they won’t carry podcasting as far as some hope it will. Before long the content will be shaped to the distribution style and there won’t be the same spark of creativity.



Comments please.




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