Customizing culture popularizes podcasts

On-demand news captures society by the earbuds

If you're too busy to read this entire article, try sticking it in your ear.

This article, similar to many others across the world, can be found as a podcast on the Internet. The term podcast, which plays off the name of Apple Computer's iPod MP3 player, is short for a radio-like broadcast that can be downloaded as an audio file to computers and MP3 players. Podcasts are made for the on-the-go listener and, once downloaded, can be played anytime and anyplace.

In 2006, podcasts are the latest trend of the Internet. Apple's iTunes Music Store opened a podcast channel in July 2005, allowing listeners to pick up some of the 3,000 podcasts offered. That same iTunes channel now offers more than 25,000 podcasts, according to Amy Gardner, an Apple representative. Major networks, including NBC, CBS, ABC and MTV have joined the club. Experts attribute podcasts' success to the ability for the average person to harness news and entertainment - and watch or listen at will - is making podcasts so successful. In addition to more user-friendly technology and the marketing behind it, podcasts are exposing people to the plethora of media outlets available today.

ON DEMAND

The success of podcasts boils down to control, experts say.

"The prime draw is that it's the first time media consumers have been in the driver's seat," Melinda Messineo, an assistant professor of sociology at Ball State University, said. Messineo researches media trends and is working on studies regarding niche markets, she said.

Using software such as iTunes and iPodderX, users can subscribe to feeds to receive podcasts downloaded to their computer. They can then play those files at a workstation or download the files to a portable device, such as an iPod MP3 player, and listen to the podcasts anywhere.

Podcasting relates to the similar developing technology of on-demand video and home digital video recording, said Steve Outing, a senior editor at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

"It's a little bit like having a TiVo," he said. "I really prefer to watch my show when I want to watch it."

Experts say consumers' attraction to on-demand media, such as podcasts and TiVo, is one part curiosity and two parts grassroots marketing.

MARKETING AND TECHNOLOGY

There's no great technological revelation, though, said Ball State associate professor of computer science Paul Buis and his fellow computer science professors, Vinayak Tanksale, Paul Gestwick and Jay Bagga.

"The technologies are fairly old," instructor Tanksale said. Faster computers and more user-friendly programs and interfaces helped make the technical aspects of podcasts easier to use for even the most computer-illiterate user. At podcasting's roots, the professors said, was a technology that was anything but advanced.

"The technology hasn't changed," Gestwick said, "The marketing has."

Even then, the marketing may not be what most people imagine. Andi Sporkin, vice president for communication at National Public Radio, said the key to NPR's podcast success was word of mouth.

"We didn't really publicize it," Sporkin said of NPR's podcast launch on Aug. 31, 2005. Within two days, numerous NPR podcasts ranked in the top of those downloaded on iTunes. Sporkin became curious about why the success was so instant, despite a lack of advertising.

"I ended up scanning blogs - and they (the listeners) have a network," she said. "Their credibility is more important than advertising. The fact is that there's a network in place and constantly growing.

"There's a discovery factor," Sporkin added. "You sort of watch how quickly the story can get told."

Even if advertising podcasts were necessary, Sporkin said marketing to specific demographics would be downright impossible.

"There is no credible research out there," she said, speaking about demographical studies on podcasts. "Anything anyone says is pure speculation."

Podcast listeners and creators range from 19-year-old college students to 50-year-olds, Sporkin said, citing his nephew as an example.

"He listens to NPR podcasts," she said.

Major networks and corporations - the mainstream media - found themselves scrambling to jump on the bandwagon in the third quarter 2005.

"To me, the hardest thing to answer is how it got on the radar of mainstream media," Sporkin said. "They're usually the last to catch on."

Even fake news organizations bought in. Weekly parody newspaper The Onion syndicates "The Onion Radio News," a spoof news program with deep-voiced anchor Doyle Redland, to radio stations across the country. It began podcasting those same programs via iTunes on Jan. 17.

"We saw that outside of ABC, FOX, CNN, NBC, CBS and three or four different NPR shows no one was really covering the news," Chris Karwowski, a spokesman for The Onion, said. "Basically there was an opening, and we filled it."

Karwoski's sarcasm is not as much of a joke as it may sound. By Jan. 31, "The Onion Radio News" topped iTunes' top 20 download chart. That chart shows the popularity for podcasts not limited to just one variety of entertainment or information - but rather a diverse group of sources and programs.

Because today's computers can do so many things at once, there's more power and time for users to search for - and consume - what they like, Gestwick said. For entertainment programs, it's convenient. For news and information programs, though, some experts warn consumers may be limiting themselves too much.

CUSTOMIZING

"Bloggers, podcasts ... It's getting to the point where everyone has their own custom stream," Outing said. "Because it's so easy to change the channel now. You can get more now."

Although consumers enjoy the choice to select their sources and stories, critics say the the pick-and-chose attitude could have drawbacks when it comes to properly informing people of vital news and information that is required for a democratic society to make informed decisions on public policy. Bagga, professor and chair of Ball State's Department of Computer Science, said everyone should receive a default news selection to stay up-to-speed. That default would include a core group of sources or channels - ensuring everyone receives at least some amount of the same news content.

At the rate information and the technology that delivers it is developing, Gestwick also sees the customization of news as a problem for society.

"You can completely control what you don't want to listen to," Gestwick said, "So you can ignore news you don't want to hear - I think there's a real cultural danger."

Skepticism exists about the effects of customization, but Messineo said there was still a lack of any completed in-depth research into the theory that specialized news was bad for consumers. Only anecdotal evidence exists to support the claims right now, she said. Along those lines, Messineo said consumers' narrowing view of the world was making them less literate.

"We're losing our ability [to be literate] ... we're not as good as processing larger chunks of text, writing chunks of text," she said.

The customization and smaller bits of information bring forth concerns about the way America functions as a whole, Messineo said.

"Does the proliferation of this marketing segmentation limit our exposure to other voices - to the point where it threatens democracy?" she said. "There's a risk that we surround ourselves in our own narrow beliefs."

The debate falls back to the entertainment-turned-infotainment product Apple has experienced so much success with: the iPod. Because of the gadget and other changes in technology, people's information gathering habits are changing.

"We want information fast - It's the iPodification of our media consumption," Messineo said.

FUTURE

Outing is not too worried about the problem - if one exists at all.

"It's an issue that came up when I first got into the Internet stuff," he said.

Even with thousands of media choices, Outing said the majority of people want a well-rounded look at news.

"Most of us are going to want to know what the important issues are," he said.

The drive of podcast's hype seem to largely be consumers finding the benefits of on-demand programming, Outing said.

Still, Outing does not see past technology fading too quickly.

"I don't think the old model will go away that fast," Outing said. "I think people are pretty stuck on the old models."

Sporkin said there might not be a good answer to the question of a customization hurting society, but that people's natural curiosity could be a saving grace.

"When you give people opportunities to explore beyond their interest - they do," she said. "They'll expand their interests overall - or randomly - but just things they've sort of been curious about but never went out of their way to look into."

Part of that deeper look into consumers' worlds may include a stronger interest for longer podcasts, Sporkin said. NPR does not podcast most of its programs in full because research has yet to show that customers want extraordinary long broadcasts.

"That could change - the rapid evolution," Sporkin said. "There's a tolerance level. We very well might be getting into multiple hours of podcasts."

Most experts agree that as long as those multiple hour programs can be downloaded at the consumer's request, podcasting will continue evolving exponentially. It's just as easy to publish as it is to receive podcasts, and the computer science instructors say this may be one of their biggest keys to the growth. Anyone with the right equipment and a limited working knowledge of computers can publish, the computer science professors said.

Like it or not, individuals are the simplest anecdote for podcasting's unprecedented growth as a medium.

"It gives people a false sense people are listening," Gestwick said.


Comments

More from The Daily






Loading Recent Classifieds...