Regretting the Podcamp
I’ve just been looking at the videos from last years podcamp and sort of now regret not being there, partly as it looked interesting but partly as it might have given me the kick up the arse I need to get my book finished off and out of the way.
I did watch Trevor ‘Radio Academy’ Dann’s opening address and just like when he spoke at Lincoln Radio Conference a few months earlier I agreed with much of what he had to say about radio… and have said so myself in academic papers and in lectures here. There is an un-doubtable bond between Podcasting and Radio, both are auditory and both often use similar techniques. As Dann suggests so many Podcasters still say ‘hello and welcome to the show’ and use jingles just like they would in the radio. In some ways Podcasting is just another pipe to shove radio down and get it to the audience, where-ever and when-ever they might be listening. I’m fine with this, it’s a great way to use the medium especially for a public service medium or as a way to build reach for a particular programme. It might even make programmers invest a little if their investment hangs around longer than the moment in time it leaves a transmitters and shoots down our earholes. In an article a few years back in Media, Culture and Society, David Black argues that radio is in effect whatever we think it is. he’s talking streaming audio but we could extend that to podcasts on an iPod. If the listener *thinks* it’s radio, then it’s radio. It’s a good thought and for most people it’s right… but are blessed in some ways as Podcasting has a name, unlike Internet or Web Radio, which used a familiar term to explain it.
So, as Dann suggests there should be a point of difference here and I agree with him (has he been reading my stuff?) Podcasts exist in a different time and space to radio, they don’t need fancy studios and in fact half the appeal is that they’re not radio as the ‘radio-ness’ of the medium is what made us find the podcasts in the first place! Free from time, advertiser and regulatory pressures a podcast can and should offer the audience what it wants. Something very niche and very in touch with the audience and all they want…. even if that’s a small group of your mates. It doesn’t matter, do what you need to do and celebrate the medium. A listener could be anywhere in space and time and that makes life interesting but because they’ve sought you out they’re already more loyal than most radio listeners and that too can be harnessed via blogs, forums, audio posts or social networking.
Anyway, sorry I didn’t go but there were reasons I am sure but at least now my brain is moving and sooner or later I’ll get time to sit down and start writing again. It would be good to see some thoughts here about you think?
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