Podcasting: Digital Radio and Media Convergence

MAC281richard.berry@sunderland.ac.ukrobert.jewitt@sunderland.ac.uk 1

Overview

• Definitions• History• Implications• Future 2

Podcasting is

• Relatively new form of media• Growing in popularity• Free (mostly!)• Converged• Disruptive technology

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• An audio file delivered via the Internet, either automatically to a subscriber or manually on demand

• Typically .MP3 file format• Can also be .AAC or .OGG file

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Podcasting is

Podcasting is also

• Video file delivered via the Internet• Typically .MP4 container or derivative

(eg .M4V, .M4A, .M4P, .M4A, etc)• Rarely, .MOV

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Podcasting is

March 2005

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Almost 1/3 of MP3 player owners downloaded audio content

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6 million downloaders of audio content

6 million downloaders of audio content

11% of US population who own MP3 player

11% of US population who own MP3 player

Source: Pew Internet & American Life (2005)

Trends in podcast downloading(% of internet users)

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Source: Pew Internet & American Life (2008)

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10Source: BBC

Regular podcasts (1-5 per week) Monthly downloads

1 Documentaries (World Service) 1,833,428

2 Peter Day’s World of Business (Radio 4/World Service) 446,510

3 From Our Own Correspondent (Radio 4) 262,772

4 Woman’s Hour (Radio 4) 229,828

5 606 Football Phone-In (5 live) 185,397

6 Money Box (Radio 4) 148,827

7 Test Match Special (5 live Sports Extra) 109,215

8 Steve Wright in the Afternoon (Radio 4) 43,797

9 5 live’s Christmas Specials (5 live) 18,527

10 You & Yours (Radio 5) 12,064

11Source: BBC

Weekly podcast (1 per week) Monthly Downloads

1 Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 (Radio 4) 880,554

2 Adam and Joe (6 Music) 629,241

3 Best of Chris Moyles (Radio 1) 408,849

4 In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg (Radio 4) 322,732

5 Best of Chris Moyles Enhanced (Radio 1) 310,830

6 6 Minute English (World Service) 297,340

7 Kermode and Mayo’s Film Reviews (5 live) 276,516

8 Jonathon Ross (Radio 2) 243,434

9 Chris Evans’ Drivetime – The Best Bits (Radio 2) 238,465

10 Fighting Talk (5 live) 214,722

11 Digital Planet (World Service) 166,105

12 Talk About English (Learn English) (World Service) 156,21912

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Historical origins

• “With the benefit of hindsight, it all seems quite obvious. MP3 players like Apple’s iPod, in many pockets, audio production software cheap or free, and weblogging an established part of the internet; all the ingredients are there for a new boom in amateur radio. But what to call it? Audioblogging? Podcasting? GuerillaMedia?”– Ben Hammersley, The Guardian, 12/2/2004

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Historical figures• Adam Curry– former MTV VJ & internet start-up

entrepreneur– inventor of iPodder (iPodder Lemon)– Applescript proof of concept (‘audio

enclosures’)– Daily Source Code

• Dave Winer – web developer– blogger since 1997 (Scripting News)– creator of RSS

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• “It's about real people saying real things and communicating … It is totally going to kill the business model of radio … [T]he big brands and advertising agencies of the world are, … scared to death of the next generation … who don't listen to radio … They are on MSN, they've got their iPod, their MP3 player, they've got their Xbox - they are not listening to radio … It is the distribution that is changing and the barriers are being brought down so everyone can be part of it.”– Curry cited in Twist, 2005

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• “It'll become radio and vice versa. Airwaves are just another method of distribution. ... What will change is who's talking and who's listening. Now the conversation will flow in all directions, with broadcasters listening to people they used to think of as "audience." Blogs changed the architecture of written-word-journalism in the same way” – Winer, 2004, cited in Berry, 2006: 158

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Where does it fit?

• Whenever a new medium comes on the scene its early content comes over from other media. But to take best advantage of the new electronic medium, content needs to be specially authored with the new medium in mind. – Gates, 1996: 144 18

Implications

• No one ‘owns’ the medium• Key to its success• Departure from ‘gate-kept’ traditional media

(Berry, 2006: 146)• Similarity to other media forms

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Characteristics of Radio

• Radio is … a blind medium. We cannot see its messages, they consist only of noise and silence, and it is from the sole fact of its blindness that all radio’s other distinctive qualities – the nature of its language, its jokes, the way in which its audiences use it – ultimately derive – (Crisell, 1986: 3)

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– Interpersonal– Speech– Context– Feedback – Liveness– Immediacy

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Characteristics of Radio

• “Listeners have a lot to do with it. A medium’s identity stems in part from how it is received and treated by its users. Listeners may of course be nudged in this or that direction by the industry. But if, for whatever reason, Internet audio is treated as if it were radio, then to some irreducible extent it is radio” – Black, 2001: 398 23

Is podcasting the same as radio?

Is podcasting the same as radio?

• But…. – Radio is Linear…. Podcasting isn’t – Radio Synchronous …. Podcasting isn’t – Radio is about mass audience…. Podcasting

definitely isn’t 24

Push Vs Pull Media

• In a "push" system the consumer does not request the content be sent; it is "pushed at" the end-user. – Radio

• In a "pull" system the consumer requests the content and "pulls" it through the delivery channel.– Podcast

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Push Vs Pull Media

• The difference between push and pull, between broadcast and personalised taste. Long Tail businesses can treat customers as individuals, offering mass customisation as an alternative to mass-market fare”

• (Anderson; 2004)

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Scope• Listen again for

broadcast radio• Bonus content• ‘Indy’ Media• Audio-Blogging• PR & Promotions• Public Information• Education

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Convergences

• Horizontal– A (media) business expands across platforms…– The Guardian - Print, Podcasts, Radio, TV

• Vertical– Technologies & individuals– Disintermediation

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newspaper website podcasts iPhone app

institutions

journalists

readers

bloggers

Podcasting and Convergence

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• Numbers don’t really matter so much, it’s whether you’re really catering for a niche, as that niche grows or you get more penetration in that niche actually the more valuable a proposition it becomes.– Matt Deegan, Gcap Media

Podcasting and Convergence

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• “Corporate convergence coexists with grassroots convergence.. [it] requires media companies to rethink old assumptions about what it means to consume media if old consumers were predictable and stayed where you told them.. new consumers are migratory [and] more socially connected”– Jenkins, 2006: 18

The Long Tail of Radio

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The Long Tail of Radio

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Scarcity of frequenciesHit driven success

Abundance of choiceMyriad of small niches

• “The long-tail offers a return on investment in the broadcasting world too… by providing quality programmes to our audiences when they want to watch them… but also by attracting new audiences to a programme who may not otherwise have come … The long tail takes the control away from the broadcast schedulers and puts it in the hands of our audiences – making anything available, anytime, anyplace, anywhere”– Ashley Highfield (2005), Director of New Media: BBC

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• “In addition to providing greater flexibility in when audio programming is listened to, Podcasting invariably also offers listeners an escape from the advertising that plagues traditional radio broadcasting.” – Crofts et al: 2005

Radio me

• The (radio) content you want….– Where you want – PLACE-shifting– When you want – TIME-shifting– In the order you want – AUDIENCE controllers– …and only the content I want (or am likely to)

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Conclusion

• “Every art form has its moment of revolution. The podcasters may indeed provide radio with its –– Tod Maffin, 2004– Editor of iloveradio.org

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• “I think whereas you may get certain people that actively want to play a part in choosing the content they want, when they want, there’ll be others that will be quite happy to simply switch on the radio and listen to whatever it is people are providing them with, providing it is relevant and engaging”– (Nathalie Schwartz, 4Radio)

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Conclusion

• For the seminar I’d you to do 2 things…– 1) Find and listen to a Podcast/Audioboo about

something that interests you and post about it on the Facebook group, then…• Or• Create and record an Audioboo of your own

– 2) Consider how this type of media is different to traditional media and how it might relate to online communities or sense of identity.

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Sources• Chris Anderson, 2004, ‘The Long Tail’, Wired,

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html • Richard Berry, 2006, ‘Will the iPod Kill the Radio Star? Profiling Podcasting as Radio’,

Convergence, Vol. 12, No. 2. http://con.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/2/143 • D. A. Black, 2001, ‘Internet Radio: A Case Study in Medium Specificity’, Media, Culture

and Society, 23• A. Crisell, 1986, Understanding Radio, London: Routledge.• S. Crofts, J. Dilley, M. A. Fox, A. Retsema and B. Williams ,2005, ‘Podcasting: A New

Technology inSearch of Viable Business Models’, First Monday 10(9), http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1273/1193

• Bill Gates, 1996, The Road Ahead, London: Penguin.• Ben Hammersley, 2004, ‘Audible Revolution’, Media Guardian,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/feb/12/broadcasting.digitalmedia • Henry Jenkins, 2006, Convergence Culture. New York University Press.• Jo Twist, 2005, “Pocasters looking to net money’, BBC,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4371555.stm

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Images• S1, 2, gyst, 2007, “tube radio”, http://www.flickr.com/photos/gyst/1397963534/• S3,, 4, 5, aloshbennett, 2007, “radio debian”,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aloshbennett/1394564919/ • S13, Joits, 2007, “16gb ipod touch”, http://www.flickr.com/photos/joits/1384673292/• S18, redmaxwell, 2010, “TED 2010 Bill Gates”,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48692800@N00/4352209207/ • S20, 21, 22, YivaS, 2006, “1925 Radio”,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ylvas/327409128/ • S23, 24, williamli1983, “iPod Headphones Collection”,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamli1983/266377598/ • S27, OllyHart, 2006, “Podcast Wallpaper”,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ollyhart/123420044/ • S36, cybass, 2006, “podcast”, http://www.flickr.com/photos/cybass/176867465/• S38, 39, Ian HayHurst, 2009, “Radio Daze”,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/imh/3297961043/ • S41, A. Diez Herrero, 2007, “creative commons -Franz Patzig-”,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21572939@N03/2090542246/

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