By developing new\nforms of sound narratives, podcasting has done more than breathe new life into\nradio. In just a few years, it has evolved into a global industry \u2013 reinventing\nthe audio medium and allowing closer links to be forged with listeners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than any other\nmeans of communication, radio has the ability to create an atmosphere of\nintimacy with the listener. But in recent years, the growth of podcasting has\ndialled up radio\u2019s incredible qualities to maximum volume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two\nreasons for this. People usually listen privately, often through\nheadphones, which allows hosts to speak to them directly into their ears.\nThat sets up the perfect conditions for a host-listener bond. Unlike radio,\nwhere presenters are fighting the listener\u2019s random switch-on and ability to\nchange stations with the flick of a dial, the podcast host can trust that the\nlistener wants to listen in. This allows hosts to relax and be authentic, which\nincreases their relatability. Some listeners say finding a new favourite\npodcast is like making a new friend \u2013 with over 700,000 podcasts on US media\ngiant Apple\u2019s iTunes, the largest podcast platform, that\u2019s a lot of friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Podcasting began\nsimply enough in 2004 as a technological innovation, mostly used by radio\nstations to time-shift shows. They could be posted on the internet, to be\ndownloaded at the listener\u2019s convenience. The name podcast reflected that.\nInadvertently coined by British technology journalist and broadcaster Ben\nHammersley, it was an amalgam of the words iPod (the portable device created by\nApple that allows users to download audio files) and broadcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leveraging\nthe power of the voice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two developments \u2013\none technological, the other, cultural \u2013 helped transform the podcast market\ninto a global industry. In 2012, Apple embedded a podcast app in its\nsmartphones, which provided a library system that proved popular with\nlisteners. A seismic cultural shift that introduced millions to the podcast\nformat occurred in 2014, when an independent New York-based radio team packaged\nSerial<\/em>, a podcast of online investigative journalism as gripping episodic\nnarrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Serial\u2019s <\/em>first\nseason offered a true story that grabbed its audience and hooked them onto the\nweekly podcast format. It told the story of Adnan Syed, who was convicted for\nthe murder of his ex-girlfriend and high school classmate, Hae Min Lee, in\nBaltimore, US, in 1999. Syed was found guilty by a Baltimore County jury\nin 2000, when he was 18, and continues to serve a life sentence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the podcast\nhost, Sarah Koenig, who interviewed him extensively over a prison payphone for\nthe show, raised doubts about his conviction. Over twelve episodes, Koenig\npainstakingly combed through the evidence, interviewing many of those who were\nassociated with the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Koenig \u2013 who\nreceived numerous awards, including the first-ever Peabody Award for a podcast\n\u2013 had stumbled onto a new way of leveraging the power of voice. Although\ngrounded in regular audio journalism, Serial\u2019s<\/em> style was unlike anything\nheard on radio before. Firstly, she spoke to listeners as if they were\ncompanions in her quest for the truth, spawning lively debates on social media\nnetworks. Serial<\/em> became an instant hit, clocking up five million\ndownloads in the first month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Serial\u2019s<\/em> popularity\ntriggered a podcasting boom as media organizations scrambled to emulate its\nsuccess. Countless true crime podcasts followed. The best, such as In\nThe Dark<\/em>, delivered engaging crafted storytelling, and sometimes exposed\nmiscarriages of justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pop\nculture, frivolity, and the news<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then, the podcast genre has grown, taking on\nmultiple formats. The chat cast genre, in which hosts make short, incisive\ncomments on a theme, gained popularity. Inexpensive to make, the genre just\nneeds a host with a good audience rapport and a distinctive theme that will\nattract listeners. There are chat casts for women, such as Call Your Girlfriend<\/em>,\na frank and often funny show \u201cfor long-distance besties everywhere\u201d. And\nthe successful \u2018knowledge as entertainment\u2019 show, Stuff You Should Know<\/em>,\nwhere the engaging male hosts seek to educate listeners about everything from\nscience and history to triathlons and wills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The press was quick\nto notice the potential of podcasting to extend its reach. In 2017, The New\nYork Times<\/em> launched The Daily, <\/em>a narrative news digest billed as\n\u201cHow the news should sound\u201d. Hosted by the Times<\/em> political journalist\nMichael Barbaro, its formula is simple. Choosing one or two big stories of the\nday, it mines the expertise of the newspaper’s 1,300 journalists to deliver an\ninformed take on the news. The style of the podcast is casual and personalized,\ncoupled with creative audio production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The results were\nimmediate: young people subscribed to the free podcast in droves. In two years,\nThe Daily<\/em> was getting two million downloads per show. In September 2019,\nit reached a new milestone: an astonishing one billion downloads overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Podcasting has a\npowerful potential role as a tool of inclusion. To make an engaging podcast,\nyou do need to know the nuts and bolts of audio production and to understand\nhow audio works as a medium. Once this knowledge has been acquired, almost\nanyone can create a podcast. This allows marginalized voices \u2013 people from\npolitical or religious minorities, the LGBQTI community, the disabled, the\nelderly and others \u2013 to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Community groups,\nnon-governmental organizations (NGOs), activists, and institutions of all kinds\nare now devising podcasts. For example, the Cancer Council of Australia podcast\nprovides information and support, and universities showcase their research via\npodcasts. In an initiative described as \u201cinnovative and disruptive\u201d, the\nSupreme Court of Victoria in Australia sought to make the justice system more\ntransparent with Gertie\u2019s Law<\/em>, a popular podcast where judges discuss\ntheir work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a world plagued with disinformation and mistrust of the media, the authenticity of podcasting offers unique opportunities \u2013 from long-form investigative storytelling and the pursuit of social justice, to building transparency, trust and social inclusion. So, what can FM\/AM radio take away from all of this? Well it seems apparent that podcasting looks to be a new way forward for broadcast media, and has far surpassed the phase of just being a new trend – now appealing to the masses. While radio has certainly done a good job of adapting to changing environments over recent years, the podcast format continues to grow in popularity. Now with over 1 million podcasts worldwide and millions more listeners, the format has definitely found its place in the market and is thriving in a time when time spent with radio is declining, especially in younger age groups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From looking at the success of podcasts even in just the last year or two alone, it is clear that the demand for listening formats is as high as it\u2019s ever been. The type of content people want to listen to has just changed over the years, but the demand for listening is still there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, radio and podcasting can be seen as linked together – this article reinforces the opportunity for radio to integrate podcasting as part of a total \u2018audio\u2019 umbrella – podcasting is integral to radio and an extension of radio\u2019s heritage and capacity to communicate with listeners. Without integration, radio may be forced into a declining part of the audio segment.
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