The study of
Podcasts and engagement within its community
Why Podcasts?
As
Dame Judi Dench said in the James Bond flick Skyfall, we live in a world where boundaries are changing.
Nothing
explains that better than the changing face of journalism. Broadcast Journalism
is traditionally only television and radio, but videos and sound clips are
found online as well. Online communication is possible via Skype and Google
Hangouts, but many traditional broadcasters now use these methods to interview
people live on air.
Text
is primarily found in newspapers and magazines, videos and images hog newsreels
on telly and audio rules the roost on the airwaves. Online journalism
incorporates all of that and then some.
What
the advancement of the digital frontier has done is change the very
fundamentals from which journalism operates. And this is where the Podcast
comes into play.
Podcasts
give the average Joe the ability to put his voice and opinion out there. Free
of the shackles of journalistic necessity, the common denominator between the
journalist and the layman has been altered because podcasts have given ordinary
people the ability to voice their opinion. It’s like the audio version of a
blog.
What
this essentially means is that not only is everybody given a voice, everybody
is also given the opportunity to listen to voices separate to those of news
organisations. While news organisations will have a particular slant on a topic
and can only incorporate so many topics in one day, podcasts allow to listen to
any topic you want to listen to, pick up different opinions on that topic and –
here’s the kicker – allow you to put your own voice out there for others to
listen to, starting a vicious cycle where people look beyond the conventional
in search of news and opinions.
There
are podcasts for nearly every topic, from Xbox gaming to conspiracy theories.
And
some even look upon this opportunity as a chance to ‘stick it to the man’
through the difference in opinions between individuals and broadcasters.
For
example, only 29% of German journalists had the same opinions as the populace.
The British came next, with 41% in sync with the opinions of the people.
The
‘man’ of course, knows this, which could be why news organisations are now
increasingly taking to the field of podcasting. What we are currently
experiencing as the podcasting wave begins to rise is only the tip of the
proverbial iceberg.
Websites
are increasingly turning to podcasts to draw in listeners and subscribers,
there exist a multitude of forums for podcasters and several companies now have
hosting space for people to upload their podcasts.
Also,
podcasts circle around the idea that getting your voice out there does not have
to be expensive. That is one of the main reasons people and organisations are
increasingly taking to it.
That’s
right. Everybody is piggybacking onto the podcast bandwagon and I am quite sure
the suits love it. After all, we are living in a recession.
Right
from teachers to news broadcasters to suits in corporation, everyone wants a
piece of pod pie.
Proposal
For
the second segment of my multimedia production, I plan on doing a five-or-six
episode podcasts on the problems facing Indian domestic football and how they
can be addressed.
Each
episode will tackle a separate problem, namely the financial aspect of it, the
issue of the quality of the domestic game, how the foreign game is cramping the
style of domestic football, what leaves Indian football can take from outside
the country when it comes to Indian football, what the media can do to improve
coverage etc.
For
this purpose, I will be interviewing representatives of the All India Football
Federation, spokespersons who belong to companies that invest in the Indian
game such as Reliance Industries, United Breweries and IMG Media, sports
journalists who have been covering the game as part of their careers, coaches
who train people at various academies throughout the country and if possible,
players themselves.
I
will also interview football coaches outside India. One such individual I have
earmarked for the same is Mr. Scott Marshall, a member of the Arsenal Football
Club Youth Academy who currently runs the Arsenal Soccer School in the
Sultanate of Oman, imparting training to children between the ages of five and
16.
Other
people I plan to interview will be from Japan and Australia, where the domestic
leagues show higher average attendances than football-centric nations such as
Brazil. Those interviews will take place either via Skype or Google Hangouts.
At
this point, I am not sure whether I will be doing it via vidcast or just a
simple audio podcast, but I am sure that will sort itself out with the passage
of time.
The
format I will be following will be the same as that of the Daily Source Code by Adam Curry, the man who first instituted
podcasts.
While
doing so, I will be sticking to the right ethical and legal parameters to show
journalistic integrity while taking the podcasts forward.
Podcasts –
Community Development and Engagement
As
part of my engagement with the world of podcasting, I joined the following
podcasting communities:
The
Podcast Alley: http://www.podcastalley.com/forum/index.php
The
Podcast Pickle http://podcastpickle.com/forums/
The
Podcasting News Forum http://www.podcastingnews.com/forum/
The
CNET Digital Design and Media Forum http://forums.cnet.com/digital-media-and-design-forums/?tag=contentMain;contentBody
In
addition, I have subscribed to the CNET mailing list which provides information
on the latest news in the world of multimedia production, which may range from
how to calibrate your phone to get the best out of your camera to the best
microphones in the business at present.
I
joined the subscription lists of the Daily
Source Code, the world’s first – and financially successful – podcast, made
by Adam ‘the Podfather’ Curry.
Two
of my posts were about Adam Curry, the man who created the podcast and
introduced it to the world and how it has significantly improved our world.
Podcasts
are about getting your voice out there, and to do so with conviction requires
passion. Although I could not get podcasters themselves to write guest posts on
my blog, I was able to convince two multimedia filmmakers to contribute. The
theme behind their posts is that they are doing what they do with passion
because it makes them happy.
And
that is the root behind everything people want to do.
I
also wrote a post about how to use your smartphone as a journalistic device.
That was in keeping with the theme of the podcast. The smartphone is an
increasingly common communication device and is very convenient for podcasters
who want to record audio, video and snap pictures for their pods and the posts
that accompany it.
But
a lot of podcasters out there are new to the world of broadcasting your
opinions and I wanted to help them when it came to interviewing people. Now
although these are journalistic guidelines that you might want to say ‘meh’ to,
while most people will be cool with a conversational style when it comes to interviewing,
there are those you might tick off if you approach them swinging. For this
purpose, I also put out a post to show people the right way to conduct an
interview.
Another
of my posts looked at what podcast forums are discussing and the issues that
were pertinent to modern-day podcasters, while a separate post provided people
an insight into five podcasting sites that would provide them with invaluable
knowledge when it came to podcasting.
Community Centric
Posts:
What
podcast forums are discussing: http://gbvishjourno.blogspot.com/2013/03/what-podcasting-forums-are-discussing.html
The
rationale behind this post was to show podcasters the topics that were key to
any podcaster out there, to show them that they are not along in the problems
they face and that there is a huge world out there full of friendly people who
are willing to provide you with ideas and information.
For
this purpose, I visited the following podcast discussion forums:
The
Podcast Pickle
Podcasting
News
Digital
Podcast
Feed
for All
The
Apple Podcast Discussion Community
iLounge
Podcast Disucssion Forums
While
I had planned to include the Podcast Alley as well, it was down during the time
I was writing the post and therefore had to be given a miss.
I
have intentionally not mentioned the names of people in this post as I wished
to keep it anonymous. Moreover, multiple people had similar problems. For better
understanding, I made sure to link the issues and their solutions to the
respective sites.
Five
podcast sites you have to be on: http://gbvishjourno.blogspot.com/2013/03/five-podcast-sites-you-have-to-be-on.html
There
are a myriad number of podcasting forums out there and I thought it best to
provide a list of some of the best sites on the web which pertained to
different aspects of podcasting.
The
five sites I did choose in the end were:
The
Apple Podcast Discussion Forum: Podcasts were first made for the iPod and is
one of the oldest forums around, having some of the most experienced podders on
it.
One
Media: The site provides free hosting to podcasters and vidcasters, has a
dedicated learning centre and also allows you to store your work online in case
you want to show it to potential employers.
The
Podcast Alley: TPA contains the ten best podcasts as voted for by its
subscribers, has an extensive directory of podcasts you can subscribe to and a
dedicated forum where you can post your own questions and find answers to those
unanswered. In addition, you can also submit your podcast for consideration
into the directory, which is one of the world’s best.
Podcasting
Tools: This is surely one of the best podcast sites around. It contains a
dedicated blog which tells you about the what’s what in podcasting, where
meet-ups are happening between podcasters, an extensive directory of
podcasters, several forums on other sites that you can join and a list of tools
and software to help you with your own podcasts which are available for free.
Podcast
Awards: This site was started by Adam Curry, the creator of the pod and the
reason I included it is because it contains the best podcasts of the year,
sorted under several categories. That means the best podcasts in the world – as
voted for by their listeners – are on that site and there is surely at least on
genre for every person.
I
went through several sites after narrowing my list and my search was fuelled
primarily by books (such as Podcasting
Hacks) and magazines (such as Wired).
The
solace of Multimedia Production: http://gbvishjourno.blogspot.com/2013/03/im-not-really-qualified-to-be-doing.html
An
engineers happiness through videography: http://gbvishjourno.blogspot.com/2013/03/i-hope-i-can-keep-making-more-videos.html
These
were my two guest posts I had envisioned for my blog. The first was written by
Akash Iyer, a former colleague of mine who started an online vlog where he
would analyse and satirise European football.
He
was always interested in multimedia production, despite first pursuing it only
as a hobby and is now looking to go into it full-time. He is employed by
Sportskeeda as a multimedia producer and is soon to start a professional media
production course at University.
Bilal
Rizvi is an engineering student who stumbled upon multimedia video production
quite by accident when he began experimenting with his first mobile phone which
contained a camera. After exploring this passion further, he has taught himself
the art of editing and is now quite proficient with a mobile phone camera and
Sony Vegas Pro.
Adam
Curry, who is he: http://gbvishjourno.blogspot.com/2013/02/live-your-life-with-passion-and-as-long.html
Adam
Curry, his legacy: http://gbvishjourno.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-legacy-of-adam-podfather-curry.html
Both
of the above posts were to do with the life and times of Adam Curry, his
contributions to the world of podcasting and how he made the world a better
place.
The
reason I decided to do a piece on Curry is because he is so influential in the
world of podcasting: he is after all its founder. It’s like studying evolution
and not knowing who Charles Darwin is.
Curry
was a VJ on MTV and could have chosen to live his life as one, but instead
decided to branch out and try something new. Today we are reaping his efforts.
Not only has he shown us how to do things, he has also shown us how to do
things the right way.
He
did everything associated with the world of podcast today all by himself. There
were no instruction manuals or how-to books for him.
His
legacy is also pretty impressive, and that is why I used a separate post for
his contributions. Whatever I have
written on him has come from books which chronicle his life and magazines which
contain his interviews.
Ten
tips to follow for a good interview: http://gbvishjourno.blogspot.com/2013/02/ten-tips-to-follow-for-good-interview.html
When
you are making a podcast, it is quite likely that you will interview someone of
stature. While interviewing these people, there is a certain methodology that
you have to follow. It helps if you use the method I have mentioned in the post
with anybody and it makes sure you don’t annoy people, who will walk away from
your microphone.
This
may cause many ripples if you are interviewing an individual of high standing
such as a priest or a local politician. The method I have shown provides them
respect and everybody likes to be respected. Moreover, no one want to end an
interview with a sour taste in their mouth which could be the issue if you
don’t plan properly for one.
While
the standard academic format of an essay is to cite references next to where
you have quoted them, I wanted the Adam Curry article to read like an article.
For this reason, I did not include my references in the parentheses as is
normally done.
I
have also expressed the ethical and legal considerations one has to adhere to
where necessary as well as the reflections on what could have been done better
in areas that the above pertains to.
All
the information in the posts has been thoroughly researched and there is a
complete bibliography at the end of those posts that require them.
Experiments:
During
my assignment, I focused primarily on three experiments. The first was a
workaround to a Skype interview, since Skype has been banned in certain nations
throughout the world. I looked at an alternative to that through the method of
Google Hangouts.
The
Google Hangouts Experiment can be found here: http://gbvishjourno.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-workaround-to-skype-interview-and-its.html
The
reason I chose to do this Google Hangout interview was because I was originally
looking to do a Skype interview, but living in Oman made that nigh impossible,
as the Arab nation has banned Skype in an attempt to promote its own VOIP
service.
I
therefore began to look for alternatives, and since my communication with my
peers and colleagues at Birmingham City University was through Google Hangouts,
I decided to look at the advantages of using it in the field of journalism.
It
has several advantages over Skype, namely that all the services that are
included in Skype as premium are already available here. In addition, all of
these services are free. It is also possible to chat with multiple people at
the same time (up to ten, including yourself).
But
the reason I chose Japan and its relationship with America is because of the
dependence of the Japanese nation on United States troops in Okinawa and all
over Japan. Since the end of the Second World War, Japan has only been allowed
to maintain an internal force for the purpose of self-defence. Known as the Jeitei or Japanese Self Defense Forces,
they are not allowed to take part in external theatres of war as enshrined in
the post-1945 Constitution of Japan.
What
this essentially means is that in a world where armed conflict is escalating
steadily. The recent Arab Spring, the United States-led invasions of
Afghanistan and Iraq, the perennial problems of Somali piracy and other
conflicts in Africa (such as Mali), the still on-going attempt by the Syrian
people to overthrow Head of State Bashar al Assad and the potential for even
more violence to erupt given the tensions that exist between the two Koreas,
the emergence of China being viewed by some as the emergence of a new global superpower and many other conflicts are proof of that.
Japan
was also interesting to me because of the recent three-way diplomatic stand-off
between them, China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) over the state of the
Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. Although Japan does lay claim to them officially, the
Chinese and Taiwanese have been contesting the islands ever since vast reserves
of natural gas were discovered there.
They
were initially part of Japan, but there was no provision made to include them
as part of Japanese territory when the constitution was re-drafted after the
Second World War: something which was done to all other outlying islands beyond
the Japanese mainland.
In
terms of geographic proximity, the island chain is actually closer to Taiwan
and China than it is to Japan, which is what makes it interesting.
All
the technical problems, what I could have done to solve them, the pros and cons
of this method, the legal and ethical considerations, what tools I used and my
bibliography is included in the post.
The
reason I had contemplated using Google Hangouts was because it is free and can
therefore be used by podcasters who wish to interview people. The average
podcaster is not flush with money and this is a very viable way to interview
people. In addition, they could either use this directly if they were
vidcasting or rip the audio to include in a podcast.
For
this piece, I had arranged for footage from two documentary filmmakers, one of
whom was David Rothauser, who had done a piece on what atomic bomb survivors
(hibakusha) are doing to spread awareness of the evils of nuclear weapons.
In
addition, I secured footage from both the Film Forum Fukushima and Reuters. I
also took snapshots of various Japanese and Japan-centric news articles from
the Associated Press, the Yomiuri Shimbun, Forbes Magazine and the Japan
state-run news agency NHK to name a few.
My
experiment with podcasting is here: http://gbvishjourno.blogspot.com/2013/02/podcasts-how-mine-was-made-and-what-i.html
My
second experiment was to do with my brush with podcasting. Before I began my
studies, I was a full-time journalist in an online journalism company in India
called Sportskeeda.com. Since they were a start-up, the idea of instituting a football
podcast in order to attract more subscribers to the site and improve on its USP
by making it one of the few Indian sports journalism websites to have a podcast
run for Indian sports fans by Indian sports fans.
My
colleagues and I would primarily discuss the English Premier League but cast
our eye over the Spanish Primera Liga and the European Champions League and
Europa League competitions.
While
the idea was a good one, it did not take off because it was not shared
appropriately and took too long to produce (about forty minutes to an hour per
episode) which made it cumbersome to create twice a week.
It
was therefore put on hiatus in November 2012, soon before I left the
organisation.
While
at the organisation, there was never enough time to analyse my own work. Now
that I had time at my disposal, I decided to take a step back and analyse my
work, all of which has been included in the post.
I
also did this to let people know that I was not someone looking at podcasting
from the fence or from the outside. I too had dabbled with podcasting and was
seriously interested in taking this further.
In
addition, the legal and ethical considerations and the merits and demerits of
the podcast have also been addressed in detail.
It
is because I was so passionate about taking Sportskeeda forward in this
direction that I felt bad about the manner in which my idea was put on hiatus. The
plan was to keep the podcast simple, just discussing European football so that
people could download it and listen to it later.
In
addition, our modus operandi here was to win the hearts and minds of India’s
football fans by being one of the few Indian companies to have a podcast.
Making the podcast was fun, it was passionate because we knew what we wanted to
achieve with it and take Sportskeeda to the next level by making it grow
horizontally and well as vertically.
But
despite the first six or seven episodes of the bi-weekly podcast getting a few
hundred reads apiece, it was pulled citing a lack of time and manpower,
something I still don’t see eye-to-eye with the brass tacks at the
organisation.
I
was in the morning shift which ran from 830 am to 530 in the evening, while
those working at night would come in at 4 pm and leave at one in the morning.
That means that there was 90-minute window wherein there were four people to do
a two man job, both in terms of editorial work (of which I was a part) and
social media (from where we also got participants. Why then could we not use
that window to create and edit the podcast because there were people going
spare at the time?
It
was only given a couple of months to run, but the higher-ups were not convinced
with it. In that time, we had created a music sequence to include into the pod,
but it was quite obvious that my superiors did not buy into my ‘Rome was not
built in a day’ approach.
I
still feel that that was a big mistake on their part, since it would have
established Sportskeeda as one of the few Indian sites that had a podcast and
could have been one of the forerunners into its introduction in India, only
adding to its already rapid growth.
I
had big plans for the podcast, including preparing plans for a full-fledged
sound and recording booth and a subscription to Burli – the online radio news
feed that many newsrooms have – because that would have certainly helped us
take it further. Being a start-up, whatever money was coming in had already
been previously allocated and I was waiting for the podcast to take off before
requesting a budget. I had already been assigned with the making of a quote but
that was never looked at by my peers.
In
addition, I feel that the podcast was not shared properly. The standard mode of
operation at Keeda was to share articles and updates on various Facebook walls
that catered to different sports but given the frequency with which pieces were
shared, there was only a gap of five minutes between one update and the next.
Few people would therefore take a look at the podcast.
I
had suggested a pinned post, but nobody took heed. I also recommended creating
an advert on the site for the podcast, but that was never approached. Although
I cannot blame those who were involved in its sharing because they were doing
their job, they never thought out of the box or expanded into the above methods
which would have really helped.
What
made me excited about the growth of the podcast – titled the Footy Mumble – was
that a cricket podcast was also conceptualised and created soon after. Titled
Inside Out, it was sure to contribute to the development of the organisation,
and that is why I was so disappointed when management decided to pull the plug
on the entire project.
I
have mentioned the ideation, conceptualisation and method of operation in the
post, in addition to the ethical and legal concerns and the advantages and
disadvantages the podcast posed.
My
experiment with the smartphone can be seen here: http://gbvishjourno.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-smartphone-dont-leave-home-without-it.html
The
smartphone idea – like J.K. Rowling’s conceptualisation of Harry Potter – just
walked into my head one day, fully formed.
My
father is an avid bridge player. His family and friends have always shown him
recognition due to his technical skill with the game. There is a shelf spanning
the length of a room in my house just for the trophies he has won.
The
TV in my room (the second in the house) where I watch my late night football
and the DVD player attached to it (also the second) have both been won in
bridge tournaments.
But
there are many other players just like my father who enjoy playing the game
with passion for the joy it brings them. My father has been playing the game
since 1977, and there bridge mates of his who have been playing for a decade
more than he has.
Nobody
in Oman, where I live, and much less throughout the rest of the world, is
probably aware of this scene in the nation, because a small newspaper article
aside, bridge is never publicised in the Sultanate. Even when you look at
newspapers that contain articles on card tournaments, it’s only poker,
blackjack and baccarat that are given any acknowledgement. The great casinos in
Las Vegas, Monaco and Macao contain several rooms dedicated to these games, but
there is no provision for bridge anywhere, probably due to the clientele -
usually the upper middle or the upper class – that this game caters to.
I
therefore decided to choose bridge as my topic and I needed to look no further
than use my iPhone as my choice of recording device. Since the foundations of
the plan had already been laid and because I had witnessed first-hand what
being a bridge player means, I had already formulated my questions. They were
very simple: all just pertaining to the six Ws of journalism: who, what, where,
when, why and how.
To
get a broad spectrum of people, I decided to interview six people, all from
different backgrounds to show that they are bonded by bridge:
1.) Dr. Nasser Mohammed Al Lamki, in
his eighties, an Omani who has been playing bridge since the 1960s when he was
doing his medical studies in Stoke-on-Trent in the UK in the 1960s
2.) Mr. Mohammed Ashraf, a
naturalised Omani of Pakistani origin who immigrated to Oman in the 1970s and
went on to found his own construction business in the region. He has since
started an annual Bridge tournament called the Khurshid Cup, named in honour of
his eldest son.
3.) Mr. Gautam Mukherjee, a financial
consultant who was once chairman of the Muscat Bridge league who has been
playing Bridge for the last 30-odd years.
4.) Mr. Lindsay Herbert, a Scotsman
who came to Oman only last September and has found bridge as way of occupying
his free time. He had been playing the game since the age of seven since his
parents introduced it to him.
5.) Mr. Abdi Naffer and his wife,
Mrs. Yasmin Naffer, both of whom are bridge players. Mr. Naffer carved out his
own living by rising to a senior management position in Omar Zawawi
Establishment, one of the Sultanate’s oldest and most prestigious business
conglomerates after attending his first interview just thirty minutes into
getting off a steamer that had pulled in from Bombay in the early 1970s. His
wife, Mrs. Yasmin, was taught bridge by her husband so that the two of them
could spend time together. The two are regular bridge players and have won
several trophies as a pair.
I
decided to look beyond the obviousness of bridge as well, talking to these
people about how important family support was when it came to bridge, how what
they have learned in bridge helps them in real life and was also keen on
introducing a bit of nostalgia by asking them what their greatest memories in
bridge were, because all of them have travelled throughout the world to partake
in competitive bridge tournaments. But given the general lack of interest
towards the game, it is very likely that they would not have been able to share
these very valuable memories with anybody outside of their families.
I
had already previously arranged for newspaper clippings of their achievements,
some of which date back to February 1989, before I was even born, Polaroid
photos that captured their victories and snaps of the trophies they had won and
the players themselves with my iPhone camera.
I
also picked pictures off Flickr after seeking consent from concerned sources.
Others were taken off Google.
Although
I had my material, the clippings that I had scanned from newspapers were not of
the same dimensions as the snaps I had clicked with my phone. It was therefore
important that I resized them using MS Paint.
I
did make a two and a half minute video containing images and speech about how
the above people were introduced to bridge. The rest of the material has been
uploaded onto SoundCloud.
My
point with the smartphone is that you don’t need a sophisticated camera to take
pictures if you have a good enough phone or an expensive mic to record an
interview, because the mic that your phone contains is very good.
This
makes the phone viable as a versatile recording device. All the legal and
ethical considerations have also been mentioned in the post. A bibliography is
included as well.
Links to all
videos and audio elements featured on the blog:
1.) Google
Hangout interview of Masayuki Nakao on the state of relations between the
United States and Japan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuByIf9eFXY
2.) SoundCloud
uploads of two podcast episodes and the raw interviews with the six bridge
players: https://soundcloud.com/gbvish
3.) Video
of the six bridge players explaining how they were introduced to the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWYOuf5K56c
4.) Bilal’s
first video titled Jimi’s Day Out, a
stop motion video presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XJ1NDzzVmVQ
5.) Bilal’s
second video on his peers who were completing university: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MwM9E9Y2OeY
6.) Akash’s
first video on the song with the funny lyrics, one of his first uploads: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cgw5F3h1Eo4
7.) Akash’s
second video on the language used by people in Chennai, India as slang: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tMTxga9oa7M
8.) Akash’s
third video for Sportskeeda which took a look at a fight club in Bangalore,
India: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MhKZtFfitT4
9.) Akash’s
fourth video, part of the Keedology series which looks at hidden talent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bpocw79dWJU
Until Next Time,
Peace
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