…is that they require both literacy and time to consume. While email and the web certainly enhance basic literacy, they actively consume free time. Ruthlessly Darwinian decisions are constantly made about what to read, view and consider. In many (most?) cases the rawest sensationalism will beat depth or accuracy. Of course this view comes off as sour grapes in the context of dataesthetic.org, where we spew ideas to no one. But it’s equally true for The Daily Kos and the New York Times. For many reasons, raw meat trumps meatloaf on the web. So what’s a blogger to do?! Short of “sexing up” one’s posts with inflammatory or sensational headers and content, the answer may involve expanding the concept of literacy to other media, including video and audio, so ideas may be consumed at other venues and times. Podcasting, in all it’s forms, is one such solution.
Of course simply reading this post into a microphone will not make it more interesting or compelling. Likewise, while “powerpoint” style visuals and text can improve retention and comprehension, they do nothing to attract and hold interest. In today’s media market, high production values matter more. You Tube user-generated content seems to contradict this notion, but consider the nature of viral videos: they tend to be short, and derive or assume legitimacy through low production values that suggest a “regular person” and not a professional created and delivered the package. The ideas of the author are enhanced by the individual’s autonomy from a corporation, indicated by the home-made look and sound of the work. This is just one contemporary tactic though. At the other end of the spectrum are professionally produced pre-packaged news stories, distributed on DVD, tape or via the net, and delivered by local news personalities as “original” reportage, and corporate media. This content also enhances messages in the public eye, by disconnecting the audio and video elements of the program, and augmenting the “canned” images and sounds with fresh narrative. Somewhere in between lies traditional documentary and journalistic forms. One powerful solution to our “blog problem” lies close to those classic formats.
Talk radio, all-news and sports radio formats, as well as NPR programming, attract big, loyal audiences. Part of this is content driven: Sports and news junkies will always find a fix. But just as important, time and venue (car, bus, office) encourage rich audio-centric formats. Interestingly, monologues are rarely valued. While bloviators like Rush Limbaugh fill the majority of their time with their own wind, they rely in equal measure on listeners, to provide appropriate echos of their themes, or targets for their venom and reaction. When you remove the callers, talk formats only succeed through guests. Good guests draw, no guests or outside sounds drive listeners away. Really!
By contrast, even the most popular blogs have a tiny fraction of the audience of most major metropolitan radio stations. We may frequent dozens of blogs, but visit none as frequently as we hear radio, or watch my favorite network TV series’. Podcasts fare a little better since they’re “pushed” via subscription to iPods and PC music libraries, but even there time is a critical variable. Some shows are “stale” or superceded by a new episode before we ever hear them. Still, it’s the user who decides when to delete, or listen.
While I’m not suggesting blogging is dead or obsolete (quite the opposite, we’re at the front of this curve), I am saying it may not be the most effective tool to communicate with broad audiences. The intimacy and closeness of blogging can be attractive but the fact is many people already have plenty to read in their lives. Time is a real barrier. Formats that can be delivered and consumed with less active attention from the user can overcome that barrier. Podcasts can be delivered to passive users via subscription. Many people can’t read on cars, busses or trains without getting sick, but these same folks have no problem listening to music or audio programs while riding or even driving. Podcasts don’t lash the listener to a fixed seat, nor does their quality degrade over time and distance like broadcast. Programs can be shaped and sized based on the needs of the message, or the listener, or both, instead of being clocked to wastefully fill pre-determined “time slots” and program grids. Audiences for podcasts, like blogs, are self-selecting and potentially self-qualifying, but for all the reasons mentioned, capable of attracting much wider audiences in the manner of broadcast. But unlike broadcasts, the cost/eyeball is knowable, controllable and scalable.
As potential podcasters recognize these benefits, production values will certainly increase. Competition in the iTunes Music Store between free podcasts and paid video content is heating up, and more companies are tasking capable in-house production teams or freelancers with producing content. We see this already when established podcasts are “adopted” or “sponsored” by corporations. Typically the look and sound improves dramatically as a condition of sponsorship! This is good news for creatives, and savvy companies and individuals. Podcasting remains a natural meritocracy, where quality and content trump pervasive placement.
Podcasting combines the benefits of broadcasting and blogging, but it’s solutions to the biggest problems of those media is more significant than the similarities. Podcasting has evolved to encompass everything from entertainment to corporate communications, incorporating still imagery, web-links, and more recently, full-motion video. This richness expands the market for podcasts of all kinds, as do advancements in player technologies. Even many cell phones can deliver content these days. Podcasting and podcast players, along with digital video recorders (DVRs) like TiVo, shuffle the deck. While blogging remains a good way to communicate with the most engaged users and clients, podcasts hold greater potential to reach the masses. We can apply this potential to meeting their many and varied niche needs.
Dave Davis
Media Designer • Sound Images
NOTE: This post was cross-posted to dataesthetic.org by the author