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Stick a pin it. Problems of defining podcasts in an age of platforms

Berry, Richard (2019) Stick a pin it. Problems of defining podcasts in an age of platforms. In: Podcasting Poetics, October 11-12, Johannes Gutenburg University, Mainz, Germany. (Unpublished)

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Keynote)

Abstract

As a medium podcasting emerged from the worlds of radio and participatory media with early content providing a bridge between the two. Over time, the arguments that podcasting was a discrete medium became more established, allowing podcast studies to emerge from the shadow of radio studies. Like the teenager leaving the parental home, podcasting has grown up and defined an independent identity. However, this raises debates about whether we draw that identity from technical or sonic elements; debates that become more complex as the environment changes. What happens when ‘podcasts’ move from RSS to behind a paywall? Are podcasts defined by what we hear, how they are delivered, or who makes them?

Just as debates in radio studies questioned whether internet radio was ‘radio’; those same debates emerge in podcasting, posing questions about how we define this medium. This discussion becomes more complex when evaluating new emerging platforms such as Luminary, Spotify, and Audible as producers of ‘podcasts’ that do not confirm the previous technical, economic or political frameworks previously seen.

This paper reflects on ways we might be able to identify ‘podcastness’ and what current trends might be able to tell us about the direction of future debates and research.

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Depositing User: Richard Berry

Identifiers

Item ID: 11220
URI: http://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/id/eprint/11220

Users with ORCIDS

ORCID for Richard Berry: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2372-1316

Catalogue record

Date Deposited: 17 Oct 2019 10:37
Last Modified: 30 Sep 2020 11:19

Contributors

Author: Richard Berry ORCID iD

University Divisions

Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries
Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries > School of Media and Communications

Subjects

Media > Media and Cultural Studies
Media > Radio

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