The University of Oklahoma • Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Comunication
Photo illustration by Chris Krug.Podcasts net more listeners
Mainstream media adopt alternative broadcast method
No one walking on OU’s campus or any other can miss the conspicuous white wires trailing from many students’ ears as they make their way to and from class. According to Engaget, more than a billion songs have been sold through the iTunes Music Store and more than 42 million iPods are alive and kicking in the world. Obviously, iPod mania continues to grow.
Assuming these students are listening to James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” or the Pussycat Dolls’ “Beep,” however, might be a mistake. They might be listening instead to “The Good Beer Show,” “Congressman John Hostettler: Capitol Update” or “The New York Times Front Page” as mini radio shows known as “podcasts.”
The word “podcast” came from combining broadcast and iPod, the Apple MP3 player that rules that device’s category, said Keaton Fuchs, who served as 2005-2006 TV/radio operations and production manager for TV4OU.
A podcast is a Web feed of audio or video files to download or subscribe to. To subscribe to a podcast means the student receives the most recent installment of the particular podcast automatically.
Accessibility of information anytime, anywhere is the force behind the popular technology, which allows MP3 owners to load up and listen at their convenience. Podcasting is gaining popularity across the nation in much the same way blogging began to do a year ago: “virally” – by users talking to other users.
“Podcasting has been embraced by users who wish to deliver digital content to the masses,” says Cliff Neuman, higher education account executive for Apple Computers. “If you were to Google ‘podcasting,’ you would find that there are over 85 million associated links.”
The OUDaily.com staff did its first podcast November 2005.
It had completed six more by the end of spring 2006, says OUDaily.com editor Andrea Heister. She says the staff would like eventually to make a daily podcast.
“What we do is take the most important stories from the week and write them in a radio-style script,” Heister says. “We want to use stories that do not change throughout the week and that are close to home. It will get more frequent when the online staff grows.”
“OU Nightly,” the Gaylord College student-produced Monday through Friday newscast, also will soon join the world of podcasting, Fuchs says.
“We will be using audio clips from the TV version of the ‘OU Nightly’ news for our podcast,” Fuchs says.
He says “OU Nightly” also will create an extended podcast, exploring some stories in more depth and providing commentary on the issues in other stories.
“In an education environment, podcasting will only be limited by the scope of content available,” Neuman says. “Outside of campus it is becoming the de facto method of on-demand digital information distribution.”
Professors are starting to use podcasting to give students course content and enrichment. OU joins schools like Johns Hopkins University, St. Louis University and Chicago University in offering classes in which professors are podcasting their lectures. This allows more class time for discussion and interaction.
Fuchs says podcasting is a perfect information delivery system, given the direction in which society is currently headed.
“Everyone is in a hurry these days and listening to a podcast is the perfect way to stay in touch with the world without getting behind,” Fuchs says. “You can listen while you are in the middle of doing something else.”
Fuchs said he listens to the “NBC Nightly News” podcast every day.
“I listen while I’m driving or walking around campus; it saves time,” Fuchs says. “It is what I need to know in three and a half minutes.”
Fuchs says he listens to NewsOK.com Update, which is The Oklahoman’s podcast. He also is a subscriber to Oklahoma News Channel 4 reporters Galen Culver and Linda Cavanaugh’s podcasts called “Is This a Great State or What?” and KFOR Channel 4 Update. All these podcasts are free.
Heister says she has not been a podcast subscriber for very long, but she is “obsessed with it.” She has subscribed to Tiki Bar TV, oudaily.com, NBC5.com, and Channel 4 News, all free podcasts. She seeks a mixture of frivolity and facts.
“Entertaining podcasts sometimes help me remember the fun in technology as well as the work,” she says.
With its convenience and portability, podcasting has great potential for growth. Neuman says this potential is unlimited.
To subscribe to a podcast requires a computer, access to the Internet and a program like Apple’s iTunes. At the iTunes site, clicking on subscribe will automatically send all the existing and yet-to-be podcasts directly to the subscriber’s computer so he or she can listen to them there or upload it to a portable MP3 player.
Another way to access the OU Daily podcast is through the OU Daily Web site, oudaily.com. A link at the bottom of the page leads to previously recorded podcasts.
Although podcasting is still in the early stages of development and potential, word about it is spreading quickly. OU Student Media’s OUDaily.com and Gaylord College’s “OU Nightly” are starting now to give the OU community information it wants, when it wants it.
