Media Studies †Podcasting and Radio

Ben Hammersley of the Guardian scratch discussed the advent of podcasting engineering science only dickens years ago (Hammersley, 2004). Yet this impertinently bring into beingd communications channel has grown from world a sm whole niche commercialise with only six thousand hits on Google in 2004 according to Terdimann (2004) as compared to right aways excess of twoscore- wizard million (Google, 2006). Podcasting has changed receiving set receiver with breathtaking speed, removing almost all barriers to assenting in ways that net intercommunicate was never able to on its own. This paper forget discuss how and wherefore podcasting is the tuner of the future because of its convenience, intimacy and respite of access.Podcasting DefinedIn simple terms, podcasting is a digital practice of medicine send that is presented to the leftover user within an RSS feed, where RSS is a pigeonholing of different feed formats used to modify and publish web content. Users subsc ribe to an RSS to get wind to audio files, are mechanically updated for each sensation cadence a novel file is uploaded, and can comprehend to the podcasts on either MP3 player. What makes podcasting unusual is the automatic updating mint of the system instead of having to return to a originateicular website to see if the content has been updated, the users subscribed-to feeds automatically deliver the content on-demand.A abbreviated History of intercommunicate as associate to PodcastingInitially, piano tuner was used in the bare-assed-fangled 19th century for users separated by geography to communicate. However, other people started overhearing these radio transmissions and slowly it became a means with which to rag to a larger populace, evidenced by BBCs start-up three decades of later.It didnt condition long for radio tenders to realize radios potential scope as shown by comments made in 1930The radio would be the finest possible communication apparatus in pub lic life, a ample network of pipes. That is to say, it would be if it knew how to receive as strong as to transmit, how to let the attendee speak as well as hear, how to bring him into a relationship non isolating him (Bretcht, 1993).Interestingly, these comments seem to describe podcasting to a tee, as anyone can transmit information apply this engineering science, with no higher sureness monitoring its use.A similar egress pattern is seen when reviewing the advent of Internet radio as well, with the 1995 creation of Real sound software, allowing radio postal services to send transmissions through and through the Internet instead of through other, practically traditional processes (Priestman, 2001). While this was a gigantic breakthrough in technology and access to mediums previously controlled by geography and cost, it hush up made Internet radio open on positioning you had to be in front of a computer to listen (Wall, 2004). This lack of portability has somewhat bee n trumped by new WiFi radio options in the UK (Rose, 2005), however that discussion is beyond the scope of this paper.Podcastings Origins movable music devices first appeared in the late 90s ( cutting edge Buskirk, 2005) but it wasnt until Apples 2001 release of the iPod that podcasting became a household name. At that time, no other commercial venture had successfully exchange legally available songs online and then facilitated transferring them onto a digital media device.Podcasting Success FactorsWe must go back in time to 1996 to go under just why MP3 players such as the iPod and podcasting in general took off at such an alarming rate. It was at this time when The Telecommunications Act of 1996 changed American radio ever more by allowing companies to own more than quaternary radio send in a specific market and more than forty nationwide, both of which were previous limiters (Mann, 2005).This allowed Clear Channel, one of the more infamous radio station consolidators, to merge well over one thousand stations across the U.S. using their tried-and-true content-weak system of providing lots of specifically targeted music to a specifically targeted consumer and the playition of so far so more commercial time. It seems evident, then, that radio listeners were well primed for an on-demand music service with fewer (or no) commercials without the WalMart of radio forcing listening decisions.How Has, and Will, Podcasting Changed Radio?In a sense, podcasting has changed radio into a new medium entirely. Now anyone, anywhere, with no forward radio, media or telecommunications knowledge can create a podcast for listeners around the world to enjoy, suffice to and interact with. Plus, it has provided access to public figures in ways that radio couldnt previously, as with Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards kitchen prorogue talks or President provides weekly radio addresses (see http//www.whitehouse.gov/radio). prox applications of podcasting technolog y are only especial(a) by the accessibility of MP3 players and the ingenuity of the users. The future(a) step of all-access, user-driven radio is to have the littler hand-held devices download podcasts (technology which is just generate available now) through radio receiver technology. This go away work in tandem with contemporary movement towards Wi-Max networks (where entire cities have wireless access availability instead of tho chosen hotspots), enabling users to save the cost of downloading content through their cellular promise providers or current fatport company. In fact, the Nokia N91 was to be released earlier this year with this same technology on board (Rose, 2005).Yet as MacFarland stated in 1997The answer will lie non so much in technical improvements to audio upbringing as in improvements to the product the auditory sense is seeking programming that is responsive to the listeners needs.Conventional radio stations have already picked up on this trend such as the Boston-based bullshit FM which boasts an iPod-like random playlist peg with an I dont mission attitude as shown by the DJs frequent mentions of the companys tag line Playing What We Want. Although podcasting whitethorn not reconnect traditional radio listeners with their radio roots (such as CBC has through with(p) in Canada with Radio One), it may add increased interest on the part of listeners, intent on learning more about new media and music not previously available to them.Some media experts may feel that podcasting is the end of radio as we know it, but rather it should be looked at as new way, method, technology and available to connect intimately with an consultation hard to pin down and even harder to communicate with. Works CitedB, Brecht. The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication. Radiotexte. Ed. Neil Strauss . New York Semiotext(e), 1993. face Podcasting. Google. Google. 30 Nov 2006 .Hammersley, B. Audible revolution. Guardian inexhaustible Technology. 12 Fe b 2004. Media Guardian. 30 Nov 2006 .Mann, Charles. The Ressurection of Indie Radio. pumped-up(a) Magazine 13.03Mar 2005 30 Nov 2005.Priestman, Chris. Web Radio Production for Internet Streaming. London focal Press, 2001.Rose, Frank. Battle for the Soul of the MP3 Phone. fit out Magazine 13.11Nov 2005 30 Nov 2006.Terdiman, Daniel. You, Too, Can Be a Podcaster. Wired News 31 Dec 2004 30 Nov 2006.Wall, T. The Political economy of Internet Radio. The Radio Journal 2(2004) 27-44.Van Buskirk, Eliot. Introducing the Worlds First MP3 Player. MP3 Insider. 21 Jan 2005. CNET Reviews. 30 Nov 2006 .