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Рy05 December 2018
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How can we use podcasts to create a new type of content, approach and serve new audiences, explore new distribution platforms? On 4 December, the Independent Journalism Center organised a meeting of journalists with podcasting trainer Dumitrita Holdis, from the Center for Media, Data and Society of the Central European University in Budapest, who offered competent answers to these and other questions.
The expert mentioned that podcast is an online audio program that can be accessed ‘at the command’ of the listener. ‘Unlike the radio, where the content is broadcast and listened to at pre-set hours, podcasts are stored online, being accessible to the listener’s command. However, the podcast isn’t defined only by its technical features. The format and innovative content of these programs make them very different from the radio’, Dumitrita Holdis said.
The podcast’s key advantage is that it helps journalists ‘escape the pressures of standardised time, the idea of a “general audience” and the online production’, Dumitrita Holdis mentioned.
Thus, podcast makers enjoy the freedom to create programs that distance themselves from the national radio traditions and enter more easily into the experimental zone. ‘So far, there are no clearly defined professional standards for this type of content. The podcasting industry started out as an activity for amateurs, who, in the meantime, became professionals’, the expert added.
The participants in the meeting learned that the US podcast industry has seen an impressive development in recent years. If 11% of the US population listened to a podcast in 2006, in 2018 this indicator reached 44%.
‘The US Independent Journalism Center is a relevant example demonstrating how the US podcasting industry evolved. US journalists began making podcasts to explain to the audience, in plain and accessible language, the reports they were developing. The audience found them so useful that today, the Independent Journalism Center is concentrating most of its work on making podcasts’, Dumitrita Holdis told.
In the end, the participants had to answer this question: ‘Why are podcasts relevant to journalists?’
‘First, due to them we’ll have access to a new audience, with which we can establish another type of interaction. Second, we have the opportunity to experience new formats and content, thus making the audience curious. Third, they create opportunities for more funding ways’, the podcasting expert concluded.
The journalists attending the meeting shared their experiences in making podcasts, stating that this new type of content is at the beginning in the Republic of Moldova.
‘We, at Moldova.org, tried to make podcasts. For now, we can’t say they were successful. We’re glad to share our experience, but also to learn how to improve our skills to make a podcast to be appreciated by listeners’, says Diana Mihuta, from Moldova.org portal.
Since podcasting is something new for Moldova, the journalist thought that those who have some experience in the field should share it with others, to analyze what they do and how they do it. ‘When a competition is born between us, the journalists, podcast quality will strengthen. This industry has a future in Moldova, especially in traffic jams. Podcast is very welcomed when you want to rest your eyes after a long day in front of the computer’, Diana Mihuta added.
Dumitrita Holdis manages Sound Relations, a project that brought the sound and audio practice among the studies of the Central European University. She graduated from sociology, and for two years now she is a trained in podcasting. She works on research projects that study the media system in Romania and the Eastern Europe region.
The event is part of a series of meetings between journalists and IT developers or media experts, organised by the Independent Journalism Center, as part of the ‘Media Enabling Democracy, Inclusion and Accountability in Moldova (MEDIA-M)’ project, funded by USAID and implemented by Internews. Their purpose is to facilitate the interaction between journalists and media consumers through innovations.
The expert mentioned that podcast is an online audio program that can be accessed ‘at the command’ of the listener. ‘Unlike the radio, where the content is broadcast and listened to at pre-set hours, podcasts are stored online, being accessible to the listener’s command. However, the podcast isn’t defined only by its technical features. The format and innovative content of these programs make them very different from the radio’, Dumitrita Holdis said.
The podcast’s key advantage is that it helps journalists ‘escape the pressures of standardised time, the idea of a “general audience” and the online production’, Dumitrita Holdis mentioned.
Thus, podcast makers enjoy the freedom to create programs that distance themselves from the national radio traditions and enter more easily into the experimental zone. ‘So far, there are no clearly defined professional standards for this type of content. The podcasting industry started out as an activity for amateurs, who, in the meantime, became professionals’, the expert added.
The participants in the meeting learned that the US podcast industry has seen an impressive development in recent years. If 11% of the US population listened to a podcast in 2006, in 2018 this indicator reached 44%.
‘The US Independent Journalism Center is a relevant example demonstrating how the US podcasting industry evolved. US journalists began making podcasts to explain to the audience, in plain and accessible language, the reports they were developing. The audience found them so useful that today, the Independent Journalism Center is concentrating most of its work on making podcasts’, Dumitrita Holdis told.
In the end, the participants had to answer this question: ‘Why are podcasts relevant to journalists?’
‘First, due to them we’ll have access to a new audience, with which we can establish another type of interaction. Second, we have the opportunity to experience new formats and content, thus making the audience curious. Third, they create opportunities for more funding ways’, the podcasting expert concluded.
The journalists attending the meeting shared their experiences in making podcasts, stating that this new type of content is at the beginning in the Republic of Moldova.
‘We, at Moldova.org, tried to make podcasts. For now, we can’t say they were successful. We’re glad to share our experience, but also to learn how to improve our skills to make a podcast to be appreciated by listeners’, says Diana Mihuta, from Moldova.org portal.
Since podcasting is something new for Moldova, the journalist thought that those who have some experience in the field should share it with others, to analyze what they do and how they do it. ‘When a competition is born between us, the journalists, podcast quality will strengthen. This industry has a future in Moldova, especially in traffic jams. Podcast is very welcomed when you want to rest your eyes after a long day in front of the computer’, Diana Mihuta added.
Dumitrita Holdis manages Sound Relations, a project that brought the sound and audio practice among the studies of the Central European University. She graduated from sociology, and for two years now she is a trained in podcasting. She works on research projects that study the media system in Romania and the Eastern Europe region.
The event is part of a series of meetings between journalists and IT developers or media experts, organised by the Independent Journalism Center, as part of the ‘Media Enabling Democracy, Inclusion and Accountability in Moldova (MEDIA-M)’ project, funded by USAID and implemented by Internews. Their purpose is to facilitate the interaction between journalists and media consumers through innovations.
