August 24, 2008, 11:04 pm by Laura

Several aspects of podcasting designate it as a medium of the future according to Tom Johnson, but, for me, it harkens back to a former point in media history when like-minded people gathered around a radio to hear the next installment of an audio drama or the day’s news. While podcasts like Escape Pod may borrow some basic suspense elements forged by strictly audio triggers that are reminiscent of the radio soap operas of old, few other similarities exist between the new and the old of audio media. One of the biggest and most important differences, as Brian pointed out from the readings, is the convenience of modern technology, particularly podcasts. Instead of making an entire audience sit still for an hour around huge living room radios as they were broadcast to, podcasts allow a new generation to be entertained and informed at their leisure, on the go and wherever they so choose.

Research on such new media must look at the cultural implications of such technological progress. We may have more convenience at the expense of social unity. Not everyone subscribes to the same podcast, as evidenced by the multitude of options on our short class list alone. Social groups and water cooler conversations become smaller and smaller as podcasts facilitate an obviously growing trend of narrow-casting. Not that this trend is necessarily good or bad – I’ll leave the judgement up to future class discussions.