Podcaster's Portal: Podcasting definitions

Podcasting definitions Podcaster's Portal: Podcasting definitions

Pods - some definitions

IN THIS ARTICLE:

Informal definition
Turning it around
Slightly technical definition
My opinion

By Jonathan Halls

How do we define podcast? Good question. There are a number of podcasting definitions fllying around and I think some will evolve.

This is because I don’t believe we’ve fully discovered the power of podcasts. Podcasters will continue to try new formats, experiment with new ways of packaging audio content and push the boundaries of what we know podcasting is today.

As they push these boundaries and discover all the possibilities, I believe they will change the definition of podcasting. (By the way, you might be one of the people pushing those boundaries.)

So how will we define podcasting here? Three ways:

The informal definition. This is for people who just want a quick idea about podcasting. It’s the way I’d explain podcasting over a beer in the pub.
The slightly technical definition. For people who want a more serious definition. I’ll throw in some of the technobabble.
The Published definitions. We’ll analyze how dictionaries define podcasting. (And we’ll possibly question their definition.)

Finally, I'll throw in my opinion, for what it's worth

The informal definition
A podcast is like a radio program or section of a radio program that is published on the web. Every time a new episode is published, your computer gets a message saying, “new episode of Ski Tips ready for you to listen to.” It is then automatically downloaded to your computer or mobile device.

More people listen to podcasts using their PC than mobile devices. But who knows, that could change.

You can use all sorts of mobile devices to receive podcasts. These include the popularly branded iPod which is made by Apple. It’s also the product that inspired the name podcasting. (Some experts want to influence a change because they think it promotes Apple too much.)

Other mobile devices include MP3 players, PDAs, such as your palm pilot, and increasingly, cell phones.

If you have any of these devices, you hook them up to your computer and download the programs. You can then listen to them anytime you wish.

Your computer knows a new episode has been published because you’ll use a piece of software known as an aggregator. It’s also known as a podcatcher. You put your favorite podcasts into your aggregator and it automatically checks for the latest episode. You can program it to check every hour or every two-days.

Turning it around
Let’s turn this definition around and look at it from the perspective of a podcaster.

A podcast is a piece of audio you record. If you’re an executive it could be a quarterly report for shareholders, or a message for your staff around the world. If you’re an entertainer it could be your own comedy show. For a scientist or educator it may be an audio seminar.

If you podcast regularly, it can be automatically downloaded by anyone, anywhere in the world. And the RSS feed makes sure they know when your latest podcast has been published.

A lot of people describe podcasting as radio which I think is dangerous. There are certainly many similarities. But at the same time, there are many differences. (Read my article, Pods AINT Radio.)

One of the differences between podcasting and radio broadcasting is the degree of difficulty involved in hooking your listeners. If your science show was broadcast on the radio every Thursday night at 8:30pm, it would be very easy for your listeners to forget. Especially because they might be regularly eating dinner or playing sports.

However, if your program was podcast, it would be automatically downloaded to your listeners’ computers ready for them to listen when they are free. Unlike radio listeners who have to listen to the broadcast right there and then, your listeners listen to your podcast any time that suits them. Flexible, huh? And of course, your listeners could be anywhere in the world. Unlike FM radio listeners who have to be within line of sight of the transmitter.

Who podcasts?
Many of the major media companies publish regular podcasts. You’ll find them at the New York Times, Denver Post, Guardian, Daily Telegraph and BBC.

More and more companies are using both audio and video podcasts for internal communication. It’s cheaper to tape a message on web video than printing 20,000 staff newsletters which may not be read anyway.

Yahoo and iTunes list loads of podcasts. Do some searches and discover what they offer. Or check our picks for some good examples.

The slightly technical definition
A podcast is a multimedia file automatically accessed from the internet using syndication software that can read RSS or Atom syndication feeds.

Podcasts are accessed by a computer or mobile device such as a MP3 player, an iPod or a mobile phone. Statistics show more people listen to the podcasts using their PC than on a mobile device.

Experts say that the use of software, known as aggregation software, that reads RSS files and automatically downloads content is what distinguishes podcasting from other forms of web audio such as streaming.

Podcasting now includes video content as well as audio. (Video-based podcasting is also referred to as both vodcasting and vidcasting.) The latest iPods have video capability.

As with audio podcasting, the key thing attribute of separates vodcasting from from streaming video and other forms of video on the Web is the aggregation software using RSS or Atom to check for latest editions.

Published Definition
There aren’t too many dictionaries that define podcasting. It’s too new a word and concept.

However, the New Oxford American dictionary does. It says podcasting is “a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player.”

PC Magazine’s encyclopedia says a podcast is, “An audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player or computer.”

My Opinion
While I’m happy with these definitions as a starting point, I am uncomfortable with the term broadcast. Podcasting is not broadcasting, it is narrowcasting.

I worry that all the analogies that podcasting evangelists make to radio broadcasting will slow down podcasting’s potential development because people will try and copy radio technqiues which have evolved and been developed for an entirely different medium.

Sure, the analogy is ’s a helpful way for beginners to discover podcasting. But in my experience teaching podcasting to thousands of people, it leads people to create radio programs rather than podcasts.

Podcasts are new media. Radio is traditional media. Neither is better than the other but they are very different. And until we get this in perspective, we’ll never fully experience, appreciate or discover the full power of podcasting.

Which leads me to my last comment on the definition. I think it’s all going to change. I alluded to this earlier. I don’t think we know yet what podcasting is. Let me explain.

We’ve had commercial radio since the 1920s. In fact the first sound broadcast on radio was 101 years ago but let's think about mainstream radio. The past 88 years has given us almost a century to understand radio as a medium.

However, podcasting isn’t even 5 years old. It hasn’t reached puberty. (Wait until it’s in its teens.) We need more time to discover its identity and personality along with all the possibilities it brings as part of the new media age where we now how interactive, participatory, non-linear story telling.

This scares some people because they need a reference point. Something tangible to understand it. However this should not scare us - it is in fact very exciting. Because being at the cusp of its evolution, you and I have the power to create the future of podcasting.

Another other I have noticed that highlights the youthfulness of podcasting as a medium is the number of conversations and articles we read and have about podcasting that focus on technical issues. This is common in the development of any news technology as people struggle to understand the technology. Beyond technology, we need to learn a lot more about audio content, how it’s used and what people want.

We need to learn a lot more about how audio content can be packaged in a fresh and original way. Not just copying radio over to the Web. I think that debate will start soon. And that will challenge what we think about podcasting.

So let’s see this definition changing!