After creating a waste and recycling podcast that will be featured on Birminghamrecycled in a couple of weeks time it made me wonder what makes a good podcast and what are people looking for when listening to a podcast?
Our podcast took the structure of all area members discussing three topics that have been posted on the news site through articles, these were litter fines, carrier bag charges and what else do we think Birmingham can do to improve waste and recycling in Birmingham. The editor took the role as host to make sure we spent an even amount of time on each topic and tried to stimualte conversation.
But is this a streotypical structure of a podcast? With being a podcast virgin only hearing snippets from the Chris Moyles show when they advertise it on Radio one, it sounds like a round up of the best parts of his show that week. So should our regular podcast take this format or should we try and be more creative?
One suggestion already made to me by my Dad was to have a guest speaker feature in one of the discussions we have, maybe an expert in the area or how the topic has affected them personally.
But are podcasts even vital as people can read the articles on the issues we discuss on the website anyway and can comment on the article themselves or on the blogs written by the author, so why would people want to listen to a group of journalists discussing the topic?
It may just be as I am uneducated in the art of podcasting that I may be naive to why they are a good source of social journalism? Or is it just one of those things that only a few people are interested in and its a medium that needs to grow such as the recent boom in social networking such as Twitter?
The waste and recycling podcast should be up on Birminghamrecycled in about 2 weeks time, your comments would be much appreciated.
Natalie Adcock said,
March 9, 2009 @ 9:11 pm
Good article, it was good to try out podcasting today.
Could you use some pics on your blog though from Flickr?