Radio Journal:International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media - Volume 14, Issue 1, 2016

When evaluating any new medium or technology we often turn to the familiar as a point of reference. Podcasting was no different, drawing obvious comparisons with radio. While there are traits within all podcasts that are radiogenic, one must also consider whether such distinctions are beneficial to the medium. Indeed, one might argue that when one considers the manner in which podcasts are created and consumed then there is an increasing sense in which podcasting can present itself as a distinct medium. While it is true to suggest that as an adaptable medium radio has simply evolved and podcasting is its latest iteration. In doing so, we might fail to appreciate the unique values that exist. In this article, I suggest that by considering podcasts on their terms we might begin to uncover new truths about a medium in change.

In her book Speaking Personally (2013), Rosalind Coward maps the rise of a new cultural form – confessional storytelling in journalism. She refers to this first-person writing as perhaps the ‘biggest growth area of journalism’ (12). Interviewees and journalists alike are sharing their real-life experiences, especially suited for the more intimate and personal environments of online media. These personal stories often deal with topics that might appear trivial and domestic, and ‘the inner emotional life, the opposite of subjects considered proper journalism’ (2013: 8). This is an area that has so far received limited critical attention. This article investigates the rise of personal audio narratives in the context of podcasting. It argues that the movement towards personal narratives is intrinsically linked to the intimate nature of the audio medium. Nowhere is this trend more obvious than in recent podcast developments, where US podcasts lead the way with personal and subjective approaches to storytelling. The rapid growth of this storytelling style is escalated by recent experimentation in form and genre, afforded by podcasting, liberated from broadcast conventions and schedules. This article builds on Coward’s study of print journalism and extends it to audio forms in those podcasts. It identifies through a critical analysis of three US podcasts an emerging genre of personal narrative journalism in podcasting.

This article analyses how three podcasts from the independent podcast network Maximum Fun use online spaces to cultivate audience engagement and listener interest. While some of these listener engagement techniques are not unique to podcasting, they offer examples of how podcasters have built strong audience connections by expanding interaction beyond their episodes and into the online spaces young, tech-savvy listeners often frequent. Specifically, this article compares how three podcast shows on the Maximum Fun network promote and use different online spaces (forums, social networks and blogs) to engage listeners and cultivate community.

This article explores the impact of the post-2014 podcast resurgence on non-fictional audio storytelling formats. The empirical study comprises themed commentary by five significant US, European and Australian editors who commission and produce audio documentaries and features for broadcast and/or podcast. The article provides insights into the changing role played by public broadcasters, the growth of independent podcast networks and the perceived differences between radio and podcasting as a mode of delivering and receiving audio content. Of particular significance is the belief of senior commissioning editors that podcasting is fomenting a new, more informal, genre of audio narrative feature centred on a strong relationship between host and listener, with content that is ‘talkier’ and less crafted. The US audio storytelling podcast sector is growing fast, and much of it has links to a public media ethos, but how to resource it without compromising its editorial independence remains unresolved.

Research into talkback radio has provided a great deal of information about shock jocks and their interactions with audiences, their political power and the power of radio to mobilize its audiences in negative ways. Talkback radio has been traditionally perceived as a participatory form of media, albeit limited by various gatekeeping and rules of access. However, the nature of talkback with its traditional reliance on voice and performance is changing as programmes are increasingly offering audience members the opportunity to contribute to programmes via e-mail, Short Messaging Service (SMS) and, more recently, websites and social media. This article contributes to an under-explored area of talkback radio studies by examining audience ‘participation’ in talkback programmes via SMS and e-mail. It draws data from focus groups with audiences of twelve Australian commercial and non-commercial talkback radio programmes to discover why some study participants use SMS and e-mail and why some do not contribute via these technologies. The article also examines, in what circumstances and for what purposes these talkback radio listeners use these technologies. Inductive coding was used to analyse the data through the computer program NVivo. We conclude that while study participants strongly associated talkback with phone calls, e-mail and SMS are largely accepted as regular methods of contributing to and communicating with talkback radio programmes. There is much more work to be undertaken on the topic of non-verbal contributions to talkback radio, particularly with the increasing use of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which this article has not explored.

Using an evaluation framework, this study sheds light on the organizational factors that influence the use of user-generated content (UGC) in radio newsrooms. Although communication research is consistently emphasizing rapid changes in technology and the need for journalists to adapt to their multi-platform environments, this study shows that some radio journalists and managers, at least, are still quite conservative in their innovative practices. Through the use of semi-structured interviews with radio managers and journalists in a major Canadian market, five main uses of UGC were identified in the newsroom. These factors were directly related to the perceived notion of the audience and its value to news reporting. Financial pressures, company policy and professional standards are the three main organizational factors that influence these uses and the extent to which the practices were observed. Age, language and sectorial differences did not appear to be influential in this study. These results, however, suggest that work still needs to be done to establish which factors are most relevant in overcoming fears and challenges with respect to innovative UGC use. A better knowledge of the audience could also influence future behaviour.

This article aims to explore the implications for local radio news in the UK commercial radio industry of a series of changes to the regulation of the sector since it was first established in the 1970s. A recent regulatory focus on product rather than process has enabled groups of stations to move not only programming production but also much news journalism out of the editorial areas it is intended to serve and into news ‘hubs’ intended to rationalize the process of news gathering and bulletin presentation and enable the groups to become increasingly profitable. The article considers a number of issues around the management of commercial radio groups in the United Kingdom, the development and, most recently, exploitation of the group ownership system of what mainly began as locally owned and locally operated radio stations, and the appropriateness of the current regulatory regime in the much altered media landscape of today. It uses original data derived from the ownership groups themselves to show the extent to which ‘hubs’ are routinely being used to increase profitability by making economies of scale, while also taking news journalism out of the editorial areas it is intended to cover.

This study examines the interaction between audience and producer in the production of local content by Indigenous radio stations in remote areas of far north Queensland, Australia. In the past three years, these stations have changed from being primarily carriers of content from Indigenous and non-Indigenous radio networks in other parts of Australia (from media organizations located ‘down south’ in major cities) to a network of stations broadcasting their own locally relevant and culturally specific programming 24 hours a day. Qualitative research, including participant observation of community broadcasters, reveals high levels of active audience engagement with local broadcasting, with content that is ‘hyper-local’ valued more than content produced outside of the community. Underpinning the engagement with radio in these communities is the accessibility of local producers and the ability of community members to have input into local content.