Podcasts Go Mainstream
Today's Washington Post featured an article on mainstream media and how corporate American has taken podcasting away from the grass-roots level. Yet again, we're faced with the dilemma of understanding just how relevant podcasts really are.
In the article, it states that the moment Apple Computer, Inc. made content available through podcasts, the site went from 0 podcast subscriptions to 2 Million in two days - that's a fast grass-roots movement! It seems like people need to play in the corporate environment to be relevant to customers. Phil Redo, vice president of station operations and strategy for New York public radio station WNYC states "We have got to be in those spaces or we run the risk of becoming less relevant to them [listeners]."
The article goes on to mention websites that have podcast directories for listeners to choose from. I visited Digital Podcast, an online directory that features over 2,100 podcasts to see what content was featured. In the politics/government category, there are 126 podcasts available, mostly from Air America and Two Rights. Compared to other categories such as business/finance, movies/entertainment and science/technology, political podcasts have an equal percentage of programming available. According to Alex Nesbitt, who runs the company, "Getting people to try the media is the first step." I would imagine his content database will soon grow as more people want the convenience of downloading content to platforms such as iPods.
In my opinion, podcasts are a natural extension of political campaigning. It's relatively inexpensive to produce a podcast and political candidates and causes can post content quickly to their websites. As campaigns turn negative, this will be very useful to counter negative attacks in a short period of time and position the candidate and/or issue as needed.
Although people are complaining that the "garage level" podcasts are being overshadowed by corporate America, I'm glad to have yet another platform from which to communicate key messages.