Podcasting

STEPHANIE ANNE BROWN

West Chester University of Pennsylvania, USA

The word podcast is a noun and a verb; it signifies both the production of a discrete
audio text and the produced text itself. While the noun podcast often refers to an audio
file, the object is a combination of an audio MP3 file, an XML (Extensible Markup
Language) metadata file, and an RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feed that makes
distribution and listening possible. Colloquially, the term podcast generally refers to
an episode or series of audio content downloaded or streamed from the internet on
demand or via a subscription service.
A portmanteau of the words broadcast and iPod, the word podcast was coined by jour-
nalist Ben Hammersly in an article for The Guardian in 2004 about a possible coming
boom in amateur radio production. Later that year, a blog post by tech journalist Doc
Searls also adopted the term in his anticipation of a burgeoning form of audio distri-
bution. The time between these early predictions and the podcast boom was relatively
short. A Google search for the word “podcast” in 2004 turned up 24 hits. By the end of
2005, the same search turned up over 100 million. By August 2005, the term had earned
its place in the Oxford English Dictionary.
The verb to podcast is a process and practice that emerged from the convergence of
genres, institutions, business models, media histories, and social and cultural practices.
No one person invented podcasting; rather the technology emerged around 2004 as the
result of the introduction of the RSS file format, a rise in users with multimedia-ready
computers and MP3 players, and the availability of faster broadband that supported
the easy downloading and streaming of the audio files. Software developer Dave Winer
and former MTV VJ and tech entrepreneur Mark Curry are the two people most often
attributed with developing and popularizing both the RSS technology that allows for
the aggregating and downloading of web content and with creating and popularizing
podcasting software.
Alongside these new technologies grew communities built on the ideals of
peer-to-peer sharing and do-it-yourself cultures that encouraged and enabled amateur
audio producers to start creating and sharing their work. Developers intentionally
made software open source, allowing for other developers to improve on their ideas and
imbuing the technology with a communal ethic. In 2005, Apple added podcasts to the
iTunes store, pushing the form from the realm of amateur, tech-savvy audiophiles into
mainstream consciousness. More recently, advances in broadband internet and cellular
data services and the availability of smartphones has made the process increasingly
streamlined and accessible. The new form was also able to find listeners and producers
beyond these technologically savvy early adopters as social media platforms like

The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication. Karen Ross (Editor-in-Chief),
Ingrid Bachmann, Valentina Cardo, Sujata Moorti, and Marco Scarcelli (Associate Editors).
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/9781119429128.iegmc028
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Facebook (2004), Twitter (2006), and Tumblr (2007) fostered online connections and
enabled easier and more user-friendly sharing.
Podcasting shares qualities with several legacy media; it is an auditory medium, like
radio, though it is generally delivered automatically to listeners via a subscription, like
a magazine or newspaper. Some scholars situate podcasting within the tradition of
amateur and community radio. Unlike traditional institutions of broadcasting or plat-
forms like YouTube or Twitter, podcasting is an open source technology, self-governed
by participants, listeners, and intermediaries. No one entity can claim ownership over
the RSS, XML, or MP3 technology that makes podcasting possible. This focus on
podcasting’s potentially revolutionary qualities aligns with contemporary ideals of the
democratizing power of user-generated content and the potential for an open digital
public sphere. Apple’s iTunes store, through which the general public became aware of
podcasting, gave customers the ability to both consume and produce podcasts through
its interface from the beginning. This capability infused podcasting technology with
ideals of accessibility, democracy, and horizontal communication from its introduction
into the popular consciousness.
While early scholarship theorized podcasting in terms of its relationship to tradi-
tional radio broadcasting, more recently, scholars have argued that this detracts from
attempts to “fully theorize and investigate the form of podcasting on its own terms”
(Berry, 2016, p. 9). Indeed, the release of WBEZ Chicago’s This American Life spin-off
Serial marked a shift in the classification of podcasting as radio and is seen as major
turning point in podcasting’s short history. The twelve-episode podcast released in
November of 2014 accumulated five million iTunes downloads in record time and,
ten years after the inception of the medium, ushered podcasting from niche format to
mainstream platform. Hosted by veteran audio journalist Sarah Koenig, Serial merged
personal storytelling, serial structure, and the true crime genre in recounting the story
of the conviction of then-teenager Adnan Syed for the murder of his former girlfriend
Hae Min Lee.
Serial was rooted within traditional institutions of public broadcasting—it was a
spin-off of a stalwart NPR radio program and hosted by a seasoned NPR journalist—but
the series succeeded due to characteristics tied specifically to podcasting. Producers of
podcasts are not tied to traditional radio structure: they do not have to abide by FCC
regulations, fit length requirements, allow for advert breaks, or require audiences to lis-
ten at a predetermined time. Podcast listeners also tend to be more active and engaged
than radio listeners, seeking content rather than passively consuming the flow of a live
radio broadcast. Podcasts are generally listened to on personal devices, fostering an
even more personal and privatized experience than traditional radio listening. In this
way, podcasting builds on the intimacy of radio, creating a deeper connection between
podcast hosts/producers and listeners. Further, while not all podcasts are amateur or
semiprofessional, the format allows for production in domestic spaces like garages or
homes, thus creating a “double-end domestication or privatization of the experience
where both the production and the consumption occurring in the private spaces of
homes or the headphone-wearing consumer” (Berry, 2016, p. 14). Finally, Andrew
Bottomley (2015) contends that the most notable feature of podcasting is serialized
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distribution via RSS feed that pushes audio to listeners on a regular basis that they can
consume anytime, anywhere.
Others argue that we should not understand podcasting as necessarily a liberating
or democratizing technology, but rather as a renewed form of radio broadcasting that
both continues and disrupts older business and production models. While discourses
surrounding podcasting often debate the extent to which the form breaks from tradi-
tional radio conventions and business models, podcast scholars note that such debates
fail to differentiate between commercial and public radio, thus ignoring the revolution-
ary potential of public radio broadcasting and the potential of podcasting to further that
mission. In fact, with their institutional resources and archives, public broadcasters are
often in a better position to further democratic communication than amateur podcast-
ers struggling to find an audience or produce quality content. Indeed, institutions like
National Public Radio (NPR), The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Cana-
dian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
(ABC) started digitizing and distributing much of their weekly and daily programming
in podcast form around 2005 to engage new listeners and expand their reach.
Often, without being stated, popular accounts of technology and technological
history are accounts of straight, White, male relationships with or uses of technology.
Indeed, most research done on podcasting and its history have sidestepped issues of
gender, race, sexuality, and power. Nevertheless, podcasting’s unique characteristics do
show potential for the disruption of hegemonic representation, practices, and cultures
within traditional broadcasting and the advancement of marginalized voices. Because
podcasting has fewer restrictions and barriers to entry than traditional broadcasting,
researchers see potential for feminist and gendered activism in the rise of podcasts
hosted by women, by queer folks, by non-White people, and by other voices under or
misrepresented in mainstream media formats (Tiffe & Hoffmann, 2017). For instance,
podcasting has disrupted traditional notions of gendered authoritative reporting,
storytelling, and voice tone. While women’s voices have historically been denigrated
as too emotional, high-pitched, and grating to imbue authority into radio broadcasts,
researchers find that audiences now place more importance on notions of authenticity,
making room for feminine vocal characteristics in addition to other marginalized
vocal characteristics, tones, dialects, and vocabulary. Audiences want podcasters to
sound like friends and individuals, not representatives of larger cultural institutions
(Mottram, 2016).
Feminist scholars also see potential for the disruption of hegemonic authority in
centering previously marginalized perspectives, engaging with feminist techniques of
“open questions, multiple voices, subtlety, and humility,” and creating content that
is accessible to a diverse listenership (Doane, McCormick, & Sorce, 2017, p. 120).
Within the confines of traditional news reporting, journalists foreground official
narratives and tell stories through soundbites, while podcast storytelling gives a
broader range of perspectives and allows space for audiences to empathize with
marginalized voices. This combination of intimacy and storytelling fosters the empathy
and community necessary to build activist networks around issues of marginalized
gender, racial, and sexual identities. Caroline Mitchell (2015) found that historically
women’s community radio has served as both a repository and maker of cultural
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memory while simultaneously creating spaces for feminist campaigning and activism.
Increasingly, podcasting is complementing and overtaking alternative and community
radio as a space for feminist political organizing, consciousness-raising, and action.
Podcasting’s ability to blur the line between public and private space also encourages
the development of affinity communities. Alfred L. Martin (2018) argues that queer
radio and podcasting creates “queer affective communities” where LGBT citizens can
be transported aurally to communal affinity spaces, especially those isolated geograph-
ically from other members of the community. In addition to creating communities,
Stacey Copeland (2018) also illustrates the ways in which sound-based media created
by and for marginalized voices offers a means through which to push back against
heteronormative visual media.
Podcasting technology is also a means through which to disrupt hegemonic mascu-
line notions of history and archive. Podcast audio files require an accompanying XML
file, which allows for podcasts to be tagged, searched, archived, and delivered in an
accessible manner that does not require sophisticated programming knowledge and
allows for documentation to be easily migrated, adapted, customized, and transferred.
In this XML metadata, Mél Hogan (2008) sees the potential for the web to be an “online
repository and collaborative history project” upending traditional understanding of
both the archive and authority. Specifically, she theorizes queercasting as a means
through which to further lesbian, queer, and feminist representation, which is rarely
heard on mainstream radio and is often left out of historical archives. She argues
that podcasting, as a growing institution that bypasses censorship and is built on
collaboration and open source technology, is a natural fit with the aims of queer
community and activism.
Podcasting has the potential to increase representation, to encourage activism,
to reach underrepresented listeners and tell their stories, and to amplify feminist,
feminine, and queer content. Podcasts like Nancy (WNYC Studios), Unscrewed (The
Establishment), Queery (Earwolf), The Heart (Radiotopia), and The Friend Zone
(Loud Speakers Network) that are hosted by women, nonbinary, and queer folks
not only illustrate the potential for political action via podcasting, but also open up
possibilities for challenging gendered stereotypes through the intimacy and affective
connection between the hosts, their guests, and the listening community. However,
while podcasting has the potential to disrupt hegemonic broadcasting practices and
gendered cultural power, as podcasting becomes more popular, old institutions,
systems, and communication models tend to solidify within the ecosystem. While
low cost and technological barriers to entry mean that many more people can create
podcasts than can create their own radio programs or television series, podcasting
has become highly professional and increasingly exhibits recognizable forms of
institutionalization through advertising networks and the crystallization of genres
and formats. Further, while there is potential for podcasting to diversify the media
landscape, the most popular programs tend to be dominated by White, upper-middle
class men, and podcast audiences skew young, educated, and affluent. The proliferation
of podcast popularity and growing number of series means that to break through the
noise, podcasts generally must be associated with established personalities, institu-
tions, or networks. This may mean that podcast popularity will lead to the further
 P O D CA S T I N G 5

professionalization and institutionalization of the form, at which time podcasting will

be more likely to replicate ingrained power hierarchies of gender and sexuality than to
break them down.

SEE ALSO: Feminist Media Activism; Gender and News; Gender and Technology; Par-
ticipatory and Networked Cultures; Women’s Blogs; Women’s Radio Production

References

Berry, R. (2016). Podcasting: Considering the evolution of the medium and its association with
the word “radio.” Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 14(1), 7–22.
doi:10.1386/rjao.14.1.7_1
Bottomley, A. J. (2015). Podcasting: A decade in the life of a “new” audio medium: Introduction.
Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 22(2), 164–169. doi:10.1080/19376529.2015.1082880
Copeland, S. (2018). A feminist materialization of amplified voice: Queering identity and affect
in The Heart. In D. Llinares, N. Fox, & R. Berry (Eds.), Podcasting: New aural cultures and the
digital media (pp. 209–225). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
Doane, B., McCormick, K., & Sorce, G. (2017). Changing methods for feminist public schol-
arship: Lessons from Sarah Koenig’s podcast Serial. Feminist Media Studies, 17(1), 119–121.
doi:10.1080/14680777.2017.1261465
Hogan, M. (2008). Dykes on mykes: Podcasting and the activist archive. TOPIA: Canadian Journal
of Cultural Studies, 20(Fall), 199–215.
Martin, A. L., Jr. (2018). Queer (in)frequencies: SiriusXM’s OutQ and the limits of queer listening
publics. Feminist Media Studies, 18(2), 249–263. doi:10.1080/14680777.2017.1315735
Mitchell, C. (2015). Re-sounding feminist radio: A journey through women’s community radio
archives. Feminist Media Histories, 1(4), 126–143. doi:10.1525/fmh.2015.1.4.126
Mottram, C. (2016). Finding a pitch that resonates: An examination of gender and vocal authority
in podcasting. Voice and Speech Review, 10(1), 53–69. doi:10.1080/23268263.2017.1282683
Tiffe, R., & Hoffmann, M. (2017). Taking up sonic space: Feminized vocality and podcasting as
resistance. Feminist Media Studies, 17(1), 115–118. doi:10.1080/14680777.2017.1261464

Further Reading

Berry, R. (2006). Will the iPod kill the radio star? Profiling podcasting as radio. Convergence,
12(2), 143–162. doi:10.1177/1354856506066522
Cwynar, C. (2015). More than a “VCR for radio”: The CBC, the Radio 3 podcast, and the
uses of an emerging medium. Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 22(2), 190–199. doi:10.1080/
19376529.2015.1083371
Florini, S. (2015). The podcast “Chitlin’ circuit”: Black podcasters, alternative media, and
audio enclaves. Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 22(2), 209–219. doi:10.1080/19376529.
2015.1083373
Lacey, K. (2013). Listening publics: The politics and experience of listening in the media age. Cam-
bridge, UK: Polity Press.
Lindgren, M. (2016). Personal narrative journalism and podcasting. Radio Journal: International
Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 14(1), 23–41. doi:10.1386/rjao.14.1.23_1
Llinares, D., Fox, N., & Berry, R. (Eds.). (2018). Podcasting: New aural cultures and digital media.
Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Loviglio, J., & Hilmes, M. (Eds.). (2013). Radio’s new wave: Global sound in the digital era. New
York, NY: Routledge.
Madsen, V. M. (2009). Voices-cast: A report on the new audiosphere of podcasting with specific
insights for public broadcasting. In T. Flew (Ed.), Communication, Creativity and Global Citi-
zenship: Refereed Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communications Association
Annual Conference (pp. 1191–1210). Brisbane, Australia.

Stephanie Anne Brown is currently a visiting assistant professor of communication

and media at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. She received her doctorate in
media and communications from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where
her research examined gendered gatekeeping and discourses of authenticity in stand-up
comedy as a media industry. Her research interests also include feminist media studies,
podcasting, social media, popular culture, fandom, and audience reception. Her work
has been published in Flow Journal, In Media Res, Transformative Works and Cultures,
and Studies in American Humor.