Unpublished Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Based on a survey of 366 podcasters and videobloggers, this paper examines these emerging cultural practices from aspect of production, with specific interest in producer
motivations, production methods, the relationship between formats, and audience numbers. The exploratory research findings – largely limited to English language
producers – illustrates a number of interesting features about this area of activity. These include:
Podcasts and videoblogs exhibit many similarities in terms of their content and production, and therefore can be conceptualized in similar ways, with some notable
exceptions,
The research identified a relatively limited demographic range of producers (dominated by educated men from North America in their mid-thirties). Overall, there is a
significant disparity in participation by women in the production of both podcasts and videoblogs,
Surprisingly, a significant number of podcasts and videoblogs are undertaken for explicitly commercial or quasi-commercial purposes, but with an emphasis on
advertising over other revenue models,
Most shows are produced with some reference to third party input and the inclusion of third party content,
The use of guests or experts is relatively common in many shows (as opposed to associated website commentary and discussion) demonstrates a clear “gatekeeper
role” by producers more akin to television and radio production than the associated phenomena of blogging, and
There appears to be opportunities for the providers of supporting technologies (production software, hosting and directory services, and media clients) to further
support show producers through increasing the ease of production, better audience metrics, and peering options.
In addition, a number of interesting relationships between audience size and show characteristics are examined. Some key findings include:
Episode frequency exerts a strong influence on audience size, with the release of daily episodes demonstrating the highest average audience size. Presently, most
shows are produced on a weekly basis,
There are few specific production-side determinants on popularity (including production time per episode), with the exception of collaborative shows, where there is a
significant positive correlation between the number of staff or collaborators and show popularity, and
There appears to be an emerging negative relationship within the podcasting production community between the prevalence of shows in some genres and lower
average audience sizes. While this relationship is not significant, it may indicate that the market in some genres is saturating and further efforts need to be undertaken
to expand the overall size of the market.
In the final discussion, some additional comments are provided on issues of copyright and other legal concerns, policy considerations to address gender inequality, and
questions associated with definitional inspecificity.