Podcasting is a weird industry. Earlier podcasts had a lot of actual independent journalism that came about from the lowered the barrier to entry compared to the limited availability of airtime on...
Podcasting is a weird industry. Earlier podcasts had a lot of actual independent journalism that came about from the lowered the barrier to entry compared to the limited availability of airtime on the regulated radio waves. The quality of the early content legitimized the medium in the same way that we usually think of books as high quality sources of information.
The same way that Kindle Direct Publishing has now made it so anyone can write a book about anything and have it be seen as legitimate because it’s a book, anyone can make a podcast and people are preconditioned to think that the information is legitimate and good.
Now the flood of nonsense podcasts have delegitimized the medium and made it harder to find high quality journalism.
I don’t know what the big takeaway from all of this is, but it’s interesting how changing the barriers to entry for certain media industries makes creating new things easier for professionals, but also makes it harder for people to identify what information is good or bad.
Idk I don't think this chronology makes sense. The first podcasts were about as indie as you can get. It was just a random segment of the iTunes store that anyone could upload to (and still can -...
Idk I don't think this chronology makes sense. The first podcasts were about as indie as you can get. It was just a random segment of the iTunes store that anyone could upload to (and still can - the iTunes Podcast registry is considered the canonical ones and outside of spotify, 3rd party podcasts apps primarily track it).
That's why it's a podcast - iPod + Broadcast. Apple coined it.
The very first podcasts were exactly the kind of thing you're complaining about happening now. This has always been a low barrier of entry medium. It was only much, much later after podcasts came to be that essentially a bunch of radio stations expanded to it, which brought the "professionalism" and stuff like ThisAmericanLife and NPR and The Daily.
It was the journalists who co-opted the indie podcasts scene, not the other way around.
Apple did not actually coin the term podcast. The term was coined and in use by the community before Apple added support for podcasts into iTunes and iPod. Podcasts originated as audio over RSS,...
Apple did not actually coin the term podcast. The term was coined and in use by the community before Apple added support for podcasts into iTunes and iPod. Podcasts originated as audio over RSS, which was later automated with scripts and apps to upload the mp3 files downloaded from RSS feeds to your iPod for listening, all without Apple involvement. Apple adopted the term and added the feature directly into iTunes later.
The editors at The Baffler want me to talk about my job. They want me to humiliate myself in the pages of this magazine. Very well: I am a podcaster.
What is a podcaster? It’s someone who makes money from talking, often by means of selling dick pills. I don’t do that part, but I still obscure what I do whenever possible. Maybe it’s the newness of the profession; in terms of recency, I slot it in with UX designer and the guys in the Philippines who respond to OnlyFans messages. When asked about my job by strangers at parties, I tell them I “work in media.” I make sure to say that in the kind of way that forbids questioning, like I’m the guy who bathes Bari Weiss or a janitor at the New York Post.
But I would never lie to you. Not only is my job a podcast, but the podcast is successful. I’m a white man with brown hair and glasses in his mid-thirties having fun and making money. My podcast is called TrueAnon. At the time of this writing, it’s the 172nd-biggest news podcast in America and one of the most subscribed-to podcasts on Patreon. Originally a ramshackle effort to track news about the famous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the show now covers any number of things broadly contained in the “news and opinion” category: Alan Dershowitz’s feud with a pierogi stand, rumors regarding Elon Musk’s robotic penis, Jerome Powell’s problems with Trump, etc. I get stopped on the street almost every day. They say to me: “You do that podcast!” And I say: “Yes, I do! Thank you so much for listening!” Then they say: “I thought you were five foot three!” And I have to explain to them that I lie about my height on the podcast so listeners resent me less for making a lot of money just for talking into a microphone twice a week.
I used to watch The Office on repeat as a background comfort show while I made dinner, did chores, etc. Now I have comedians making me laugh, but I still feel like my brain is seeping out of my...
I used to watch The Office on repeat as a background comfort show while I made dinner, did chores, etc. Now I have comedians making me laugh, but I still feel like my brain is seeping out of my head. I can't seem to bring myself to listen to educational casts, but I try. For myself, I'm about to stop listening to so many podcasts in general, as I'm actually realizing this in real time right here right now on this post.
Podcasting is a weird industry. Earlier podcasts had a lot of actual independent journalism that came about from the lowered the barrier to entry compared to the limited availability of airtime on the regulated radio waves. The quality of the early content legitimized the medium in the same way that we usually think of books as high quality sources of information.
The same way that Kindle Direct Publishing has now made it so anyone can write a book about anything and have it be seen as legitimate because it’s a book, anyone can make a podcast and people are preconditioned to think that the information is legitimate and good.
Now the flood of nonsense podcasts have delegitimized the medium and made it harder to find high quality journalism.
I don’t know what the big takeaway from all of this is, but it’s interesting how changing the barriers to entry for certain media industries makes creating new things easier for professionals, but also makes it harder for people to identify what information is good or bad.
Idk I don't think this chronology makes sense. The first podcasts were about as indie as you can get. It was just a random segment of the iTunes store that anyone could upload to (and still can - the iTunes Podcast registry is considered the canonical ones and outside of spotify, 3rd party podcasts apps primarily track it).
That's why it's a podcast - iPod + Broadcast. Apple coined it.
The very first podcasts were exactly the kind of thing you're complaining about happening now. This has always been a low barrier of entry medium. It was only much, much later after podcasts came to be that essentially a bunch of radio stations expanded to it, which brought the "professionalism" and stuff like ThisAmericanLife and NPR and The Daily.
It was the journalists who co-opted the indie podcasts scene, not the other way around.
Apple did not actually coin the term podcast. The term was coined and in use by the community before Apple added support for podcasts into iTunes and iPod. Podcasts originated as audio over RSS, which was later automated with scripts and apps to upload the mp3 files downloaded from RSS feeds to your iPod for listening, all without Apple involvement. Apple adopted the term and added the feature directly into iTunes later.
Mirror: https://archive.is/NniUa
I used to watch The Office on repeat as a background comfort show while I made dinner, did chores, etc. Now I have comedians making me laugh, but I still feel like my brain is seeping out of my head. I can't seem to bring myself to listen to educational casts, but I try. For myself, I'm about to stop listening to so many podcasts in general, as I'm actually realizing this in real time right here right now on this post.