Do It Yourself Media: Podcasting

The term "podcasting" is a combination of the words “iPod” and “broadcasting” – but to receive a podcast you do not need to have an iPod – any portable MP3 player or computer will do. Podcasting can also be referred to by more descriptive terminology such as “time-shifted broadcast”, “syndicated broadcast” or more simply “downloading an audio file”.

Podcasting is based on RSS technology – Really Simple Syndication ( http://tinyurl.com/3ml9s ) which gives websites and blogs the means to notify subscribers when new content has been added to a website.

Crucially in 2002 the RSS standard was extended to include media files.

And in August last year a chap called Adam Curry ( http://live.curry.com/ ) wrote a simple script to automate the process of getting RSS subscription audio files added to the iTunes media player and automatically transferred to an iPod - thus podcasting was born.

Podcasting is therefore very similar to posting links to on demand media files on a website. However, the critical difference is that when new content is added to a site, podcast subscribers will receive the new content automatically as they ‘pull’ the new media files to their iPod, their MP3 player or computer.

Podcasting differs from traditional broadcasting in that the individual listener initiates the ‘cast’ through their subscription and automatic download of the audio content. But podcasting is similar to conventional webcasting in that the listener clicks a link on a website to listen to either a live stream or an on-demand media file. A podcast is therefore like an audio magazine subscription: subscribers will receive regular audio programs delivered via the Internet, and they can listen to them at their leisure. Podcasts can be listened to at any time because a copy is on the listener's computer or MP3 player, and they are automatically delivered to subscribers, so no active downloading is required.

Listening to a podcast

So how do you get started with podcasting? There are two ways to download a podcast. The most direct way is to visit one of the many podcast aggregator sites on the Internet such as http://audio.weblogs.com/ and pick a show that you like the description of. Click the link to the MP3 file (it will be a number followed by MB for megabytes) and save the file to your computer. You may then listen to the downloaded file using an MP3 player such as Winamp ( http://www.winamp.com/ ),Windows Media Player or iTunes.

If you want to listen to the show on an MP3 player then you can transfer the file manually to that device.

The above method is ideal for the first few times that you want to listen to a podcast and get an idea of what a show is like but to listen to a variety of shows on a regular basis then it is better to subscribe to an automatic download.

To subscribe to a podcast feed, first select and install a podcast client such as iPodder ( http://www.ipodder.org ) or Doppler ( http://www.dopplerradio.net/ ) both of which are freely downloadable for all platforms. Next find a show to which you wish to subscribe – here are some more aggregator sites: www.podcast.net , www.podcastdirectory.com , www.ipodder.org/directory/4/podcasts

As each show is listed there will be a link to its associated RSS feed. Copy the feed address (URL) into your podcasting client using its “add feed” facility. Instruct your podcasting client to update its feeds and the application will download the most recent instalment of that show.

Your podcasting client can be configured to automatically update and download new podcasts on a regular basis.

You may then connect your MP3 player to your computer to transfer the downloaded file and listen to the podcast whilst on the move.

Creating a podcast There are a zillion ways to create a podcast but, in a nutshell, you must first create some content in MP3 format – use an audio editing application like Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ) which is an open source equivalent of CoolEdit. There is some very good advice here as to what other equipment you might need - http://tinyurl.com/3nhw8 – but anybody with radio experience will know all this already. You must then upload your audio to an appropriate website on the Internet and – this is the clever part – enclose your file in RSS for distribution via subscription. You can either use a free podcasting service like http://rizzn.net/ or you can even upload audio content to Indymedia ( http://radio.indymedia.org/ ). However, users of the CMA’s Internet Media Service can upload their content to one of our ondemand streaming media servers. You then point to the audio file by generating an RSS tag using this RSS feed generator - http://tinyurl.com/6paaw - and then publish the RSS tag on a webserver.

So what does this ultimately mean for Community Radio?

Podcasting is cheap - less bandwidth is required as subscribers to the content can be spread out over time because podcasts are not live. Podcasts are also quick, immediate and flexible because broadcasts do not have to be tied to a particular time.

There is an enormous variety of content in the podcasting community which forms a vast back catalogue of online material that can be syndicated and rebroadcast. Community Radio stations can also target communities of special interest groups who follow a particular set of programmes e.g. language groups. Obviously podcasts are accessible worldwide via the Internet and some receive global interest such as the public radio station WGBH in Boston ( http://www.wgbh.org/ ) which saw its downloads jump from 30 in its first week to 57,000 downloads in December.

Personally, I am looking forward to the day when all the Community Radio Stations make all of their radio content available for download. Just imagine having the latest programming on your MP3 player from stations like Sound Radio, Desi Radio ALL FM and Radio Awaz to name a few. The BBC have recently experimented with a podcasted version of ‘In Our Time’, but they have yet to extend it to the rest of their schedules ( http://tinyurl.com/426y6 ).

And then what about the impact that podcasting could have in terms of a new delivery platform for television and Community Television in particular? It has been said that disruptive technological change in audio occurs about 10 years ahead of a similar change in video.

Developments in technology are accelerating but this rule of thumb has held for the last 50 years or so, therefore, it can only be a matter of time before video is incorporated into podcasting and delivered to 3G-enabled mobile phones. This could mean that, at the very latest, 2012 is the date that absolutely everyone on the Internet will be able to effectively distribute video content using podcasting technology.

Sticking my neck out and making a bold forecast, this will be just in time for the 2012 Olympic Games in London when, no doubt, we will all be flying around in our own personal spaceships to avoid the congestion charge!

More information:

TinyURL’s are a way of making website URL’s more user friendly for redistribution purposes. See http://tinyurl.com/

First Published in Airflash, reproduced here with kind permission of Bill Best and the Community Media Association, CMA.