Podcasting: Shaping the Message

Podcasting, it is everywhere. On your phone, in your car, at the gym or even while you are cooking dinner. Everyone seems to be listening to podcasts nowadays. You can listen to podcasts about every topic you could think of: true crime, football, news, politics, self-help, and even sleep stories. But if we take a moment to stop and think. Why are podcasts so popular all of a sudden? And more importantly, how does this medium shape the message that we receive?

Podcasting has become very popular, but that wasn’t always the case. It started in the first years of the 21st century. Podcast, the word comes from combining “iPod” and “broadcast.” Podcasts were a simple way to listen to somebody and it became popular when portable mp3-players became popular. People could now listen to everything on the go. When it became more popular, more companies started to invest in podcasting. Apple and Spotify started supporting podcasts and very soon a lot of major media companies started to make their own shows. Now, podcasting has become a billion-dollar industry, with millions of podcasts available all across the globe.

The difference

What differentiates podcasts from other media is the personal connection, you just do not have that when you are watching television or reading the newspapers. When you listen to a podcast, you hear someone’s voice, you hear them make mistakes and you hear them laugh and sometimes cry. In a podcast not everything has to be perfect, as opposed to in television, where it does have to be perfect. This makes it feel like someone is talking directly to you and this feeling makes a podcast so powerful. The same sentence that might seem rude in writing can sound really warm, nice or funny when you hear it being said. That is on of the biggest reason podcasts shape the message. Its tone, pauses and emotions all affect how we understand what someone tries to say.

For me, podcasts are a way of entertaining myself, and this is what podcasts are most often used for in the Western world. We listen to comedians, talk shows, sports or interviews with celebrities. This is not the case everywhere, in other parts of the world, podcasts have a very different role. In some countries podcasts are and can be used for education. They are a very accessible and cheap way to share information and knowledge. You could learn how to speak English or any other language. Some podcasts also share advice about farming, health issues, or even entrepreneurship. To listen to a podcast you only need a laptop or mobile phone and an internet connection, which makes it a very easy way to reach a lot of people. Podcasting is not just for entertainment, it can also be a tool for education.

The format of podcasts also shapes the type of message that is shared. Most podcasts are long, most of the time an hour or even longer. This gives people the time to really dive deep into a subject, have meaningful conversations, and explore complex ideas. This is way different compared to other platforms. Take Instagram of TikTok. Everything is becoming shorter and snappier over there. That slower pace makes the message feel more honest and real. It gives both the speaker and the listener the chance to understand more than just the surface of a topic.

However, podcasting also has its downsides. Since it is based on sound, people who are deaf or hard of hearing can be excluded unless there are transcripts available. In addition, because podcasts are so personal, people often choose to listen to hosts they already agree with. This can create echo chambers, spaces where we only hear voices that confirm what we already think. In this way, there can be a danger in listening to a podcast, because it can make it harder to be critical and open-minded.

To conclude, I think that the podcast is a very interesting medium. It really shows us what big of an influence the form of communication can have on how we receive the message. It is because you hear a voice that the message sounds more emotional, more direct and most of all more human. My grandfather used to say: “You have two ears and one mouth, so you need to listen twice as much as you talk.” And in a way, podcasts tell us this too. In a world where most of our communication happens through short texts and emails, podcasts remind us of something very simple, but powerful: listening can be just as important as speaking.