Blog Post 4 - Marina Florencio

This course has given us the chance to explore the evolution of digital technologies, more specifically, technologies of sound production and distribution. We learned how people interact with them and how that interaction has changed with the introduction of new sound technologies and technological advancements. For instance, we can contrast radio and podcasts and how people interact with these technologies. Podcasts can be hosted by one person, two people or even several people. Podcasts usually insinuate a conversation between people; if presented by one host, that host is talking to you, the host is stimulating a conversation with the listener. Radio stations usually play music – that are already trending – tends to be repetitive and predictable, radio stations may also present news reports, which are easily accessible online, and people can consume them a lot faster than radio station would deliver. Podcasts allow people to select specific topics that they are interested in and listen to hosts talk about them as they do other things. Rather you listen to podcasts, or you watch them online, it gives people more freedom to choose a topic and who will talk about that topic, and, usually, it does not require someone to listen in and focus on the content that is delivered. 

Today’s society is used to TikTok and its short videos, Instagram and its 15-second stories and/or succint posts our attention span has shortened. Therefore, if someone is willing to invest more time in engaging with content, it would likely be a topic of interest that they can choose from the selection on their phones – not something radio that is programmed to play on the radio. The podcast industry is constantly evolving and meeting more people’s needs, meaning people can not only select what they listen to, but they can also choose how they will consume content – audio or video, and they can choose what platform they will use – Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, etc. Indeed, Podcast was able to adapt and fit in better than radio has in today’s society.

Comments

  1. Chloe CameronApril 3, 2023 at 5:03 PM

    Hi Marina.

    Nice Post! I like you perspective on the immersion of sound technologies and human interaction. It is interesting to consider the various transitions that sound entertainment has gone through, from radio, to radio on the internet, on demand radio services, and now streaming subscriptions. Between all of these remediations humans have continued to interact well with the developments, although our control of the content is something that we have strived for more and more. This is seen in the way we gravitate towards on-demand streaming services like Spotify rather than online services like Pandora.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #2: Jess Beard

   Question 1:      Innis argues that orality is more flexible and humanistic whereas writing is rigid and impersonal. As well, creativity stems from orality as language is complex and more difficult to express through written form. Innis views speech as a tool to be human. And to be human according to Innis is to speak, listen and interact with others. Through this social connection wisdom and thought are gained.      We can apply Innis’ argument of orality and speech to the two DJs as they use their voices to add new meanings to words and experiences using universal sounds. Both Grant Massy and Dj Dave Mickie take their time rather than getting straight to the point. They also add a performance aspect that allows the audience to make a judgment on feelings, experiences, and opinions to create a visual outcome.      McLuhan discusses these oral qualities as he states that audience participation is created through spoken word. As we...
Read more

Podcast Studies- Jessica Hardie

In addition to the presentations and class discussions from this week I wanted to talk more about technological determinism versus social constructionism because it was a topic that I found both interesting and a bit confusing. I would like to use this discussion to compare and contrast the two in order to better understand the two terms and what they mean in relation to podcast studies. As discussed in “Podcast Studies and its techno-social discourses’ there are many scholars that are working to define podcasts as it is a newly emerged medium. However, there are many debates on what these definitional parameters are. It is important to gain an understanding of this new emerging technology as it has an impact on both our society and the people within it. Two heavily debated ideas surrounding podcast studies and how this new technology emerged are technological determinism and social constructionism. Technological determinism views these new technologies as a driving force that shapes s...
Read more

Blog 4 Ethan Guevara

I found the platformization of podcasting to be a very interesting topic discussed. Prior to the platformization of podcasting, as discussed by John Sullivan in “The Platforms of Podcasting: Past and Present”, a method known as RSS was used to consume podcasts. This was not easy for everyone to use, as only people with higher knowledge of the use of technology would be able to use this method. Steve Jobs would be the first to make a platform for podcasting with the release of iTUnes 4.9. THis allowed users the ability to consume and discover podcasts from the same place, ultimately making it much easier for the general population to enjoy this medium. Sullivan then goes on to explain how many followed Apple's steps as they were responsible for its popularization. Sullivan expands on this topic, leading him to the discussion of podcast enclosure. Due to the sheer amounts of podcasting platforms, it led to the enclosure of platforms beginning to produce content that would only be ava...
Read more