This article investigates independent podcasts created outside traditional institutions (Markman, 2012) on the world’s largest podcast platform, Apple Podcasts, in the context of streaming media. Through a quantitative content analysis of 552 Danish podcasts, the study off ers insights into independent podcasting, its medium grammar and content (Meyrowitz, 1998), and the conditions by which independent podcasters navigate in a liminal space between traditional radio and online participatory practices (Berry, 2016; Markman, 2012). The analysis shows that the predominant parts of independent podcasts are conversations and interviews about personal, self-reflective stories and mainstream hobbies such as football, films, and television. Th ese podcasts are less time-consuming to produce than crafted audio (McHugh, 2016) about research-heavy topics. The oversupply of conversations and interviews about personal stories and mainstream hobbies further suggests that independent podcasters are infl uenced by the mainstreaming and commercialisation of podcasting, including streaming platforms such as Spotify and Amazon adding podcasts to their services, and podcast platforms such as the Danish paid subscription podcast platform Podimo, adopting the curated content distribution model known from Netflix.
In 2019, Podimo, a major paid subscription podcast platform, was launched in Denmark.This sparked a recurring debate among independent podcasters in small language areas with a correspondingly small podcast market: How can podcasters working independently of public service institutions and commercial companies find viable funding models? Taking its departure from the research field of creative labour in the cultural industries (Hesmondhalgh & Baker 2011;
The article addresses podcasting as a social media activity, considering independent podcasters’ – an emerging but understudied category of Pro-Ams – utilization of social media. This was done by conducting qualitative interviews (Brinkmann and Kvale 2001) with the Danish podcast phenomenon, Fries before Guys, and their main sponsor. To study the online interaction between listeners and podcasters, an inductive open coding of the podcast’s Instagram account was carried out, focusing on the ten most-liked Instagram posts and the user comments written underneath. Since Instagram is the podcasters’ primary means of communication in engaging socially with their mainly young female listeners, the aim was to explore how the digital infrastructure between Instagram and the podcast medium unfolds. The study shows that social media activity, besides providing emotional support through posts, comments and direct messages, is essential to independent podcasters to make revenue.
This article investigates why and how women use independent podcasting and social media platforms to challenge norms afflicting their own personal lives. Extending previous studies of independent podcasting as a tool of empowerment, this article analyses semi-structured interviews with the hosts of two podcasts: the mental health and personal journals podcast A Seat at The Table and the parenting podcast Our Different Family [Vores Anderledes Familie]. The podcasts are norm-challenging but, at the same time, illustrative of a gendered podcasting sphere in which women primarily podcast about what has traditionally been considered female domains, such as mental health, personal journals, and parenting. The study finds that podcasting’s lack of visuals and unrestricted, conversational format allow for creating and distributing in-depth realisations about personal norm-challenging issues. Simultaneously, it finds that the participatory affordances of social media platforms are essential for receiving feedback, content ideas, and emotional support from like-minded listeners when the podcasters challenge oppressive norms.
Written against the backdrop of a pandemic and a populistic Trump era, The Podcaster's Dilemma investigates how podcasting is used for decolonisation (to counter-narrate imperialistic discourses), while simultaneously being constrained by the big tech platforms the medium relies upon to exist.Baham and Higdon, who are podcasters themselves, understand podcasting narrowly as a digital extension of rebel community radio and the opposite of corporate legacy media. They furthermore argue that podcasting -mainly due to its lack of editors, time limits, and governmental regulations (p. 139) -has the potential "to shape public opinion and form counter-publics of resistance because, just like revolutionary radio, it transforms passive listeners into active community members" (p. 17). In that way, the authors innovatively use the analogy between rebel revolutionary radio and podcasting as a theoretical framework for addressing how podcasting -specifically so-called decolonising podcasting -benefits marginalised and suppressed groups.Decolonising podcasts refer to a specific type of podcasts which "interrogate, critique and offer counter-narratives to colonial mentalities" (p. 8); in other words, these podcasts seek decolonisation from structures created by imperialism. Through pages-long tran-
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