My Podcasting post has stirred up some discussion, which is wonderful. I wanted to take a moment to respond to a few things from comments that warranted a closer look.

Dan Karleen wrote:
First, who is hawking podcasting as a singular cure for enrollment woes?

I’m guilty of trying to be provocative over precise here. Mostly I got this sort of impression from some of the conference/sales pitch presentations I’ve been to. (Ever seen the “Corporate Podcasting for Dummies” book? :)) Now that you point it out, though, you’re right—I don’t think I’ve heard anyone naïve enough to think podcasting was THE solution to a school’s problems.

Dan continued:
Second, in this context, you seem to be referring to programming that’s consumed on an iPod. I tend to define the term podcast more broadly to include virtually any type of media that’s delivered via syndication, i.e. RSS — whether it ends up being consumed on an iPod, a PC, a phone, etc. Quite commonly, the term is used to refer to individual episodes that are part of a podcast series. Furthermore, sometimes the term is used to refer to audio or video clips posted on a web site that aren’t being available via RSS at all. So I would argue that the variation in usage of the term “podcast” makes it difficult to determine exactly who’s using what.

I honestly find it a little frightening that the term “podcast” is coming to be synonymous with multimedia online in general. My definition of “podcast” is multimedia content delivered serially via syndication and most often (though not exclusively) to be consumed on a portable media player like an iPod. In my own surveys, I make this distinction clear and ask separate questions about how many people “view videos online,” “download music files,” or “subscribe to a podcast.”

The PEW folks had this to say about it:

In 2005, the New Oxford American Dictionary declared “podcast” the word of
the year, with the accompanying definition of a podcast as, “a digital recording of a radio
broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a
personal audio player.” Yet, while early podcasters typically distributed syndicated audio
files and radio shows, podcasters now routinely deliver many kinds of digital multimedia
content, including video, images and text.

While this is a little broader than my definition, it does mention syndication and it does mention portable media devices.

I don’t think, for instance, that whether or not “video Podcasts” take off has anything to do with whether or not sites like YouTube are successful. To me, audio and video are the medium and Podcasting is the distribution method. You’re right in that not everyone makes this distinction. My response is to shy away from the more specific, trend-oriented term and stick with just saying “Watch a Video” or “Download Music.” Those that have iPods can always put the content I create there if they want.

Kevin Guidry commented:
I don’t understand how the data mentioned in this posting (the Pew and Warren Wilson surveys) support the stated conclusion that “…most Podcasts, like radio shows on NPR, are going to appeal much more to an older, more educated audience.” The statement may be true but I don’t see support for it in the data. Unless I am missing something (and please tell me if I am!), the Pew survey simply states that growth and popularity of podcasts in the sample of younger persons surveyed is smaller than in the older sample. The Warren Wilson survey only presents views of the current student body and incoming students. No reasons for those growth rates, measures of popularity, or other findings are given. Further, neither of these surveys seem to have much predictive value, a limitation not acknowledged by the stated conclusion. Of course, it’s both of those unanswered questions (”why?” and “what about the future?”) in which most of us are really interested but those are more difficult questions to ask and answer.

No, you’re certainly not missing anything. This is what it seems—a ten minute blog entry. Most of the data I come across (in general here, I don’t have any specific studies to cite) has the younger groups adopting technology at a faster rate. I saw this as an interesting change and tried to find an explanation that was plausible. I’m sure that there are others. I honestly didn’t spend enough time composing the entry to shore up my arguments with adequate supporting data or concessions where they were needed. Then again, this is more than half a “note to self” sort of thing. Unless I’m working on a site audit over a period of several days, I don’t have time to devote to being thorough. I kinda have to go with the gut instead.

As for “why?” and “what about the future?”, I am interested in those questions but not as much as I am in planning my more immediate priorities for the next year or two. I certainly am not qualified to answer them with more than conjecture.

Kevin continues:
I surmise that the perceived divide between young and old is not only a function of culture but also of geography and location. I would guess that those who have longer commmutes may be more likely to listen to podcasts – if anyone knows of data that support or refute this supposition please let me know! I would further guess that traditional college students are much more likely to have very short commutes than older persons; it’s much more common for traditional college students to live on or near campus than for older persons to live on or near their work site.

That’s entirely possible—at least as good an explanation as mine! I walk perhaps a quarter mile to work, so commuting is not something that’s on my mind much. On the other hand, the PEW survey’s young group was 18-29 and their oldest group was 50-64. I imagine that the number of long commuters in those groups is probably pretty close, but that would be another of my guesses. Also, from my poll last summer, 56% of our current frosh own a portable mp3 player and another 26% would like to, and this is a residential campus. Just because they don’t commute doesn’t mean they aren’t plugged into those little white boxes all the time.

I also take issue with the stated conclusion that podcasts are “primarily for an older, richer, more educated demographic.” I read that statement not only as a statement about the current state of events (which is accurate) but also a predictive statement about the future. Again, these data provide little basis for making claims about the future. More research, particularly on the qualitative side, needs to be done to support or refute such claims.

It was predictive to some extent, but predictive statements made in an environment like electronic marketing (on a blog especially) aren’t likely to be true or relevant for very long. What that means to me is that I don’t intend to be putting any effort into Podcasting for at least the rest of this year. Who knows what the class of 2008 will bring! Stay tuned for me to contradict myself (another prediction: I’ll be wrong about student blogs before I’m wrong about podcasting).

Thank you all for the comments! You really help me see the bigger picture.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 8th, 2006 at 12:36 am and is filed under Marketing. It has been viewed 1575 times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

From ‘A Softer World’

There is an argument made against privacy that says someone who isn’t engaged in criminal behavior has nothing to hide. This method of thinking allowed the US government to slowly sap away our civil liberties in the wake of the 9/11 attacks–many have just accepted that trading privacy for security is acceptable and used the “nothing to hide” argument to rationalize what was, essentially, a decision based on fear. However, limiting the government’s ability to intrude in our private lives is easy compared with attempting to control how personal information spreads on the internet via gossip. Rather than spies or wiretaps, gossip is often gathered by those we trust and spread online by people who don’t understand or appreciate the potential for the damage it can do. In reality, privacy is about much more than concealing wrongdoing.

Internet-based abuse (‘cyberbullying’) and privacy / relationship issues are still massively misunderstood. The complexities of online sociality are probably the biggest ‘generational divide’ between modern teens and adults. To help put it in perspective a bit, here are some numbers…

I HAVE A MYSPACE ACCOUNT!!1!