By The audience perceives the podcast as content to be dedicated to, and the fastest-growing group of listeners is between 12 and 24 years old, professor Vuk Vukovic pointed out at a lecture at the School of Digital Trade Unionism.
Participants of the School organized by the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro pointed out that the podcast is among the topics that interest them the most in the field of digital media, and some of them have ideas for their own projects.
Vukovic presented them with interesting research results and gave a series of tips for podcast production.
The lecturer said that the expansion of the podcast began in 2004 when the “Guardian” popularized a new production model. Then called by different names – audio blog.
“Digital culture is far ahead of theory in practice,” Vukovic pointed out.
He said that “we are slowly overcoming the shortcomings” of internet radio.
“We have overcome the economic dimension because the podcast can be listened to at any time, in any place, we also overcome technically poor sound quality, limited internet access, and we are still struggling with an excessive choice of program content,” Vukovic said.
According to him, the three important categories of new media are – new language, new relationships and new grammar. As he explained, in response to the needs of the market, we are talking about new habits of the audience, media, economic, technical-technological trends, but also new roles of media producers.
“Today, the audience no longer chooses a channel or a medium, but chooses a very specific individual content. The content becomes an identity in itself “, stated Vukovic. The podcast, he added, promotes close, personal, emotional connections to the content.
Speaking about the radio content, the lecturer assessed that today’s stations are very similar and have no authenticity. It is, on the other hand, a chance for a podcast.
“By analyzing the programs of radio stations in Montenegro, but also in the region, you come to know that there is almost no speech content, conversational forms are neglected. The speech has moved to the podcast, “Vukovic pointed out.
Presenting the results of the research on the new habits of the audience, Vukovic said that, unlike radio, which turned out to be mostly a secondary medium (which we listen to while driving, working, eating …), the podcast is listened to as the primary medium.
Podcast audiences are younger than traditional radio audiences, research shows.
“Authentic voice and the possibility of controlling the options are some of the key reasons why the younger audience decides to listen to the podcast,” Vukovic explained. He added that the audience between the ages of 12 and 24 is the fastest-growing group of listeners.
Forty-nine percent of the audience listens to the content at home, which confirms the perception of podcasts as content to be dedicated to. However, Vukovic pointed out, we are not used to paying for media content.
“I believe that culture is changing a bit,” he said. “Part of the audience still does not fully understand what a podcast is, and does not distinguish it from radio programs,” Vukovic added.
He gave advice to young journalists, students of the School, who plan to realize their podcasts. “Be specific, don’t make a podcast ‘about everything’, respect copyrights, come up with interesting titles for episodes, promote content and don’t improvise,” Vukovic said.
The school of digital trade unionism is being realized within the project “Union to Union 2021”, which was supported by the International Federation of Journalists.
