Podcast ignorance

Spin magazine has been progressive in connecting their print publication to music resources available online. During a redesign a few months ago they added a section in front with a list of "music you need to download now", mostly live or remixed songs unavailable to the mainstream. They also include a section for podcasts, where they feature five broadcasts a month. Admittedly I, a multimedia journalism student, have yet to listen to any of them, and apparently no one else is either. In the new March issue's 2005 reader's poll under the category "Best podcast", #1 is SPINsider (spin's own podcast), the second is Blink 182 frontman Mark Hoppus' Hi My Name Is Mark. And the last one is simply the statement "What the fuck is a podcast?".

This has to mean that so few people voted in this category that there was no third winner. I consider myself highly tech savvy but it was only this week that I learned how to even download a podcast. There's a real gap in people learning how to use this new technology and I'm not sure how they're supposed to do it.

One of the reasons Hoppus' site seems to be successful is that at the top of the page he tells how (in plain english), using itunes, to subscribe to his podcast. He also talks openly in his blog about his tech difficulties, and in a really relateable way about what intrigues him about the internet. Podcasts still has this air of tech savvy that seems inaccessible to the mainstream, not to mention the word "podcast" is a misnomer. People need to stop being made to feel stupid or behind the times and just be flat out told how to use podcasts.

Technorati Tag: podcasting