Podcasting

Ipod A reader writes:

Jimmy, would you please comment on Podcasting and its implications for the New Evangelization.

I would.

First, some helpful definitions:

  • Mobile blogging or moblogging is blogging when you are away from a computer. It is often done by a cell phone, camera phone, or PDA.
  • Audioblogging is what it sounds like (literally! ;-P). It is the use of audio files on a blog. People stop by the blog and listen to or download the files. Audioblogging may be regular blogging (sitting in front of a computer) or moblogging. Often the latter is done by someone calling from a cell phone and recording an audio file that is automatically posted on their blog.
  • A feed is an internet tool that allows people to be notified when you have put something new on your blog so they don’t have to keep coming back to check. When you put something new on your blog, a notice of some kind (typically part or all of the post) goes into the feed. A reader who has subscribed to the feed then gets notified that there is a new post for him to read. The references you see online to RSS and XML are references to feeds that people may subscribe to.
  • The person who subscribes to the feed either uses an aggregator (a service or a piece of software) that aggregates the different feeds he has subscribed to.
  • An iPod is a portable listening device used to play audio files.
  • Last year somebody got the bright idea of combining these things and slapping a label on them (even though they were already coming together informally). That label was podcasting. Podcasting involves the creation of audio files which are then pushed via feeds to aggregator-like services and programs so they can then be listened to online or downloaded to devices like iPods. Since it’s "broadcasting for iPods," it got called "podcasting," though really you don’t need an iPod to listen t a podcast.

Some savants differentiate podcasting from audioblogging, noting that many podcasters produces more sophisticated audio files that are modelled after radio shows (with music and all). Some radio shows are now getting into the podcasting market as technology is forcing changes on the radio industry. By contrast, audiobloggers often just use their cell phones. Other savants do not divide podcasting and audioblogging by their content, though, and consider any audio files pushed via a feed to be podcasting.

Now, as to new evangelization potential: There are already some religious (and Catholic) podcasts,

LIKE THIS ONE BY A DUTCH PRIEST.

I think that podcasting has new evangelization potential comparable to web sites and similar doo-dads. It will make it easier for people to get religious content than in the prior age (the third age of human communications, to anticipate  post I’ll put up soon). Now that we are in the fourth age, people can get info much more easily than they could before. But there’s a catch.

You have to want the info.

In the old days, the Old Media basically had a captive audience. You got exposed to the info that your local newspaper or radio station or TV station wanted you exposed to. That’s why the MSM is lamenting their loss of control over the distribution of information in our society. They don’t like it that people now have the ability to choose what information they want. The MSM liked its information monopoly. It let it push its agenda on us and manipulate the public.

But in the fourth age, people pick their own info, and so if someone is to be evangelized via a website or a blog or a podcast or an as-yet-undreamed-of-thing-that-will-come-out-next-year, he has to request it.

So I’d say that podcasting adds more bandwidth to the new evangelization (and the new anti-evangelization) in a way comparable to what web sites and blogs did.

For right now, there are also some limitations in getting into podcasting that still need to be worked out. One of the biggest is that the folks running podcasting services are geeks and, as such, they don’t know how to explain things to ordinary people and they don’t know how to sell themselves and their services.

I’ve been thinking about doing some podcasting (to anticipate another soon-to-be post–and no, this is not one of the Secret Projects), but the services I have checked have really poor explanations and don’t do basic salesmanship-type things, like giving you links to sample audioblogs so you can see how the end product would look. Others advertise that they work with TypePad (my bloghost) but then don’t tell you how to use the two together.

This kind of info is crucial for getting new customers. I recently e-mailed one such service to try to get some of this kind of info, but a customer shouldn’t have to ask for that info. It should be present on the service’s web site as part of its sales pitch.

Eventually, though, people who understand marketing will start working for these services and the geek factor will recede into the background, allowing more people to get on the podcasting bandwagon.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

14 thoughts on “Podcasting”

  1. I’ve been doing my own sort of “podcasting” for a while. I download the Catholic Answers radio shows (in RealAudio format) to my iBook, use an app called Audio Hijack Pro to re-record the audio into MP3 (or Apple’s proprietary AAC), then sync it up to my iPod for listening on the go. (I’m an airline pilot who is often streaking through the friendly skies, covertly listening to your answers in between air traffic control transmissions.) I’ve been meaning to ask you if CA has ever considered offering the Catholic Answers Live programs in MP3 as well as the RealAudio format. It sure would cut down on the amount of time I spend converting these programs!

  2. O.K., I admit it… I am something of a technophobe. I am an artist (a painter) which means that I am practicing in a field that is essentially dead (although, being a Catholic, I believe in resurrection!). My fantasy is that eventually I will be able to phase microprocessors out of my life completely. There I said it!
    Having got that off my chest, I think carrying thousands of my favorite songs around on my hip would be cool. Which brings me to podcasting and other stuff. I am assuming that there is a race on to integrate all communication technology (and I mean ALL)into one working package. I figure within a decade or so, we will all be walking around with a laptop sized gizmo that is on satellite uplink at all times and will carry: telephone, videophone, television, on-demand movies, radio (if you could continue to call it that), e-mail, text messaging, web browsing, etc..
    In other words, Everything, everywhere at all times. This seems to me inevitable. Jimmy (or anyone), are you hearing anything about this? Maybe I should patent it… let’s see, communcations technology in one package, what if I called it CommPack? Wait! NO, NO NO!!!

  3. Jeff,
    And I thought I was the only one who did that! I use Switch software, which is both easy to use and free (just google it). If you find HiJack Pro cumbersome, you might try it.

  4. I figure within a decade or so, we will all be walking around with a laptop sized gizmo that is on satellite uplink at all times and will carry: telephone, videophone, television, on-demand movies, radio (if you could continue to call it that), e-mail, text messaging, web browsing, etc..
    No, I figure that we’ll need at least two devices: one laptop with satellite uplink and one PDA with built in cellphone (or satphone!), mp3 player, etc. After all, holding a laptop up to one’s ear to talk to one’s wife/family/friends isn’t exactly convenient, and it will garner stares from everyone around. At least until everyone’s holding their laptops up to their ears. 😉

  5. Rich,
    Thanks for the info… Just checked out the Switch website. Unfortunately, they don’t have a Mac version. 🙁

  6. The only thing better than a Catholic Answers podcast would be a “Today’s Homily” podcast from EWTN. (hint, hint…)

  7. Fr. Jim Tucker does occasional Podcasts at his blog Dappled Things. He just posts 64kbps mp3 files, and has a separate RSS feed for them. That’s probably how I’d handle it.
    I’ve thought of doing something like this with my blog. It would be cool to do, and I have plenty of experience from three years of work at a radio station, but I don’t know what I could consistently put out for content. It’s enough work for me to keep up a written blog.

  8. Man, all this is far too technichal for me. I have trouble operating my cell phone. All you guys are real technogeeks.
    OK, OK, I’m just too lazy to really get into it – I do things on a need to know basis.
    Anyway, I’ll be dead before all you guys, so I don’t need to know.

  9. O.K., Publius, you got me!;) I should have been more specific: The SEPARATE phone/high resolution digital camera would be routed through the laptop processor and charged there as well. The main reasons for the size of the laptop are 1)Ease of use (a full keyboard versus the frustratingly tiny keypad of a cell phone or palm pilot) and 2)Accomodation for a large battery to power all this stuff. Of course, you could continue to use a Palm Pilot or other such device, but it would be totally integrated with the laptop.
    Now, if only someone would discover the secret to crystallic fusion, we could do away with the big battery.
    There are also two potential drawbacks that trouble me: 1) A virus could REALLY screw up my whole life and 2)What if I drop it in a creek?

  11. I am late in joining into this conversation, so I don’t know if anyone will read this or not.
    Jimmy, a while back I believe you mentioned that Catholic Answers was looking into offering it’s show as a podcast. Can you share any info about where you are with that?
    Also, there are a group of us online called Disciples with Microphones. We a faithful Catholic looking to provide quality Radio. We are essentially training to become independent content providers. Many of the members are also podcasters. In fact we are in the midst of a project called ‘Podcasts for Terri’ where we have done podcasts and audio essays in support of Terri Schiavo. Please stop by at http://www.discipleswithmicrophones.org and visit the ‘Terri’ section.
    Jimmy if you are interested in podcasting and you need any help, please let me know and we will be at your service. If anyone is interested in learning more about Disciples with Microphones either visit our site or contact me at michaelkreidler (at) gmail.com.
    Michael

  12. Michael,
    Thanks for writing and the offer of help. Catholic Answers is just at the beginning of the podcasting/.mp3 discussion. There’s a basic decision to move in that direction, but it’s still a ways off.

  13. Podcasting: A New Chapter in Social Communications

    Constraints, Restrictions and Other Problems
    There are four sources of Catholic audio programming I would like to listen to. The operative word is would – only one is really convenient for me.
    Relevant Radio is a local station I sometimes listen to …

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