Castpodding

So I was surfing the net and reeled in a couple good casts and the first one I found using podcast.net was Canine Campus which is a podcast from a dog training company located in Virginia. I thought it was a good example of a podcast that contained some seriously informative material that's delivered in a very informal way. Every podcast presents a back and forth conversational interview type deal. What's interesting to note is that the people speaking are extremely comfortable speaking and there are no interruptions with um's or ah's. The conversation flows very naturally and unless their editing is completely seamless it doesn't seem as though they have edited. I get the impression that these podcasters do not go overboard with the porduction of their podcasts (extensive editing, etc. ) because their sound levels vary considerably from one person speaking to the next. Listening to several of their podcasts it became clear that they were only working with one microphone which was positioned primarily nearest to the "main" speaker. The reason why I bring these small points up is because although they have a few minor aspects that make their podcast sound a little less than professional, they make up for this in their content. I listened to 5 podcasts. Each podcast was roughly 30-40 minutes in length. These podcasters kept my attention for the full amount of time. I believe it was AJ Chop who says in the latest post that effective podcasts have to do with the individual. I agree 100%. I was perfectly content to listen to these lengthy podcasts; my boyfriend on the other hand was not. He preferred the National Geographic, Wild Chronicles, podcast.

Wild Chronicles is a video cast series which offers mini-portraits of mainly animals of the wild but is described as "a voyage of discovery of our natural world." This podcast would not be as effective as it is without the video. I experimented with this by minimizing the video window to see what it would be like. During the podcast there were many moments where the narrator was describing something that did not need video; however, there were moments were there was no narration. All that needs to be said is " a picture's worth a thousand words." In this podcast instance video is necessary. It is also in keeping with the typical National Geographic image and so a subscriber would almost expect to see images of the leopard hunting and ravaging its prey. Anything less would be a disappointment.

So, in my opinion, effectiveness really comes down to audience expectations. Basing a podcast on what originally peaked audience interest is important, if a podcast can be produced to suit expectations then it will generally tend to be most effective.

Over and out, from the body part you can't reach with your tongue.