For the first time in human history the spoken word has the same reach as the written word. What's more there is no lag to publication and no barrier to entry. That's a major technological revolution - a Gutenberg sized revolution, that's a big deal.
WHY PODCASTS?
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For the first time in human history the spoken word has the same reach as the written word. What's more there is no lag to publication and no barrier to entry. That's a major technological revolution - a Gutenberg sized revolution, that's a big deal...
And whilst it's also true to say that making and distributing video content is easier than ever, we propose, that the way audiences engage with podcasts (as opposed to you tube, face book etc) is significantly different. So what is this qualitative difference? Well, a number of small scale studies * indicate that the typical attention span of those engaging with a podcast is far greater than that of video. Meaning that audiences are far more likely to consume the entirety of your presentation. Listening to your full episode rather than watching just a few seconds of streamed video and by inference engaging with your material at a far deeper level.
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So why would this be? Well, one reason might be that, In comparison to traditional sources of knowledge (such as a classroom, books and film) podcasts have the significant advantage of allowing you to do other things whilst you’re consuming them. Reading or watching information is problematic when operating heavy machinery, exercising or doing domestic chores for example. Whereas listening to a conversation, especially about something we find interesting, can add real value to the daily experience of completing necessary tasks.
In this way, podcasts are capable of creating a type of 'free thinking' time that audiences perhaps didn't realise they had. Let's say that consuming audio in this way creates 2 hours a day for people to engage in complex discussions about niche subjects that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to engage in. That’s about 1/8 of peoples life’s. Meaning that podcasts potentially hand people 1/8 of their life back to engage in high - level education.
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The popularity of the podcast platform tells us that audiences have an appettite for long form dialog ( Joe Rogan regularly producing 3 hour shows receives an estimated 1.5+ billion listens a year! ). Suggesting that audience attention spans are far greater than traditional media has understood. It's also possible that the narrow bandwidth of TV and real time radio has convinced us that the general public are a lot more stupid than in fact they are.
Podcasts are exposing a hunger for high - level intellectual engagement that’s much deeper and more desperate that anyone has previously suspected. This is why podcasts matter and why engaging your audience with complex narrative has never been more possible or important.
