Uses of podcasting

The following article is a list of uses for podcasting, including but not limited to:

Public services

*Unofficial audio tours of museums (musecast). [Kennedy, Randy. 2005. " [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/28/arts/design/28podc.html?ex=1274932800&en=db1ced6873dcc4b6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss With Irreverence and an iPod, Recreating the Museum Tour] ." In "The New York Times", 2005-05-28.]
*Official cultural or historic audio tours of cities [http://www.audisseyguides.com AudisseyGuides.com] [http://www.soundtrek.org Soundtrek]
*A way for news organizations to distribute audio or video as an addition to their existing text (or mostly text) news products. For example, Wikinews began to podcast its News Briefs in 2005. Companies are also using podcasts as a way to distribute their multimedia news to journalists and consumers through companies like MultiVu. In 2006, the online magazine Slate began "textcasting" articles to their readers, by attaching a written article to a blank audio file and delivering the content to readers through their regular podcasting mechanism. [ [http://www.slate.com/id/2136959/ "Textcasting," anyone?] at Slate]
*Advocacy. The 5,500 locked out staff (editors, journalists, technicians, hosts, etc.) of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation were podcasting news and other programming during August and September 2005.
*Youth media. Podcasting has become a way for youth media organizations, such as Youth Radio ( [http://www.youthradio.org Youth Radio site] ), to bring youth perspectives to a wider audience.
* Public libraries can podcast local publications free of Copyright, offering spoken word alternatives to the visually impaired. Non-profit organizations like [http://podcast.assistivemedia.org Assistive Media] podcast readings of short-format magazine articles for visually impaired readers.
*Law enforcement. The Chicago Police Department has a free video podcast of its half-hour weekly news magazine called "CrimeWatch," which airs on local TV. It documents community policing (CAPS) success stories.
* Educational Institutions use Podcast for self guided Campus Tour.

Education and Academia

Podcasts enable students and teachers to share information with anyone anytime. If a student is absent, he or she can download the podcast of the recorded lesson. Teachers may also create podcasts to be used as a preparation tool for students. This would be pedagogically equivalent to having students read a text before a lesson. It can be a tool for teachers or administrators to communicate curriculum, assignments and other information with parents and the community. Teachers can record book talks, vocabulary or foreign language lessons, international pen pal letters (podcast pals!), music performance, interviews, debates. Podcasting can be a publishing tool for student oral presentations. Video podcasts can be used in all these ways as well.

*Mobile Learning: Podcasting can be categorised as an m-learning strategy for teaching and learning. In 2004 Musselburgh Grammar School pioneered podcast lessons with foreign language audio revision and homework, [ [http://mgsonline.blogs.com/mgspodcast Musselburgh Grammar School Podcast] ] other pioneers include [http://bobsprankle.com/ The Room 208 Podcast] , [http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/ Radio WillowWeb] , and [http://room613talk05.edublogs.org/2007/03/16/room-613-panther-podcasts-2005-2006/ Room 613 Talk] . In the second half of 2005, a Communication Studies course at the University of Western Australia ( [http://i-generation.blogspot.com/ iGeneration: Digital Communication and Participatory Culture] ) used "student-created podcasts" as the main assessment item. Podcasts have proven beneficial in early elementary education as well. In 2005 [http://blog.tufsdbuilds.org/ Students in the Write] was created for second grade students at Morse Elementary School in Tarrytown, NY. By providing students with an authentic audience, teachers noticed significantly increased motivation to write. Students were also found to improve fluency and listening skills. On the 21st February 2006 Lance Anderson, Dr. Chris Smith (the Naked Scientist), Nigel Paice and Debbie McGowan took part in the first podcast forum at Cambridge University. The event was hosted by the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies [http://www.caret.cam.ac.uk] . See "A Journey to Podcasting" at http://www.lanecc.edu/fpd/grants/sabbatical/paid/documents/AnnickToddreport2.pdf

*Journalism Education: School podcasts can be created to expose students to journalism and new-media concepts. Regularly released "news" podcasts can be released by a school group such as the [http://sta.hcdsb.org/media/aquicast AquiCast] podcast.
*Academic Journal Digests: The Society of Critical Care Medicine has a podcast used to update clinicians with summaries of important articles, as well as interviews. [ [http://www.sccm.org/podcast Society of Critical Care Medicine Podcasts] ]
*Professional Development: Professional development podcasts exist for educators. Some podcasts may be general in nature such as the [http://www.teacherspodcast.org/ Podcast for Teachers] , or may be slightly more specific such as the [http://pdtogo.com/smart Smart Board Podcast] which focuses on the use of interactive white boards in the classroom.
*Religion: Godcasting has been used by many religious groups. [Heinen, Tom. 2005. " [http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jun05/333091.asp Podcasting becomes another pulpit] ." In "JS Online", 2005-06-11.] Many churches produce podcasts of talks and sermons. "Disciples with Microphones" provides podcasts relating to the Catholic Church. [" [http://www.discipleswithmicrophones.org Disciples with Microphones] "]
* Tutorials: A tutorial on almost any subject can be created as either an audio podcast or video vodcast. Through screencasting, many video podcasts, such as [http://www.screencastsonline.com ScreenCastsOnline] , demonstrate how to use software and operating systems.

Entertainment

*Comedy. Comedians such as Ricky Gervais and Stephen Fry have created some of the most popular podgrams.
*Television commentary. "Battlestar Galactica" writer and executive producer Ronald D. Moore creates commentary podcasts for each new episode of "Battlestar Galactica" ( [http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/ download audio commentary] ). Other television shows such as Doctor Who have since followed suit.
*Radio series. Some radio programmes such as "The Now Show" and "The News Quiz" allow entire episodes to be downloaded as podcasts.
* As a platform for fan DVD-style commentary tracks (Audio commentary). Enables fans to add their own comments and thoughts to any of their favourite films.
*Sports. In 2005, unofficial podcasts for major sports teams launched, providing fans both in and outside of the teams' direct broadcast areas with on-demand commentary. Pioneers include [http://www.cubscast.com Cubscast.] The Cubscast founders also formed the first city-specific sports podcast network, hosting one podcast for each major Chicago team at [http://www.chicagosportscasts.com Chicagosportscasts.com.]
*Pornography. Porncasting and podnography are sometimes used to refer to pornography in podcasts.

News

*Newspapers. Newspapers use podcasts to broadcast audio content from print interviews and drive traffic to their websites. The San Francisco Chronicle is believed to be the first major daily newspaper to start podcasting using an external website, [ [http://sfchroniclebiz.blogspot.com San Francisco Chronicle Podcast] .] in Feb 2005. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post was the first to use its own website and the first in Asia, having launched on April 19, 2005 [ [http://podcasting.scmp.com South China Morning Post Podcast] .]
*Communication from space. On 7 August, 2005. American astronaut Steve Robinson claimed the first podcast from space during the Space Shuttle "Discovery" mission STS-114 - although there was no subscription feed, merely an audio file that required manual downloading. ( [http://www1.nasa.gov/returntoflight/crew/robinson_podcast.html transcript & audio] ).
*Conference and meeting alerts. Podcasts can be packaged to alert attendees to agendas, hosted roundtables and daily feedback.

Music

* Replacement for live music audio streams. Whereas streaming a performance live over the Internet requires careful coordination of person and machine, podcasting offers the ability to do slight time-shifting of performances and greatly reduces the complexity of the effort. The quality of the program is often higher as post-production adjustments can be made prior to release. For example, programs such as the [http://www.woodsongs.com Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour] provide a live stream of their program, but most listeners don't hear it until weeks later on NPR. Podcasted versions of the programs split the difference, usually coming out a few days after the live program, but well before the traditional broadcast.

Politics

*Politics: In the U.S., both major political parties have various podcasts, as do numerous politicians.

Publicity and marketing

* As a promotional vehicle for an upcoming event, such as Pixar's [http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=152605772 Cars Video Podcast] , which advertised the release of Disney/Pixar's Cars animated feature film with a series of behind-the-scenes clips.

Health

* Health, fitness and wellness resources, both general, such as [http://www.healthmatterspodcast.com Health Matters] , and [http://www.fhradio.org Family health Radio] , and specific, such as [http://aajustfortoday AA Just For Today] which covers self-rehabilitation from alcoholism, and [http://web.mac.com/yogitrish/iWeb/InnerPathYoga/Inner%20Path%20Yoga/Inner%20Path%20Yoga.html Inner Path Yoga] a fitness podcast.

pecial Interests

* "Farm Podcasting" makes information available about farming. The term was coined to identify a program that is produced exclusively as a podcast on the subject of agriculture. There are now multiple companies who specialize in farm podcasting and are producing regular programming targeted to farmers and the general public on the subject of agriculture.

Non-traditional and alternative content

*A way for people and organizations to avoid regulatory bodies, such as the British Ofcom, or American FCC that would not allow a program to be broadcast in traditional media.

ee also

*Autocasting (the automatic generation of podcasts from text-only sources)
*Blogcasting (the blogging Podcast)
*Mediacasting (any distribution of audio/video media files utilizing RSS)
*Mobilecast (podcasting to mobile phones)
*Vodcasting (video podcasting)
*Narrowcasting (podcasting is a form of narrowcasting)
*Peercasting (peercasting allows live streams to be redistributed by the viewers/listener, greatly reducing bandwidth needs for the originating broadcaster)

Notes and references