3W Design Group - Media

When I describe podcasting to people, they usually assume they will need an iPod to listen in to this new technology. I tell them there are many ways to listen, the iPod being only one of many. When this conversation happens, I begin to search my mental hard drive for a way to explain the relationship between the digital audio or video file that is a podcast and the player of this audio or video file. There is no explanation that doesn’t include jargon. RSS. Aggregators. Feeds. Streaming. When I talk like this eyes glaze over and I lose my listener. I need to learn that people aren’t seeking the details, they want to know why they should care about this new technology. So here it is.

Mainstream media has left us starving for the sound of genuine human voices. When you watch the evening news, the newscasters are devoid of accents, whether you are watching this news in North Carolina or Minnesota. The stories they report are interchangeable. Only the weather report is different.

Podcasting, as well as blogging, have driven the social media revolution. And the public’s appetite for these authentic ideas and the voices delivering them is growing. This is the reason I passionately tell people that taking the time to get involved in this new media is worth the effort. So start evangelizing - you don’t want to miss the revolution.