Podcast/Vodcast In-Class Activity 3/5/10

jtirrell's picture

After listening to the different class leaders, explain what you believe is the most important subject or point discussed today for your own work (and why) in a comment of approximately 100 words.

For my own work

The question of whether or not one should identify a biased in their podcast is something that I found to be relatively important to me. This is a question that is very relative to my own purposes due to the fact that I fight in mixed martial arts. In April there is a MMA event here in Wilmington where one of my training partners is competing for a championship title, and I have found that addressing this objectively has its obstacles. This is also an issue that I will have to address any time that I will be commenting on or writing about rival gyms or fighters that I have fought in the past.

I think that it is important

I think that it is important to keep a podcast short, snappy, and entertaining. From listening to people's responses to the This American Life podcast, it is apparent that many people don't have the patience or attention-span to listen to a hour-long podcast of monotonous talking. Many people who listen to podcasts on-the-go are exactly that... on-the-go. So having the podcast be only about 5-10 minutes may help its success.

Podcast Post

I thought that discussing objectivity would be the most helpful to my own podcast. I am thinking about doing my podcast on either current sports related issues, or something along those lines. If I were to do one about sports, then I would certainly need to figure out if I was going to be objective, or if I was going to insert my own opinion. When talking about something such as this, I guess it would be most beneficial to talk about it from a non-biased standpoint, then focus and change my viewpoint to my own opinion. Since my audience would be interested in the topic already, it would make sense that I would put in my own opinion. This was seen today in Ashley’s vodcast, where they had opinions about the Patriots.

Podcast/Vodcast In-Class Activity

The most useful information discussed in class today was, for me, focus. I am planning on doing a podcast and I think it is important to remain focused on one topic when you do not have any visuals to attract the audience eye. After listening to a few podcast in class it is evident that it is extremely easy to get off topic and ramble about things that have no significance for the podcast. I will make sure that my podcast is focused and stays on topic. I think it will also be important to edit the podcast because when I was listening I found it hard to ignore and move past the mistakes made.

In-Class Activity

I feel like the most useful information we discussed today involved the importance of focus on a topic. Although we didn't go too deep into the subject, it was clear that podcasts with more specific focuses ended up being more successful and entertaining for their audiences. Podcasts with broad topics could potentially keep the interest of their audiences, but there was a higher chance of audience members losing focus and leaving the podcast early. As long as the podcast maintains a specific topic throughout and doesn't get too side tracked, then I think it will best benefit the audience. This is something I definitely want to keep in mind as I choose the topic for my own podcast.

In class activity

In my podcast I want to talk about laws that seem outdated or pointless. I think it'd be useful to interview someone who has some knowledge about why certain laws are in place. For my episode I think I'm going to focus on the brothel law that we have in NHC. So that my podcast comes off more professional, I need to be organized and somewhat objective or open-minded, even though I'm already stating my views of the law by having the subject be about outdated laws.

Focus/Video Quality Issues

The most important parts of the podcasts/vodcasts that were discussed today were for the topics to stay focused and for the quality of the clips to be good. The “This American Life” and the “Desperate Housewives” podcasts were close to being off subject a few times and that was distracting to the viewers. The quality of the clips in the “Travel in 10” vodcast was also an issue, since the camera was shaky and unstable. Also, just watching two people—who don’t appear to realize that they are being filmed—discuss a topic can become boring. If there is going to be a video, make sure it is entertaining, helpful, and informative, or just stick with the podcast. I think when I am doing my own, I will try to remember to keep my topic focused, and if I choose to create a vodcast, I will make sure that the video is appropriate.

Points Discussed in Class

I gathered alot of good information for my podcast that I plan to do. There were alot of likes and dislikes that were thrown out there today that I took note of.
For instance, not having a really long podcast. Though that may be interesting to many, long podcast seem to take away peoples attention and draw them away from the topic that is being talked about. I like the idea of making a podcast short and sweet and getting right to the point. I also think it's a good idea to show visiuals. I am a visiual person and there fore like photos and videos to follow along with. I haven't decided if I'm going to make a short vodcast or a slightly longer podcast with photos/videos so it's easier for people to follow along.

Podcast/Vodcast Response

The most important thing that I learned from class today is to make sure that I keep my podcast as focused as possible. When people jump around from topic to topic, it can get a bit distracting or confusing to the audience. The easier it is to understand and to follow a podcast, the more effective the podcast/vodcast will be. Also, the audience is more likely to continue to watch your podcasts. I learned this from the Desparte Housewives vodcast, where they were detailed in discussing the episode, but did jump around a bit and it was confusing to me. Also, the introduction in this vodcast was too long and unprofessional.

Podcast Response

The most useful thing that we talked about today that affects me is the point of whether a podcast or vodcast should be biased or take a more journalistic approach. Since I'm probably going to do a book review podcast, I had to think about how I should approach the reviews. I do think that podcast and vodcasts can be biased, but it depends where they are located and the Web site that hosts them. In the sports example today, it's ok to be biased because it's hosted on the team's Web page. Obviously, the vodcast is going to be biased. But if that same vodcast were on ESPN, it might create some controversy, since that Web site covers all sports and teams.

Since it will be located on my personal Web page, I'm going to put my opinion in the book review. However, I will try to abide by the standards that are used in newspaper book/play/movie reviews.

In Class Activity

I learned a lot through my research on m y podcast and discussion as well as the other girls class discussions. I explained in my blog that my podcast was not aesthetically pleasing and I had a huge issue with that. I asked the class whether or not that bothered them after listening to the DH podcast and all of them agreed. We also discussed This American Life podcast in depth and I really agreed with the majority of the class that listening to a podcast this long is very circumstantial. I could not sit there for an hour and listen to strictly audio because I don't have the patience and I found that a lot of other people felt the same way. The vodcasts seemed to do better today in our class discussions and that really makes me lean toward a more visually oriented vodcast as opposed to a audio track that only has one or two people talking. I think that I will use interviewing as a way to bring more voices in to my discussion and keep it interesting. Also, the class discussion got me thinking about what I would use as a background, what people should be wearing, how they should be standing, in order to make the information that they are saying most influential. Unlike the podcast that I posted I want the vodcast that I create to have a clean and organized background where the visuals will add to the audio as opposed to distracting from it.

Keeping the listener/viewer enthralled in your presentation.

That Guy's picture

I believe the most important thing as a presenter you must be aware of is your audiences attention. If your going only audio please understand that you better have the voice of Morgan Freemen or Ron Perlmen to keep your viewers attention. Sure if the topic is amazing you might snag some one a little longer, but in today's day and age no one has time to just sit and listen, we are a hands on and visual society now. So if you do a vodcast make sure you are not just sitting the whole time, use hand motions or walk around and have the camera follow you, don't go overboard with the wackiness (unless that's what you really want) as it may take away from shows focus and seriousness.

My Work

For my own work, I think one of the most important things to keep in mind is my audience. It seemed like all of the topics that were discussed today had very specific audiences (sports fans, travelers, and desperate housewives followers). Judging from these groups, each podcast or vodcast had to tailor their episode content to fit the needs of their viewers. It is extremely important to remember my audience when I am creating my podcast in order for it to function according to its purpose; otherwise, the podcast will appear unfocused and disorganized. I believe that if I can target a group of people that will find my topic interesting, I will have a successful podcast.

Visuals Matter

The most important point discussed today was the visual effects. In the desperate House Wives blog it is clear to see that there are major problems with the visuals and as a listener or viewer, I got really bored. Same goes for This American Life. The topics were random and at times too long. If they were more focused without rambling that would also help, but the visual effect is the most important. Even though the Travel in 10 had great visual, it was hard to watch because of the poor camera quality and shakiness. Listeners and viewers need more formal structure and professionalism. I would only sit and listen to these podcasts if I had nothing else to do, but even still I would get fidgety because I was bored.

Visual Aesthetics



Before today’s discussions, I had been pretty sure that I was going to make an audio podcast for my project. After hearing everyone’s criticism of This American Life and the Desperate Housewives podcast, I realize that I may need to consider adding visual elements to my podcast. It seems that vodcasts are more popular and better able to capture their audience’s attention. This doesn’t mean that strictly audio podcasts are doomed to fail though. If brevity and focus are considered, I still think that an audio podcast can be effective in getting through to an audience.

In-Class Activity

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After listening to the class leaders in class today, one of the major issues that they talked about was the importance of video and camera quality. I have yet to decide on whether I will use a video or not, but from what I saw today, it is very crucial to keep the camera still. Some examples today showed videos where people did not use a tripod and all it did was make the picture shake and make me feel nauseous. This hurts any video or Podcast's credibility because professional works do not shake. Also the quality of the video has to be entertaining and appropriate. The woman acting weird in the Desperate Housewives episode caused people to lose focus on the topic they were talking about. I think having quality video would be an important aspect in my Podcast because it has to be aesthetically pleasing if people are going to continue watching it.

Most important

After listening to the class discussions for the day, I have realized that the most important things when creating a podcast are: professionalism, organization, and keep it visually appealing. For example, during the Desperate Housewives podcast I thought it was very unorganized, they could have been much more professional, and they could have changed the visual aspect to something more appealing instead of showing the two talk show hosts just sitting in a studio the whole time. All of these factors play an important role when creating a podcast and they have great influence in determining a successful podcast from an unsuccessful one.