“Transmitters?
We don’t need no stinkin’ transmitters!”
The
Wide Open World of Podcasting
By
Tom Lyberg
“Transmitters?
We don’t need no stinkin’ transmitters!”
If you have heard this tagline by Craig Patchett
before, then you have joined the wired and wild world of
Podcasting.
Daily Source Code, the Dawn and Drew Show, Evil
Genius Chronicles, and the Godcasters are all things you
have listened to.
You have joined in debates over the reality of
Madge Weinstein, voting on Podcast Alley, and ASCAP
podcast licensing.
Ipods, I-Rivers, and other mp3 players are as
important as your cell phone.
And if you have no idea about what any of these
things are, then its time you learned about a new
technology that is changing how we understand
entertainment, information, and community.
So,
what is Podcasting?
Technically, Podcasting is essentially the
delivery of custom audio content in the form of an mp3
file to your computer via a custom subscription program.
Only about a year old, former MTV video DJ Adam
Curry and programmer Dave Winer developed a program
called Ipodder that used RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
to develop sound files instead of just text files.
Each mp3 files is then downloaded to your
computer where you can listen to it or transfer the file
to a portable mp3 player (like the Apple Ipod – hence
the name “podcasting”) to listen to at any time.
The end result is that since August, 2004 when
the first Ipodder script was released, the number of
podcasts has grown from just a handful to over 5,000 as
of April, 2005.
Podcasting
is much more than the technology.
For those who have jumped into the brave new
world, the discovery has been that of a community that
does not exist in physical space but entirely online.
Podcasts differ from broadcast radio or download
on demand.
Growing out of the blogging community, Podcasting
reflects an independent spirit to explore and produce
commentary and community outside the traditional
boundaries of culture and technology.
Each podcast is in essence an exercise in freedom
of speech but also the creation of a microcommunity that
simply is not possible in popular culture.
A
visit to Podcast Alley, Ipodder.org, or one of the other
podcast directories online will show the wide variety of
content that can be found in the Podcasting community.
There are music programs like Coverville, which
plays cover songs, to the Vinyl Podcast, which is
dedicated to playing out of prints music.
You have tech shows like the Engadget podcast and
Esc From the World, a show produced by 15 year old
Matthew Bischoff, who puts many adult tech gurus to
shame with his knowledge.
Religious podcasts while predominately Christian,
like Craig Patchett’s Godcast Network, the Rev Tim
Podcast, and The Catholic Insider, you can also find
podcasts on the tarot, astrology, and others.
You have podcasts that are more like blogs,
stream of conscousness and personal reflections on daily
life, like the Evil Genius Chronicles, The Dawn and Drew
Show, and the granddaddy of all podcasts, Adam Curry’s
Daily Source Code.
The
technical quality of podcasts varies widely, ranging
from near professional level home studios to just a
computer and a cheap microphone.
The content quality is just as varied, with
podcasts ranging from course juvenile humor that is not
safe for work or kids to very narrow technical
conversations for a very few to just plain boring talk
that only the podcaster will enjoy.
However, the overriding creed of the podcast
community is that no matter what you put out on the net,
you must keep it real.
While Adam Curry and others talk about the
emerging commercial possibilities of Podcasting, many
others are following the lead of Dave Winer of keeping
Podcasting as a personal art form and forum for the
emerging generations under the age of 35.
At
the moment, the future of Podcasting is in a state of
flux, trying to define itself in a culture that is in
transition as well.
The desire for individualized content for the
masses, personal creativity and expression, and the
understanding of technology as a personal extension of
yourself rather than an objective tool all are reflected
in the corporate wars over copyright infringement and
the rise of creativity as a commodity and lifestyle, as
seen in HGTV, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and the
marketing strategy of stores like Target and Old Navy.
Podcasting seems to be one more reflection of
this larger cultural change that is occurring throughout
North America.
What
then does Podcasting have to do with the church?
Perhaps a great deal.
As we continue to move into a post-Christian,
postmodern world, the very cultural trends that are
reflected in Podcasting are surfacing in the church.
Reflected in new terms and perspectives like the
emerging church, ancient-future, transformational
ministry, post-evangelical, newly planted congregations
and some existing congregations are engaging this new
culture by becoming immersed and conversant in its
language and technology to witness to Jesus in the 21st
Century.
Podcasting is rapidly becoming part of that
outreach.
Congregational blogs have given birth to
congregation specific podcasts.
More traditional approaches have been podcasts of
bible studies, sermons, and inspirational messages,
aimed largely at a Christian audience.
A number of podcasts have been born out of
personal blogs, like A Different Perspective by Alan
Hartung and Tim Bednar’s podcast, and have that same
conversational informality of a journal.
For
Christian leaders, podcasts are both a tool to be used
and a lens into the postmodern world.
Several podcasts are aimed specifically at
leaders, to create a forum to conversation and learning
from others in engaged in creative ministry in the
emerging church.
Next Wave: Church and Culture is one example of
an online magazine aimed at postmodern church leaders
that has now moved into developing leadership content
via their new podcast Conversatio Fide.
Other podcasts, like the Wired Jesus Podcast, the
Rev Tim Podcast, and Lifespring! attempt to engage
postmoderns in spiritual conversation outside the
organized church.
As
a lens into the postmodern heart and world, it doesn’t
get more direct than on the podcasts. Dave Slusher’s
40 minute Evil Genius Chronicles podcast on how he went
from being an Evangelical Christian to an atheist is an
indictment of modern understandings of discipleship and
a challenge for church leaders to learn to speak the
Gospel to a postmodern generation.
The “Why I Don’t Believe In God” podcast,
in which he openly describes his father’s suicide and
the response offered to him by other Christians remained
one of the most discussed podcasts in the community and
a must listen to for any postmodern Christian leader.
One group of podcasters put together a podcast
card for a fellow podcaster battling cancer, another
aspect of how this digital community is taking shape in
the “real” world.
Just as the advice in the 1990s to youth pastors
was to spend time daily watching MTV and reading Rolling
Stone to understand youth culture, listening to podcasts
will bring you into contact with the intensely personal
yet communal heart of postmoderns and their spiritual
yearning.
While
most of these podcasts are not specific to
congregations, there is tremendous potential for
individual congregations to develop their own set of
podcasts specific to their needs and ministries as the
technology continues to be refined and made simpler to
use.
Delivery of sermons, Bible studies, and audio
newsletters is just an adaptation from an old technology
to new.
Potential new and more creative uses could be
daily devotional by pastors and staff for small groups,
leadership, or the entire congregation.
Book reviews, local praise band concerts, and
guided spiritual disciplines can all be delivered for
people to listen to while jogging, in their car, or to
email to friends and family.
Add to that the growing penetration of mp3
players and Podcasting into the generations 35 and
under, their increasing disconnection with organized
religion and their search for community online,
Christian Podcasting could become a major evangelism
tool in coming years.
Is
Podcasting a fad or does it have the potential to become
a communications technology that will someday be as
dominant as radio and television are today?
Only time will tell but in the meantime,
Podcasting is on the rise, capturing headlines in print
and on television.
In a world where mega-corporations like the
television networks and broadcast giants like Clear
Channel dominate communication, people and the church
will have the change to ride the wave and join in a
communications community by individuals and for
individuals – the world of Podcasting.
Sidebar
1 – Podcast Subscription Programs
While
producing your own podcast requires some significant
technical knowledge and some equipment investment,
subscribing to podcasts is very easy.
All you need to do is download and install a
podcast aggregator like Ipodder (http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/index.php)
or Doppler (www.dopplerradio.net/)
for Microsoft Windows machines or IpodderX (http://ipodderx.com/)
for the Apple Macintosh.
Once you have installed your aggregator, access
either the aggregator’s internal podcast directory or
a dedicated directory site like Podcast Alley(www.podcastalley.com)
or Podcast Central (www.podcastcentral.com)
, choose the podcast feeds you which to subscribe to,
and then start listening.
Sidebar
2 – Favorite Podcasts
Most
podcasts are a matter of personal taste but here is a
listing of some of my personal, safer favorites.
Keep in mind that there are no restrictions on
Podcasting content whatsoever, so many will not be
appropriate for work or for children.
Like the web itself, use your own discretion and
be prepared for occasional unexpected surprises.
Daily
Source Code with Adam Curry (http://dailysourcecode.com)
Coverville
(www.coverville.com)
Area
51 Comedy (www.area51show.com)
Evil
Genius Chronicles (www.evilgeniuschronicles.org)
Esc
From the World (http://matthewbischoff.com/blog/)
Sidebar
3
Christian
Podcasting comes in a variety of forms.
Here is a mix of some of the more popular church
and independent podcasts.
The
Godcast Network (www.godcast.org)
Rev
Tim Podcast (www.revtim.com)
Catholic
Insider (http://www.rorate.com/catholicinsider/)
LifeSpring!
(http://www.godcast.org/categories/lifespring/)
A
Different Perspective (http://www.alanhartung.com/blog/)
Wired
Jesus Podcast (www.wiredjesus.com)
Conversatio
Fide (http://podcast.next-wave.org/gems/conversatio/)
About
the Author:
Tom Lyberg is a Lutheran pastor in Northwestern
Ohio and creator of The Wired Jesus Podcast: The Wired
Wanderings of a Postmodern Pilgrim, a podcast that
explores online spirituality in the postmodern world.
He can be reached at his website, www.wiredjesus.com
or by email at .
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