---------- Forwarded message --------- From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Feb 5, 2021 at 11:52 AM Subject: H-Net Review [H-Podcast]: McDivitt on Spinelli, 'Podcasting: The Audio Media Revolution' To: <[email protected]> Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]>
Martin Spinelli. Podcasting: The Audio Media Revolution. New York Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. xiii + 260 pp. $29.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-5013-2868-8. Reviewed by Anne Ladyem McDivitt (The University of Alabama) Published on H-Podcast (February, 2021) Commissioned by Robert Cassanello (he/him/his) Podcasting: The Audio Media Revolution is an in-depth analysis of podcasting as a medium unique from radio, with its own distinct methods of dissemination, listening, engagement, and production. The authors analyze multiple popular podcasts, looking into their production styles, listener engagement, and negotiations in separating themselves from radio broadcasting. The authors argue that there are eleven distinct features of podcasting that distinguish it as a creative medium: a level of intimacy due to listening with earbuds; mobility; listener control; selectivity and engagement by listeners when they choose a podcast; global audiences; interconnectivity with social media and engagement with listeners through social media; more creative freedom for creators; the freemium model of a free core product with income derived through other means; availability in perpetuity, which can reduce the feeling of liveness; lack of fixity (podcasts can be edited for any reason); and the absence of traditional scheduling or time constraints. These distinct reasons are the core argument of the book--they tie into the analyses of the podcasts featured throughout, such as _Radiolab_, _Serial, Welcome to Nightvale_, and _Podium.me_. The book provides an insightful inside look into a significant moment around 2014--deemed the "Golden Age_"_ of podcasting--when _Serial_ was released and Apple integrated podcasting into the iOS (p. 199). However, the focus of the book can be a little convoluted for two reasons: timing and distinctness. The authors state that they want to chronicle this moment in time and show how podcasting is distinct from radio, but chapters such as the first, "Splatters of Shit: Story, Science, and Digital Speech on _Radiolab," _focus on podcasts that predate the Golden Age and began as radio broadcasts. Extensive use of oral interviews with podcast producers are the driving force of the analysis, and it proves effective in demonstrating how the creators of the medium feel about the work they are doing, how they actually produce the content, and how they engage with an audience. The authors use the words of these producers to clearly define the distinctness of podcasting. They also analytically read the podcasts themselves as texts at times in order to understand how listeners consume them, their production and editing, what writing strategies they use, and what cultural impact podcasts as a medium ultimately have had. The authors acknowledge that they focus primarily on prominent and culturally significant podcasts due to the large number of podcasts out there, which is a limitation of the work, but it does not detract significantly as they are still able to draw conclusions about what makes podcasting unique as a creative medium. They are wise to describe the book at the end as documenting a moment of change rather than the medium as a whole, since podcasting by its nature is always evolving. While most of the work is quite engaging, there are a couple of chapters--"Don't Look Back: The New Possibilities of Podcast Drama" and "_Blood Culture_: Gaming the Podcast System"--that do not significantly add to the argument of the book. One looks into the genre of podcast drama, but it explicitly ties it repeatedly to radio drama and the history of the genre, which detracts from the uniqueness that the authors are trying to highlight. The other looks at how to manipulate podcast charts and click farms, and this chapter in particular feels out of place. While being able to game ratings charts is indeed unique, it feels like a strange step back from the rest of the book, which looks at podcasting as an artistic medium rather than the technical aspects of tracking popularity. In addition, there are a few errors or issues that detract from the overall work. While discussing podcast drama, they refer to Joe Hill's graphic novel series _Locke and Key_ and misidentify its author as "Clint Hill." More significantly, in the chapter "In Bed with Radiotopians: Podcast Intimacy, Empathy, and Narrative," the authors discuss _The Heart_'s podcast episode "How to Become a Princess" as an example of a podcast inviting empathy. The episode focuses on the story of a transgender woman, and in recounting the story in the book, the authors alternate gender pronouns for the subject of the podcast. In a footnote, they explain that the pronouns are alternated in the podcast by the speaker, and that the pronoun "'their' proved too confusing in this context" (p. 87). While it is good that they explained their reasoning behind the pronoun usage, it is quite problematic to argue that the singular pronoun "their" is too confusing to be included in an academic analysis of podcasting. Martin Spinelli and Lance Dann's work is an insightful and entertaining look into what makes podcasting unique, and overall it is successful in differentiating podcasting from other artistic mediums such as radio. Its strength lies in the interweaving of oral histories with analysis to create a work that not only celebrates podcasting but also frames _Podcasting: The Audio Media Revolution _as a story of people rather than just a technical look into the medium. Citation: Anne Ladyem McDivitt. Review of Spinelli, Martin, _Podcasting: The Audio Media Revolution_. H-Podcast, H-Net Reviews. February, 2021. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56100 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. -- Best regards, Andrew Stewart -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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