Digital Reflection

Podcasting is a medium that I stumbled upon while working at an accounting firm as an intern. The workdays there were very long for me but fortunately I got to use headphones to listen to music or whatever. So after about two days straight of listening to just about every song I had on my phone, I got really bored. So I started to listen to stand up comedy, which then led me to realizing many of my favorite stand ups have their own podcasts. This got me really into podcasts. I use it primarily for funny podcasts. My favorites being, Comedy Bang Bang, Monday Morning Podcast with Bill Burr, The Joe Rogan Experience, You Made it Weird, and Doug Loves Movies. I do not listen to anything besides comedy or interview (I occasionally listen to WTF with Marc Maron or The Nerdist) podcasts. These hour to sometimes two-hour long podcasts made the workday way more fun. Hearing comedians talk and interact with each other and their friends was a phenomenal way to pass the time and I became a fan of podcasting. I still religiously try to listen to all the shows I listed. To me podcasting is all about comedy. But after class I realized that it could be so much more.
I have always heard about Serial but have never really given it chance. I know that is what really made podcasting as a medium take off and hit the mainstream but I just can’t for some reason force myself to listen to it and this may in fact just be the inner hipster in me trying to be different and not conform and listen to what everyone else listens too. But in class they also discussed that podcasts can also be directed towards certain races. Podcasting is really for everyone. There are so many shows that every person could probably find something they would enjoy listening too. Although I tend to only listen to comedy-based programs I do admire that people have made really educational or interesting podcasts and that there is really no standard format for a show. A podcast could be about anything and be as long as they need to be. It’s not like radio that has strict schedules that they abide by. I have listened to a podcast with Joe Rogan that was near 5 hours long. I did not listen to it all at once, but the fact that something like that even exists makes me believe that podcasting has no limits. When the second podcasting reading said that podcasting is very much like radio except one can do it from home, it caught my attention. I do not agree with this at all. Maybe I don’t listen to enough radio programs to really know but the podcasting medium has no bounds. It can be about anything; it is uncensored and has no restrictions on what they can talk about. I very much agreed with the quote, “Perhaps one of the most notable departures these podcasts make from traditional media conventions is their embrace of a free-flowing, flexible, and conversational approach, including the use of a wide range of vernaculars”. I think this sums up why podcasts have become something I really love. It is flexible and it just seems more real and conversational. While listening to podcasts I get to feel like I really know the hosts and even the guests personally even though I have never met them. This is all just because I get to listen to really interesting or funny conversations of theirs at least once a week. I think that podcasting is definitely a great medium and will hopefully continue to gain in popularity and push the boundaries of the medium.