Pod People

So I finally listened to a podcast today. Oliver Willis is doing one.

People analogize podcasting to radio as blogging is to, say, newspapers.

The analogy is close, but no cigar. Blogs, like newspaper columns, connect with readers through one medium - text, prose, writing. All other things (production value, technical issues) being equal, one good writer is about the same as any other good writer, separated only by their command of the subject and differentiated mainly by their style. A good blogger can write about like a good newspaper writer; a really crappy, screedmongering hack of a blogger is about the same as Nick Coleman, although Coleman gets paid.

But I digress. Audio - podcasting in this case - adds another dimension to the process; spoken delivery. So not only do you have the matter of command of the material and your ability as a writer (and, let's be honest, editor) to deal with; you also introduce your skill as a speaker, engineer and producer into the mix. We jump from two skills to five - and failure at any of them makes your product look/sound off-putting.

Which is not to say that podcasting doesn't sound like an interesting concept; Willis does sound, as he repeatedly says, like a geek in his basement (try talking INTO the mike, Ollie; the dropoff in volume between your opening song and your actual screed is kinda wrenching), and he's no more in command of content than he ever is (i.e., better than Atrios, worse than Flash), but then isn't that what blogging is about?

Of course, you can't tell by reading someone if they're a geek in a basement, unless someone writes that way. With audio, you can sound like a geek in your basement if you're recording in a top-flight recording studio but sound like a dork anyway.

But don't let that stop you. For me to rip on podcasters for those shortcomings opportunities for improvement would be like Nick Coleman ragging on bloggers.