Thus far, I have yet to be sold on the idea of podcasts. Podcasts have been presented as the next frontier for the dissemination of information. They are supposed to revolutionize the way people and organizations communicate, but I am skeptical.
As I see it, the problem with podcasts is that they are linear. In order to get the full story on any particular topic, podcasts demand that one digest an entire story as presented. Irrelevant facts and anecdotes cannot be easily avoided. With podcasts the only way to get to desired information is to wade through vast amounts of potentially useless prattle.
This is a problem.
This is going to sound stupid, but people searching for information want only what they want. And, to be truly effective, you must give the people what they want. Though obvious, this is especially true online (and probably why most of my readers have already Googled away from my page.)
The beauty of the Internet is that it allows users to select the information that they want, discard the irrelevant, and then quickly move on to the next item that captures their interest. However, podcasts, like newspapers and other print media, are a dead end for those seeking information.
I mostly agree with you on this. When wanting general information I think the podcast is almost a retrograde back into the radio episode days. Why listen to all that crap when you only want to find out one thing?
However I think a podcast is an excellent multitasker, for when I am studying and at the same time am learning Japanese or something (Domo Orregato Mr. Robato).
Its also good to keep you company on the lonely nights… haha or entertained while you are cleaning the house and dont want to be stuck in front of the TV.
Who knows. I am am still on the ropes about it. Lovely article though, ol chap.
Sayonara (also Japanese).
[...] A while back, fellow blogger John wrote a post called “Podcaustic” in which he discussed the negative side of podcasts. I found this topic intriguing so I [...]