The podcast as a way of storytelling.
All of us like listening to stories. As toddlers, most of us listened to stories and fairytales our grandparents and parents used to tell us.
Storytelling is an ancient art form that started as visual representations i.e cave drawings, which then shifted to oral traditions passing on from one generation to another.
Whether factual or fictional storytelling is an intrinsic character of human beings. It’s in our nature to tell stories and inform others about our life events.
In recent times, however, storytelling has taken a new form via technology and one of them is podcasts. The dictionary meaning of a podcast is that a podcast is a digital audio file made available on the internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically. To actually sum it up it’s all of a series of spoken episodes where one talks about different topics put together in an audio recording which later one can download and listen to at their own time. Like in a car, while cooking etc.
The podcast was first developed in 2004 by former MTV video jocker and Dave Winer a software developer, who coded a program known as iPodder, which enabled them to download internet radio broadcasts to iPods.
Currently in India 40million of the 500million internet users listen to podcasts. The number though is increasing rapidly. In 2018, there was almost 60% growth in podcast listeners in India which makes it the third-largest podcast listening population after China and The United States.
There are different types of podcasts like:
- The Interview Podcast- where the host interviews new guests in each episode.
- Conversational/Co-hosted podcast- where two people have a straightforward conversation. Unlike an interview here both are the hosts.
- The solo/monologue- used by people who have a specific kind of expertise and share on a specific kind of topic.
- Repurposed content- an existing content is transformed, modified, and then presented to the audience.
- Non-fictional and fictional storytelling- the real-life events are shared in each episode of non-fictional and fictional different types of stories are shared.
However, during these recent times with the current ongoing pandemic and lockdown podcasts have helped. Like Netflix and Amazon Prime and other video streaming apps, listening to podcasts has helped many to engage themselves in something. Some even came up with the idea of creating their own podcast. Creating a podcast can also be a way of earning money, however, you need to have good content for each episode which will attract an audience as well as maintain them.
If you’re looking to have a good laugh you can listen to Cyrus Says by Cyrus Broacha which is a definitive show on life in urban India, politics, sports, civic sense, etc. Looking to escape from a tiring/stressful day and have a vicarious experience of a destination you like, you can listen to The Musafir stories.
The Seen and Unseen by Amit Varma is a nonfictional interview podcast that dives deep into a subject matter, like the emergency, me too movement and many other subjects.
With the rise in popularity of the podcasts, one can find a number of podcasts on the subject and genre they like. And also create one. In these trying times, podcasts have been helpful in keeping one
Contributed By- Shravani Dsouza, Content Writer @ Mitti Ke Rang
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