The beginning…
I started teaching this assignment in 2015 as I was developing my FYC course “Writing About/With Digital Media,” a composition course which integrated traditional academic genres and digital media genres in tandem throughout the semester. After use at two different institutions, two different courses, and 7 sections of students, I’ve found it to be an exciting challenge for students, and a project that I truly enjoy teaching and assessing. I’ve particularly appreciated that the reflective space of audio recording prompts students to more fully engage with the materiality of writing and its technologies and try out a variety of authorial performances.
Why podcasts?
When designing my course, I selected podcasts as a digital genre for a variety of reasons, including:
- Low cost of entry: Though creating a podcast may ask students to engage with new technologies and tools, most of those tools are readily available to students. For my assignment, students typically record their voices using their smartphones, though some use external microphones attached to earbuds or headsets or more professional equipment. We edit the podcasts using Audacity, a free, open-source audio editor. Students are also invited to use any software they’re more familiar with, including iMovie, GarageBand, Audition, or other software.
- Popularity: I introduced the assignment just after the debut of Serial, when podcasting was booming in popularity. According to data collected by Edison Research, 48 million Americans listen to podcasts at least once a week, constituting a listenership that eclipses the 20 million viewers of NFL Sunday Night Football, America’s highest rated television program.
- Dominated by Amateurs: Despite its popularity, podcasting remains a genre dominated by amateurs. As a result, there are innumerable ways to approach the genre, and the genre doesn’t worry too much about production quality.
- Focus on Non-Academic Audiences: Of course there are academic podcasts, but for the most part, podcasts address a real-world, niche-interest audience. This gives students experience in composing for more everyday writing activities, but also helps to narrow their sense of audience. They know they aren’t making a podcast for “anyone with internet access,” but for a more narrowly defined community of listeners.
- Assumption of Expertise: Because podcasts are made by and for community members, there’s less pressure to earn ethos. As a result, the podcast gives students an easier sense of expertise and authority than do more academic genres where they might feel pressured to invent the audience.