Phenomena » Fenomen | 77 NEW OU T F I T FOR OL D MED I A Podcast, a rebel with a cause Limiting the number of characters on Twitter, the length of Instagram stories or snaps are the right measure today. The podcast, on the other hand, is a formwe need - available anywhere and at anytime, open to everything, at a time that suits us best. “Fast, drinkable, on the go,” this is how YouTube vlog author Teodora Petarić answered our question regarding the principles that guide her when creating content for her followers. We would also add dynamism, because Teodora is just one of many authors who confirm for us in practise, and on a daily basis, the thesis of experts in the field of communication science that technology is inexorable when it comes to lifestyle changes. It is enough to say that everything that is too long and requires too much time to consume is outdated. Now and immediately – these are the demands of the 21st century! It is therefore no surprise that a large number of television companies around the entire planet, as well as a large number of radio stations, are opting to create hybrid forms that are available to the public via the internet. e podcast is the best indicator that TV and radio stations will not allow time to consign them to history. In the most general translation, a podcast is a short video or audio recording that is distributed via the internet and is available at any time anywhere on the planet. According to official data, this teenager who breaks all taboos and changes the media image of the entire world was born in August 2004 and entitled “Daily Source Code”. In the years that followed, the podcast proved that “age” is not critical to success. As early as 2005, the term “podcast” was declared the word of the year in the Oxford American Dictionary, and in 2014 Apple had more than a billion podcast subscribers. All you need for a podcast is internet access. It is enough to have inspiration and a topic that is interesting to society. And with all that you are not obliged to report to an editor, because you are your own editor, and your room is your isolation chamber! e podcast is liberated frommonotonous trends and forms, and as such resists censorship, whichmeans that it really supports free and undisturbed expression. It is also pro-activist, because it deals with topics of importance to certain social groups that would not gain importance with the classical media at every opportunity. e educational nature of podcasts lies in their role in presenting even some dry facts to us in a humorous way. Best illustrating the importance of the podcast is the fact that this year, for the first time in history, the Pulitzer Prize for audio format was awarded to a podcast. is recognition went to is American Life, a podcast version of the hugely popular eponymous crime documentary about real events and people that had real consequences, because it proved that there were omissions in one court case and ensured that the condemned person was given the opportunity to defend himself. Apart from this worldwide hit, the global podcast market is highly developed, with around a million active podcast shows and approximately 30 million individual episodes, which cover almost all possible areas and topics – made by audio Google. And some of the most popular podcasts, of which the most copies have been downloaded, include: “Serial”, “Dr. Death”, “Radiolab”, “ e Daily”, “Stuff You Should Know”, “S-Town”, “Planet Money from NPR”, “TED Talks Daily”, “POD Save America”. All of them discuss things of general interest, but in an interesting way that attracts the listeners’ attention, even if they are not interested in the topic. e success of a podcast is also coupled with the amount of freedom that some authors have available to them, because they can dedicate time to topics that have always been on the margins of the programming schedules of classical media forms. ese are all reasons why this form is becoming ever more popular and appealing to the masses, but which also promise that things will only develop to the full in Serbia and the Balkans. e Serbian market is still very small compared to the competition from abroad, but it is developing every day. Eric Nuzum, an expert who helped in the global breakthrough of podcasts such as Invisibilia and TED Radio Hour, believes that good podcast authors have two things in common: something important to say and a passion that drives them to do so constantly.
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