the podjournal

Who are podcasting - and why? These were the main questions in a survey I participated in earlier this year.

Now the results are up.

I remember spending about 15-20 minutes answering questions about my technical and more personal relations with the media. Questions that gave me food for thought - not all surveys do - as to why this medium has such an impact on me and my fellow podcasters.

It is Dr. Dennis Mocigemba from Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany, and Gerald Riechmann from University of Technology in Berlin, who have conducted the online-survey among over 1600 podcasters. The two German researchers do not claim that this is representative crowd, as the podcaster community is changing rapidly, even in a fem months. However, the samples cover 49 countries.

More than HALF OF the private podcasters are European. So for once a podcasting survey is not dominated by North Americans.

Results in brief:

There are more Mac users compared to the Market share, but in the survey there are two Windows users per Mac user. (surprise to me)

Male podcasters are a majority. (no surprise)

Half of them have high school education, half have above high school.

A majority are working half or full time.

Almost half of them have some sort of media business background.

Many of the podcasters have several podcasts.

Podcasting is not necessarily overly time-consuming.

There is a slightly positive correlation of money and time spent.

Most podcasts seem to be made for rather small audiences or communities (Long Tail).

Interaction with audience is strongly intended, and it actually takes place, mainly by email and blogs.

Podcasting rarely causes controversy or discourse.

Almost every podcast comes with a blogpage.

Nevertheless, podcasters distinguish themselves from bloggers.

Anonymous podcasting is not uncommon

(and still) A noticeable number of podcasters use their shows as a kind of Identity Workshop

Podfading seems to be a minor problem at the moment.

European podosphere is commercially less ambitious.

It seems to be hard to live from podcasting, but some actually make an income.

Traditional revenue models dominate, like adds, sponsoring and consulting.

Podcasters are cathegorized in five groups and here listed according to represenation:

1. ThemeCaster - wants to give and share information about at certain topic

2. Rebel - wants to share opinion

3. Personality Prototyper - want to know him/herself better

4. Social Capitalist - wants to expand network

5. Explorer - wants to know how the technology works

The two German researchers have done a great job, especially in covering the reasons why we podcast.

Where do I fit into this survey?

Well:

I am a Windows user, female, have a higher education, am self employed and have a media background (20 years + as a journalist), I have only one (and Danish) podcast, but my work in all areas of podcasting is overly time consuming , I have a rather small audience, and my podcast itself does not generate money from adds or sponsors, I definitely use it as a Identity Wokshop, but also to expand my network and expose other podcasters work and create a buzz around podcasting in Denmark. I think I can be cathegorized as a 5, then 4 then 1.

Tags: Podcasting //