The emergence of new technology brings about new media, as more possibilities to further communication become available. One such media that has come about through the rise of technology are podcasts. I would like to use this post to try and explain what a podcast is and after that I will namedrop a couple of podcasts that I recommend, to give them free advertising.
Podcasts are a relatively new media. They are online distributed audio files that can be downloaded that uses an RSS feed to keep its audience up to date with the latest podcasts (Morris, 2006). Morris continues on to say that originally, podcasts were used as radio shows, but the uses for a podcast has blossomed to interviews and even lessons. The term itself is a portmanteau referring to Apple’s iPod, a popular portable media player, and broadcast (Oxford University Press, n.d.). In short, it is an online distributed show that you can download onto your computer, subscribe to be constantly updated with new podcasts, and put it on your portable media player if you want to listen to it on the go. It should be noted that there are also now video podcasts, which came about when iPods that feature video playback were introduced (Bowers, 2006). Same deal as podcasts, just with video added to it.
Now that we’ve got the technicalities out of the way, I’d like to recommend some podcasts to you. If vulgarity, wild ideas, and the inane conversations of a British comedian with his collaborator and uniquely logical producer is up your alley, please check out Ricky Gervais’ site for access to his podcast “The Ricky Gervais Show” and his occasional free podcasts (and some video podcasts too) available here. If you like comedy, particularly British comedy, you owe it yourself to check out Ricky Gervais’ work.
Ricky Gervais podcast promotional picture (Source: rickygervais.com)
Also, if you’re into chess, I’d recommend listening to Alexandra Kosteniuk’s Chess is Cool podcast. Alexandra offers many tips and explanations to the intricacies of chess and if you want to learn by yourself, this would be a good place to start. It should be noted that all the podcasts are audio only though, which I feel has the ability to hurt the quality and strength of the explanations somewhat. Nevertheless, if you are familiar with the chess board notation terminology, then this podcast is an absolute wealth of chess information.
References
Bowers, A 2006, “Textcasting,” anyone?, Slate, viewed 2 May 2008, <http://www.slate.com/id/2136959/>
Morris, T 2006, Podcasts increasing in popularity, Map Interesting, viewed 2 May 2008, <http://www.map100.com/mapinteresting.php/podcasts-increasing-in-popularity/>
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