ACE Session on Podcasting – 23/10/2014
(Dr Richard Wallace, Department of Film and Television Studies,
Richard.wallace@warwick.ac.uk)
Purpose
Some aspects that will determine the form that the podcast will take:
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Why a podcast?
What is it that you are trying to achieve?
o Overview of whole project? Focus one a particular aspect?
o Are you focusing on your own work? Or on the work of someone else?
Who is it for?
o Academic audience? General audience?
Length
Importance of length:
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No right or wrong length.
BUT there is a balance between being long enough to provide detail and short enough
that it doesn’t outstay its welcome.
As a general rule, aim somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes for a one-off podcast
REMEMBER: If the purpose of the podcast is to make your work accessible, you don’t want
to put off your audience before they’ve even begun listening!
Practical Considerations
Things that you might want to consider whilst planning your podcast:
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What type of podcast do you want it to be?
o Solo monologue? One-on-one interview (of you or of someone else)? Group
discussion?
Think about where this will be placed, and the appropriate tone for that location.
Speaking directly to the ‘machine’ can be awkward (for you and the listener), one
solution to this can be to include a ‘proxy’ within the podcast.
o Example of the potentially awkward situation. How (not?) to do it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h48Ez2rYDOo
o Example of using a moderator / interviewer:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/how_jfk_helped
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If you are formatting the podcast as a conversation with you as ‘the expert’, decide
what you want to talk about and prepare broad questions which allow you to say what
you want to say.
When recording divide the podcast into segments and edit them together later.
o Example of how points are edited. See particularly between 46:00 and 47:00
minutes:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/jazz_625_at
Interview Technique
Things to think about if your podcast is to be an interview with somebody else (e.g. a Visiting
Fellow / conference keynote etc.):
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Get permission!
Do your research.
o Who are you talking to? What is their background? Why are you interested in
them? What do you want to get out of them?
Prepare your questions in advance.
o Think about what you want to find out and work backwards from there.
Questions should need to be guided, but also ‘open’, to allow detailed discussion of a
specific topic.
Avoid questions with yes / no answers!
Don’t be afraid of asking clarifying questions – they might seem trivial / disruptive,
but they can also be key to your understanding of the topic.
See if the interviewee wants to have a discussion beforehand:
o Find out what they want to talk about and how it fits with what you want them
to talk about. Try and arrive at questions that fulfil both agendas.
Where do you place yourself on the spectrum between ‘Expert’ and ‘Novice’?
o Too far in either direction will produce frustrating results.
REMEMBER: The podcast is for an external audience. It doesn’t matter how interesting you
find it, if it is not interesting to your ideal listener it is no use.
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