This document discusses the future of public podcasting in the US. It notes that while podcasting has boomed in recent years, driven by advertising dollars, many of the top 20 podcasts serve public purposes like news, education and science. However, the growing commercialization and "platformization" of podcasts threatens public podcasts, as platforms like Spotify control access and data while prioritizing lowest common denominator programming. The document argues public podcasters need to position themselves as a public resource to advocate for defenses that protect their mission-driven work, and calls for more support from public broadcasting and commercial news organizations.

1. Does U.S. Public
Podcasting Have
a Future?
Patricia Aufderheide, David
Lieberman, Alika Alkhallouf, and
Jiji Ugmoba
AOIR 2020

2. “Public podcasting?”
• Podcasting’s a new technology
• Which has boomed in last 3 years
• Advertising brings big dollars
• Like other new tech (think radio),
noncommercial interests used it to
experiment and promote mission
• An ecology of public-purpose podcasts
(news, education, science, how-to)
dominates the Top 20 U.S. podcasts

3. EXAMPLES:

4. Does “public podcasting” contribute to
democratic discourse?
• True-crime shows reopen cases and exonerate the convicted
• “Ear Hustle” opens new conversations about the purpose of
prison (and wins commuting of sentence of cohost)
• Podcasts spur discussion about truth and ethics (e.g.
Caliphate, This American Life with the Mike Daisey episode)
Daisey episode)

5. Commercialization Threat
“Platformization” (Sullivan)
Platforms (Spotify, Google,
Pandora/SiriusXM)
consolidate access
to programs
…including the ones
incubated by public
and mission-driven
entities

6. Implications
•Platforms control access
•Platforms control data
•Platforms don’t care about
mission, and lowest-common-denominator
programming principles rule

7. Public podcasters’
response?
We’re doing pretty well
We have a great product
It’s amazing to have a revenue
stream independent of
taxpayer constraints
We’re focused on providing
advertisers accountability

8. Where is podcasting’s public?
•Public podcasts have not yet construed
themselves as a “public space"
•They have not identified themselves as a public
resource
•The public is a resource to call for defenses for
public podcasing at a pivotal moment (it works
for public broadcasting)

9. Potential actions
• More resources within public
• broadcasting
• Among commercial news
• providers, prioritizing mission
• For metrics providers and
• advertisers, recognizing the value
• of the public ecology

10. THANK YOU!
Published work available open –access:
https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/13548
OR: search for “public podcasting” at ijoc.org
Contact me and three coauthors at paufder@american.edu