Are podcasts better than blogs?
Yes. And no. I'm going to break down my thoughts on this for you.
If you don't know what podcasting is, check out this good summary of podcasting from wikipedia.org that explains it well. And if you think don't know what a blog is, you probably do, considering you are at my blog right now! If you didn't realize this and want to know more about what a blog is, don't worry, wikipedia.org can explain blogs too!
OK, now that we all know what blogs and podcasts (or audioblogs) are, let's talk about which one is better.
First I'll talk about blogging, since it came first (practically speaking at least - they have both been around awhile, but as far as the general public is concerned blogging became a well-known, popular concept first).
Why blogs are better:
1. You can skip, scan, and search.
They are easier to selectively consume than podcasts because they are in written form, and you can skim or skip as you wish. With a podcast, you are pretty much stuck to listening to the whole podcast in order to glean the quality commentary or whatever it is you are listening for.
The weight of this factor of course varies with the subject matter and content of the podcast.
For example you don't need to skip through a comedy podcast, because you are not listening to find any specific information or opinion as much as you just want to be entertained. If it isn't funny, turn it off. And when you listen to comedy you aren't really "looking" for anything, just waiting to laugh about whatever it is they have to say that is funny.
But if you are really trying to get the opinion of a podcaster on a certain political or current events issue, it's much harder to search a podcast for that information than it is to head over to technorati.com and search the text or tags of 8 million blogs for a specific subject.
2. They take less time.
I can read 8 or 10 blogs on a certain issue in a half an hour, whereas in that same 30 minutes, I can only listen to one pod-cast, but might get a better understanding of what that person really thinks about an issue. If your priority is collecting information on a particular subject than blogs are much better. If you are short on time than blogs are better. It makes sense - if I were to read a novel out loud it would probably take me 2 or 3 times as long to finish it. The same goes for blogs vs. podcasts.
3. It's easier to write well than speak well.
When I'm reading a blog, I don't have to worry about whether or not the author is a good public speaker, only whether they are a good writer. Factor in that I am much more tolerant of bad writers than I am of boring speakers, blogs are much more appealing. I have unfortunately come upon way to many "tech" podcasts that are done by well-intentioned podcasters, and no doubt some of their content is interesting and relevant to me, but I just can't stand to listen to them for more than a few minutes. They are BORING! Think monotone.
4. They generally have better content. *
They are more likely to be quality because blogging has gotten popular enough that it's not hard to find consistent quality content from many blogs. Right now there are only a 4-5 podcasts that I like enough to check out daily, whereas I have a list of at least 100 blogs that I would read on a daily basis if I had that kind of time.
I placed an asterisk next to this one, because it is only due to the fact that podcasting is so new that there are many quality podcasts out there yet. What I look forward to in the near future is when podcasting goes mainstream like blogging did last year, and many already popular radio shows and other sources of good content begin to podcast their stuff.
Why podcasts are better:
1. They are more personal
When you listen to someone speak, you can really connect with them better, in a way that is not possible through print media. Not only do you begin to appreciate just their words but you begin to feel like you know them. This will do great things for the kind of community that blogging has already begun to create through the use of reader feedback through comments and posting on their own blogs in response to one author's thoughts. Podcasting will be even more of a conversation as podcasters begun to quote each other, or even play clips of each others' podcasts in order to give rebuttal or repsonse.
2. They are more versatile and mobile.
Podcasting shares this strength with broadcast radio. Just as I can with radio, I can listen to a podcast using my iPod where it would be utterly impossible to read blogs, except it beats radio because i get to choose the content!
Here are a few example situations that I can think of (most of them involve doing physical activities that demand too much attention to read something simultaneously):
- While driving in the car (like the morning commute.. mine is 30 minutes which seems to be about the average time of a podcast)
- While cooking dinner (OK fine... so I don't cook, but maybe while I wait in the drive-through at McDonald's)
- While you mow the l lawn, or shovel the driveway
- While you exercise
- Almost any other time you might normally listen to music (esp. on a portable music player like an iPod)
Conclusions:
Blogging is already well established, and has made everyone a journalist of sorts who can bring their own opinions to the issues circulating the blogosphere. Podcasting has a bright future, but it needs to learn some lessons from radio before it really takes off beyond just geeky nerds like me.
Keep your eyes open for more posts on this topic in the future!
If you don't know what podcasting is, check out this good summary of podcasting from wikipedia.org that explains it well. And if you think don't know what a blog is, you probably do, considering you are at my blog right now! If you didn't realize this and want to know more about what a blog is, don't worry, wikipedia.org can explain blogs too!
OK, now that we all know what blogs and podcasts (or audioblogs) are, let's talk about which one is better.
First I'll talk about blogging, since it came first (practically speaking at least - they have both been around awhile, but as far as the general public is concerned blogging became a well-known, popular concept first).
Why blogs are better:
1. You can skip, scan, and search.
They are easier to selectively consume than podcasts because they are in written form, and you can skim or skip as you wish. With a podcast, you are pretty much stuck to listening to the whole podcast in order to glean the quality commentary or whatever it is you are listening for.
The weight of this factor of course varies with the subject matter and content of the podcast.
For example you don't need to skip through a comedy podcast, because you are not listening to find any specific information or opinion as much as you just want to be entertained. If it isn't funny, turn it off. And when you listen to comedy you aren't really "looking" for anything, just waiting to laugh about whatever it is they have to say that is funny.
But if you are really trying to get the opinion of a podcaster on a certain political or current events issue, it's much harder to search a podcast for that information than it is to head over to technorati.com and search the text or tags of 8 million blogs for a specific subject.
2. They take less time.
I can read 8 or 10 blogs on a certain issue in a half an hour, whereas in that same 30 minutes, I can only listen to one pod-cast, but might get a better understanding of what that person really thinks about an issue. If your priority is collecting information on a particular subject than blogs are much better. If you are short on time than blogs are better. It makes sense - if I were to read a novel out loud it would probably take me 2 or 3 times as long to finish it. The same goes for blogs vs. podcasts.
3. It's easier to write well than speak well.
When I'm reading a blog, I don't have to worry about whether or not the author is a good public speaker, only whether they are a good writer. Factor in that I am much more tolerant of bad writers than I am of boring speakers, blogs are much more appealing. I have unfortunately come upon way to many "tech" podcasts that are done by well-intentioned podcasters, and no doubt some of their content is interesting and relevant to me, but I just can't stand to listen to them for more than a few minutes. They are BORING! Think monotone.
4. They generally have better content. *
They are more likely to be quality because blogging has gotten popular enough that it's not hard to find consistent quality content from many blogs. Right now there are only a 4-5 podcasts that I like enough to check out daily, whereas I have a list of at least 100 blogs that I would read on a daily basis if I had that kind of time.
I placed an asterisk next to this one, because it is only due to the fact that podcasting is so new that there are many quality podcasts out there yet. What I look forward to in the near future is when podcasting goes mainstream like blogging did last year, and many already popular radio shows and other sources of good content begin to podcast their stuff.
Why podcasts are better:
1. They are more personal
When you listen to someone speak, you can really connect with them better, in a way that is not possible through print media. Not only do you begin to appreciate just their words but you begin to feel like you know them. This will do great things for the kind of community that blogging has already begun to create through the use of reader feedback through comments and posting on their own blogs in response to one author's thoughts. Podcasting will be even more of a conversation as podcasters begun to quote each other, or even play clips of each others' podcasts in order to give rebuttal or repsonse.
2. They are more versatile and mobile.
Podcasting shares this strength with broadcast radio. Just as I can with radio, I can listen to a podcast using my iPod where it would be utterly impossible to read blogs, except it beats radio because i get to choose the content!
Here are a few example situations that I can think of (most of them involve doing physical activities that demand too much attention to read something simultaneously):
- While driving in the car (like the morning commute.. mine is 30 minutes which seems to be about the average time of a podcast)
- While cooking dinner (OK fine... so I don't cook, but maybe while I wait in the drive-through at McDonald's)
- While you mow the l lawn, or shovel the driveway
- While you exercise
- Almost any other time you might normally listen to music (esp. on a portable music player like an iPod)
Conclusions:
Blogging is already well established, and has made everyone a journalist of sorts who can bring their own opinions to the issues circulating the blogosphere. Podcasting has a bright future, but it needs to learn some lessons from radio before it really takes off beyond just geeky nerds like me.
Keep your eyes open for more posts on this topic in the future!
posted by Scotty P @ 4:48 PM
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