Paul Stevens, Solent University Southampton, paul.stevens@solent.ac.uk
Key theme(s): The boundaries of radio, sound and podcast studies; methods, approaches and new forms of oral storytelling, including unheard/untold stories.
Abstract
The lines between disciplines or subject areas have rarely been more blurred than those between the nascent area of podcast studies and the more established arenas inhabited by scholars of radio.
Technical, theoretical and artistic innovation has enabled cultural and social transitions in both, and liminality continues to offer opportunities for original research questions to be explored.
This liminality is augmented by the ever-evolving possibilities of communication technologies and practices.
Podcasting exists on a spectrum from “reheated” radio to an “edgy” hinterland of practitioners and audiences adrift from other audio.
Many podcasts still sound like radio programmes despite their never having been radio programmes, despite podcasting having the potential to: diverge much further from radio; eschew radio’s codes and conventions; exploit emerging technologies in order to enhance storytelling; and offer audiences more intimacy and increasingly immersive experiences.
Immersive recording technologies such as binaural and ambisonic sound are being exploited, but practitioner and audience take-up lags behind the popularity of higher quality visual experiences.
My research argues and asserts that podcasting will not progress towards maturity until podcasts themselves:
move to ground more distinct from radio programmes;
develop new narrative forms;
and utilise more extensively the enhanced experiential and narrative possibilities of immersive audio technologies.
I posit that podcasting must establish its own identity, discrete from but complimentary to other audio media, by playing to its strengths and freeing artefacts from self-imposed strictures through greater exploitation of its existing intimate relationship with audiences through enhanced listener immersion in sound and story.
(250 words)
Biography
Paul Stevens is a lecturer at Solent University Southampton, having previously spent more than 25 years in the creative industries, including newspaper reporting/feature writing, print production journalism, and radio presentation. His teaching responsibilities include radio production, podcasting, social media marketing, and audio-driven geo-locative app experiences.
Paul has a degree in Communication Studies, a National Certificate in Newspaper Journalism, a PGCE, and an MA in Journalism. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Paul also works with music label Krafted, carrying out artist/DJ interviews, writing promotional copy, crewing video projects, and voicing documentaries, magazine programmes and radio station imaging.
(100 words)
Leave a Reply