Podcasts: Thoughts From The College Generation
By Jeffrey Lauck, Gettysburg College senior
From newspapers to radio to television, the manner in which Americans consume news has never been static. With each revolution in the way in which information can be transmitted, new cohorts of news consumers have embraced the latest, often more convenient ways of getting the news. Podcasts are increasingly becoming the medium that the new generation turns to for hearing the news.
While the 2016 election cycle and the unending saga that is life under the Trump administration have fueled a recent boost in newspaper subscriptions, the overall trend for the last twenty years shows that fewer and fewer Americans — particularly younger Americans — are paying for newspaper subscriptions. More and more Americans — especially millennials — are also “cord cutting” and refusing to purchase cable subscriptions.
Yet these trends do not mean that millennials are losing touch with the world around them. Nor are young Americans becoming “newsless,” as many old curmudgeons have suggested. A 2015 report from the American Press Institute showed that 85 percent of millennials “say keeping up with the news is at least somewhat important to them” and 69 percent “get news daily.”
Podcasts are one of the ways that millennials are filling this void. Perhaps the biggest reason for the switch is purely economic. Podcasts, by and large, are free and do not require a monthly or yearly subscription fee. They also offer ease of access, and are available on platforms like iTunes and Spotify that millennials already use to listen to music. Podcasts are also incredibly convenient.
Like radio, podcasts do not require active engagement and can be listened to while doing everything from commuting to work to doing Econ homework. Millennials love to multitask, and podcasts provide the opportunity to learn and engage with the news while also living their busy lives at the same time.
Of course, podcasts also have their tradeoffs. The sheer volume of content with podcasts is much lower than with traditional media. News-oriented podcasts may cover many different topics in an episode, but episodes rarely last much longer than an hour. While some media platforms upload podcasts daily, most record episodes only a few times per week. Listeners, then, are not able to digest an entire newspapers-worth of content daily.
Like radio, podcasts do not require active engagement and can be listened to while doing everything from commuting to work to doing Econ homework.
With a limited amount of time to cover the news, podcast producers must make tough choices about what to include in their valuable time. As such, there is a much higher possibility for selection bias in what listeners are hearing with podcasts than there might be when reading a newspaper, even if the podcast itself strives for objectivity. Podcasts, which are largely conversation-based, can also fall victim to the same problems as cable news, where talking heads clamor on and on with platitudes without making any meaningful ground in discussing nuanced issues. Ultimately, of course, each individual podcast deals with these problems in different ways — with varying degrees of success — so there is no one true podcast experience with these disadvantages.
While not specifically designed for conveying news, the podcast medium has risen to carry the banner of existing news corporations and allowed new companies to blossom in the new environment. Many traditional news outlets have embraced podcasts as a continuation of the work they do with print, radio, and television news. For NPR, the addition of podcasts was an incredibly natural transition due to its similarity to radio.
Print media companies like The New York Times and The Washington Post, however, have to be a bit more creative. Instead of simply recording audio versions of their print articles, both companies have used podcasts as a complement to their print editions. For the Times, “The Daily” is a daily podcast that features interviews with the newspaper’s award-winning reporters to break down pertinent news issues. For the Post, “The Daily 202’s Big Idea” takes a look at the biggest stories, breaking them down into a big idea for listeners to take away from otherwise complicated analysis.
Entire companies have also sprung up to capitalize on podcasts newfound popularity. Crooked Media, founded in January 2017 by former Obama administration officials, is one such company. Unlike other companies, Crooked Media actually started with podcasts and then added articles to their website afterwards. In less than a year, the company has gone from a couple of podcasts featuring the founders discussing recent events to a network of podcasts, online articles, and even a nationwide tour. Yet the founders’ — and listeners’ — obvious political bend highlight another aspect prominent in the podcasting universe.
Podcasts, like every other way in which Americans consume news today, have of course been politicized. Podcasts like Crooked Media’s Pod Save America and Jay Tomlinson’s Best of the Left compete with the likes of Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin for listeners and influence in the podcasting realm.
Yet whether listeners tune in to Crooked Media or NPR, their preference in choosing podcasts over cable or print show that news companies must stay on their toes to adapt to the needs of the next generation of news consumers.
Jeffrey Lauck is a history and political science double major and a Fielding Fellow at The Eisenhower Institute at Gettsyburg College.
