Photo: Kim Fox
Podcast studies scholars from four continents explored future directions of podcast studies at a multidisciplinary Roundtable Pre-Conference event for IAMCR 2024, convened at Griffith University, Brisbane on 25 June. Ranging from PhD candidates and early career researchers to senior academics, the scholars set aside formal presentations in favour of energetic debate and collegial brainstorming, to share their current research and together identify future research topics.
Co-convenor Mia Lindgren of the University of Tasmania, Australia welcomed the participants on behalf of the IAMCR MARS (Music, Audio, Radio, Sound) Working Group, of which she is co-chair. Co-Convenor Siobhan McHugh, University of Wollongong, along with Australian co-organisers Dylan Bird, RMIT, and Lea Redfern, University of Sydney, urged participants to share their expertise on this growing medium, so as to foment useful collaborations, pool knowledge and develop strategic collaborations.
Lively, sometimes passionate, discussions followed. By the end of the day, key themes emerged, with a large whiteboard covered in a constellation of ideas, questions and propositions.
One future-focused theme was focused on podcast audience habits, including consumption patterns and a global evaluation model of impact measurement, along with proposed studies of technology, regulation and policy. Other researchers identified the political/democratic implications of the medium, including its applications in areas such as climate change and health. Some will undertake critical analysis of podcast formats from banter to narrative, while others intend to explore how feminists, LGBTQIA+ activists and alternative voices of all kinds find expression through podcasts, even in places such as China where media is highly regulated. The position of podcasting within the academy, including analysis of podcast practice-as-research and the nexus between industry and academia, also emerged as a research theme.
Podcast Think Tank
The Podcast Studies Roundtable also seeded the establishment of a new podcast Think Tank. As such, it offers collective authority in podcast studies, a group that can liaise with industry and the academy to advance mutual research initiatives. Perhaps just as importantly, it is a place of collegial support and warm professional friendship. It was heartening to see how all participants were united by an interest in podcasting and determination to develop its academic status, with this preconference the first of what we hope will be regular podcast studies events at IAMCR.