Sunday, February 28, 2010

Thanks be to pod

David Hepworth at The Word magazine writes here on Podcasting. Do have a read. Like him, I love podcasts. And I feel excited about doing them, having a go and trying something new in media. More than I have about new things for a quite a long time.

He says: "Podcasts shouldn't be trying to be professional and polished. I can't abide podcasts that begin with a menu that tells us what's coming up. What's the point of that? It's more likely to make you change your mind about listening to it than persevere. I also hate the feeling that people are reading from scripts. I wince when I hear journalists trying to crack the same kind of jokes that look OK in print. We don't need any of that print or radio or TV baggage. Podcasts are punk rock. They're the first thing that comes into your head. They're an evening down the pub. They blitz the divisions between the speaker, the thought and the personality. They have little use for conventional professionalism. They're so direct they're hardly media at all."

I agree to a point. The fact that James Richardson brings a certain structure to the Guardian's Football Weekly Podcast by running through the topics doesn't take much away from the free wheeling style that flows. And I love the non-mainstream edge of this too. My favourite moment was when serious journalist Paul Hayward joined in. After he gave a lengthy and articulate pundits reply to the speculation that Kaka was joing Manchester City, Barry Glendenning likened it to the lads in the pod inviting Girl's Aloud over to join them for a jacuzzi. I don't have to guess at Hayward's face but the tone of his voice was one of utter discomfort. He hasn't been back.

From my own point of view, I loved doing the Blackburn Rovers podcast on Thursday with Stuart Grimshaw. We did it over Skype and technically it sounds good and we did OK. I think as we get to know each other it will get better and better. We did have a rough agenda - Bolton, Hoilett, Liverpool, Burnley, but I never set out to tell the story of why Kevin Davies didn't come to my 40th birthday party. And I'm sure Stuart didn't script his line about the club not paying VAT on Junior Hoilett's kit.

2 comments:

Britney of Arabia said...

On your advice I started listening to the Word podcast. I'm hooked! And hooked on podcasts in general to be honest. Most are from Radio 2. I've turned into my dad!

Michael Taylor said...

The Guardian family one is the most recent discovery. Very good. Less impressed with the Lancashire Telegraph Premier podcast however.