Course narrative

This is an entirely project-based course focused on the making of podcasts. For this reason the design process is the primary framing structure. The one we use goes by the acronym ADDIE, which stands for the design phases of Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. We will work our way through all of the phases, with an assignment due each week.

In the initial part of the course, we begin the Analysis phase by gathering our own ideas about podcasting+storytelling in the context of contemporary media and culture. What is going on in the larger culture that is causing podcasting to emerge as a more or less stable genre?

We can do a fair measure of current-moment analysis on our own, but Len Masterman's work is particularly useful for historical/contextual analysis. We are, in Masterman's terms, enacting the empowerment stage of media literacy in this course by engaging in the production of media content rather than its reception. And podcasting is part of the same overall trend.

Design Thinking can be mentioned in this context as evidence of the kind of cultural shift in media awareness that Masterman describes and documents.

The rise of orality and/or 'acousticity' and sharing some statistics on how people are getting their news and so forth, can also be mentioned. These changes were predicted and named early-on by Walter Ong and Marshall McLuhan, and are brought to full flower in the rise of
TED talks, NPR, podcasts, hip hop, and other forms of serial content in general e.g., Netflix series.

In the Design phase we dive into ideation as the initial task. We read a short book by James Webb Young, and we will benefit from a guest presentation by David Smith. Once we have our ideas, it becomes a matter of designing infrastructure and episodic content.

Then... in the Development phase we begin to build out the infrastructure and content, in the Implementation phase we launch our podcasts, and in the Evaluation phase we critique and revise.