Techno Talks

A user can simply input an RSS file address that holds the information about the feed which contains the main links to the podcasted media files, consequently downloading contents automatically.

As technology advances so does podcasting, where organizations and individuals find podcasting as one of the most convenient way to distribute music, information, talk shows, comedies and even news. An example of an online group distributing news on podcast is the CNET. Being typically a technology site, it is obvious that the group found it wise to use podcasting to distribute news.

CNET news cover varied informative topics published in an easy to download format. They are published in sound files known as mp3. Just recently CNET covered topics such as the setbacks with Google’s software, different viruses attacking cell phones, ‘The Great Firewall of China’, FTC’s attack on spyware and the China’s web restrictions.

All the published files above were originally from CNET’s main website, but most of them are shared to other sites through an RSS file. Basically, an RSS file, acronym for Really Simple Syndication file, is a tiny XML coding, only downloadable by a specially designed program known as the podcast client, which is able to read the file.

In addition to CNET, British Broadcasting Corporation and the US radio Network (NPR) among thousands of other sites are utilizing the podcast technology. NPR for example has its work created by many different groups thus it podcast shows vary from one to the other.  A podcast of one of the NPR show “This American Life” is distributed via another site known as audible.com. The shows listeners on the site subscribe to the show’s feed at a very minimal fee hence are able to download the show to their personal computers to be able to listen and watch at their convenience.

On the other hand, the hourly News Show of NPR podcasts a 5 minute summary of the news all for free. NPR takes a normal radio show and simply converts and publishes it into a downloadable format thus very little is lost in the translation process. The sound is made to transmit the whole story therefore podcast subscribers treat and value the podcasted show in the same way as the radio show.

On the contrary, the podcasted version of the ABC’s news show Nightline has faced a lot of criticisms because the show does not match the broadcasted TV show as they have only put the sound track. Listeners experience difficulties in identifying who is who as the podcast does not give a lot of information, and lack visual cues, thus lacking any easy way of converting the shows.

Consequently, upcoming news shows are now moving from audio to video podcasts. It tends to be easy because they only need to take the information contained in the video directly from the broadcasted show, shrink the files by lowering the resolution and distribute them online as podcasts.

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