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This volume offers the first comprehensive framework for understanding the new modes of digital listening, constructions of fandom and community, cultures of storytelling, and intimacy of this dynamic audio form.

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Born out of interviews with the producers of some of the most popular and culturally significant podcasts to date (Welcome to Night Vale, Radiolab, Serial, The Black Tapes, We´re Alive, The Heart, The Truth, Lore, Love + Radio, My Dad Wrote a Porno, and others) as well as interviews with executives at some of the most important podcasting institutions and entities (the BBC, Radiotopia, Gimlet Media, Audible.com, Edison Research, Libsyn and others), Podcasting documents a moment of revolutionary change in audio media.

The fall of 2014 saw a new iOS from Apple with the first built-in "Podcasts" app, the runaway success of Serial, and podcasting moving out of its geeky ghetto into the cultural mainstream. The creative and cultural dynamism of this moment, which reverberates to this day, is the focus of Podcasting. Using case studies, close analytical listening, quantitative and qualitative analysis, production analysis, as well as audience research, it suggests what podcasting has to contribute to a host of larger media-and-society debates in such fields as: fandom, social media and audience construction; new media and journalistic ethics; intimacy, empathy and media relationships; cultural commitments to narrative and storytelling; the future of new media drama; youth media and the charge of narcissism; and more. Beyond describing what is unique about podcasting among other audio media, this book offers an entry into the new and evolving field of podcasting studies.

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List of Interviewees
Foreword by Professor David Hendy (University of Sussex, UK)
Acknowledgements

Chapter 1
Introduction: The Audio Media Revolution

Chapter 2
Splatters of Shit: Story, Science and Digital Speech on Radiolab

Chapter 3
You Are Not Alone: Podcast Communities, Audiences, and Welcome to Night Vale

Chapter 4
In Bed with Radiotopians: Podcast Intimacy, Empathy and Narrative

Chapter 5
Don´t Look Back: The New Possibilities of Podcast Drama

Chapter 6
A Utopian Moment: Podium.me, Diversity and Youth Podcasting

Chapter 7
Blood Culture: Gaming the Podcast System

Chapter 8
The Truth About Serial: It´s Not Really About a Murder

Chapter 9
The Lucky Strike: Success, Value and Independence in the Golden Age of Podcasting

Afterword

References
Index

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With this book, the authors clearly identify the unique qualities of contemporary podcasting and sketch a thought-provoking portrait of this emerging digital medium. Tiziano Bonini, Assistant Professor in Media Studies, University of Siena, Italy

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