Podcast Research

    The podcast I chose to listen to is 'Science Friday'.  I chose this podcast because after scanning the titles of podcast episodes, they covered a very wide range of topics from a scientific perspective which was interesting to me. The intended audience for this podcast was adults or young adults. They were talking about subjects from a scientific perspective that required a bit of background knowledge. This could be gained through personal experience as adults, or in school as young adults. However, I think it was intended for the general public, and didn't need a ton of education in science to understand. 

    While listening to the host's delivery, I think they did a pretty good job at keeping the podcast engaging. Her volume wasn't too loud or too soft. Additionally, I thought that her rate of speaking was pretty good. There were times that she sped up slightly or slowed down which made you tune into the more important parts of her speaking. It also sounded more conversational in this way. Her tone was also engaging because it was never monotone. I think they did a really good job of communicating this information. In the episode I listened to, they were talking about some research evidence as it pertained to their topic. Overall, they described findings really well, but I do think it is nice to have some graphics of data to see the evidence in a different way as well. 

    Some of the specific delivery techniques from the podcast that I noticed were intentional pauses and some laughter/sarcasm at some points. Pauses in their speaking definitely kept things more engaging. Additionally, there were times where the host would use some sarcasm and have a little laugh which made it more interesting than just a bunch of facts lectured at you. Additionally, since you can't see any smiles or facial expressions in podcasts, this was especially helpful in effectively portraying a message or feeling to the audience. As noted in the readings discussing axioms to reduce uncertainty it states, "As nonverbal warmth increases, uncertainty levels will decrease in an initial interaction situation." (Griffin et al., 2019, p. 107). A pleasant tone is noted to be one of the ways to exhibit nonverbal warmth which I found was utilized in this podcast very effectively. I plan to incorporate these techniques of keeping a good rate of speaking and verbal expression of feelings to make my future podcast more effective. 

    Overall, I think that this podcast was interesting to listen too. It wasn't too long and kept the information concise and to the point which made it very engaging. Additionally, the host did a great job of utilizing good tone, volume, and rate for an interesting podcast that spoke about scientific articles and evidence. From this, I learned that the delivery has a really big impact in the audiences' listening experience. Also, since you can't see any expressions, it is that much more important to emphasize feelings through tone and maybe even some laughter when making podcasts. 

Here's a link to the episode of the podcast episode I listened to if you're interested! 

Untangling the Mind-Body Connection in Chronic Pain 

References: 

Griffin, E. A., Ledbetter, A., Glenn Grayson Sparks, & Mcgraw-Hill Education. (2019). A first look at communication theory (10th ed.). Mcgraw-Hill Education, Copyright.