This week’s workshop, one of the things covered was a podcast about sleep. It was a rather lengthy one, probably lasting about an hour, but our tutor only played the first 20-30 minutes of the podcast. Then we had a little discussion on what makes a good podcast. What are the ingredients that make a podcast interesting and keeping the listeners engaged. Having the whole visual aspect taken away, it’s always so easy to drift into another thought while the whole soundtrack just shifts to the background while your mind wanders and start to think what should you have for lunch later or if the weather would turn out great for your golf match later.

This are what some of us from class came up with that keeps the podcast engaging,

  1. Sound effects
  2. Dialogues
  3. Interviews
  4. Atmos
  5. Music

The list goes on, but those above are the main criteria to make a podcast engaging to the audience. Always introducing a new element is a good way to keep the audience on their feet, new characters or subjects to keep their mind engage like they are a part of the conversation as well.

This whole exercise is just a little starter before the main course, the audio essay of project brief 4, which in a way is quite a heavy weightage assignment when it comes to the overall grade for Media 1. And what a better way to start by analysing the work of others and start referencing and unpacking the technicalities behind it.