The Podcast: Forms, Functions, Futures
AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
8 - 9 February 2018
Philosophicum, Fakultätssaal (Jakob-Welder-Weg 18) in Mainz, Germany
organised by
Margarita Navarro Pérez (Departamento de Idiomas, Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia)
and
Patrick Gill (Department of English and Linguistics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
When the podcast emerged at the start of the 21st century, its future was wide open: no one seemed to be entirely sure where it would be headed in terms of content, audiences or funding. In fact, the only point of agreement in 2004, when the term “podcast” was coined, seemed to be the note of optimism commentators struck when discussing this new medium. More than a decade later, engagement with the podcast has still barely permeated the academic mainstream, with publications on the topic tending to deal with pedagogical uses of or hands-on advice on podcasts and podcasting rather than with the form itself. Any critical debate of the podcast, its aesthetics, its relation to other media, its financing models and their impact on concrete specimens, etc. are rarely to be found. Looking back at more than a decade of podcasting, our symposium will avail itself of the opportunity to historicise this young medium by asking what developments the podcast has undergone.
Submission of abstracts by 1 December.