Investigate My Podcast

WHAT IS A PODCAST?
There are a millions of podcasts on the internet. A podcast is when someone talks about something. They are for anything and everything. There are podcasts for movies, cars, recipes, trees, politics etc. People put them on the internet for other people to listen to. There are two kinds: video and audio. Most of them are free, but there are ones that you pay money for. Some podcasts are just for fun, some are for education, media and more. The people that create them are just normal people like you and me, but they have some interest that they like to talk about maybe. It is not a professional thing, although it could be. The people that listen to them are so many in this world. Anyone can listen to them if they have the internet to get it from. What they need to know or what they want to know is all podcasted.
They are made just how you would suppose they are made: with a microphone. They don’t need to have a recording studio or anything, just a microphone.

OUR PROJECT
In I.T class, as you know from previous posts, our unit is about podcasts on the teen life. Our main goal in the unit is to make a non-fictional podcast by ourselves, about ourselves about adolescence in Mongolia. To make a podcast we need to learn about podcasts in our investigation. Why podcasts? I think the tone of voice is a very important thing when talking. We will only be making an audio one. You can show the tone of voice in video, but it is not that important to show the person because the person might not want to show himself or herself. For me, making a podcast will express myself. I can get my feelings out there and no one will be there to criticize me or anything. When we put up our own podcasts, many kinds of people might listen to it. Teenagers having a rough time and need some support or they could be looking for kids with the same problem. To make our own podcast, we need to investigate about others. I listened to another podcast of any kind and got some ideas. Here are the sources:

1. Erbear111. “How to get a guy.” 20/12/07. Youtube.com. 29/11/09.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAqGGEo2G3I&feature=related
This podcast a funny advice for girls on how to get a guy to like you. A girl talks about one way to get a guy to like you but it is not seriously a real way to get a guy, because she was kidding. She says write on a piece of paper all the feeling you feel like “I love you, you are so cute” and stuff. Then also draw you guys getting married, and your kids. Put the paper in his pocket and say “don’t open it till I’m gone” then run away. After I have listened to it I thought “oh, it was a joke” because in the beginning, it’s all serious. If a girl actually did that, for a typical guy, he would think, “that girl is crazy,” but if the guy really liked the girl, he might really like it, even though it is creepy. Even if I thought this advice was serious, I still wouldn’t do it. The video doesn’t give any proof if it really works. Plus, I know better ways to get guys. I found this video podcast on YouTube. It was a once publishing thing. This girl has other videos on YouTube, but they were all not podcasts.

2. Kane, Erin. Brandt, Kristin. “Don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Manic Mommies. 23/11/09. 192. iTunes. 29/11/09.
This podcast is for housewives mainly, for women that have children and a husband. These two women talk about their lives, about their houses, their children and husband. Every episode is mainly about those things, but they have different categories every time. On this episode, they talk about decoration of houses and friends and neighbors. This podcast does not really appeal to me, but it does appeal to my mom. She has 4 children, and has to take care of the house. Sometimes she works or goes out for important things. She was also the one that designed and decorated our house which I know was a huge hard thing to do, so I understand about the lives of awesome moms. I found this podcast on iTunes and it is published weekly. These women relate things to their lives for examples for other women. These women have a happy family and they have jobs too.

3. Handler, Chelsea. “Sleeping troubles.” Chelsea lately video podcast. 28/11/09. iTunes. 29/11/09.
This is a real comedy podcast. Chelsea lately is a show in America; it is a woman talking live about a lot of stuff. The specialty is that she is very funny. This episode is a short acting one. One of her crew members, Chuy can’t sleep in a hotel and he goes around all his friends room and seeks for help. This podcast doesn’t really appeal to me other than just making me laugh. I don’t have trouble sleeping in a hotel because for some reason, I feel safe. I found this podcast on iTunes and it is published 3 or 4 times a week. Chelsea Handler is an American stand-up comedian, humorist, television host, actress, and best-selling author. She has her own late night talk show Chelsea Lately on the E! Cable Television Network. In 2009 she won a Bravo A-List Award. She also has her own column in Cosmopolitan and the UK celebrity magazine Now Magazine.

Making the podcast is probably harder than publishing it on a site. To make the podcast, you have to plan it and talk about it in right and appropriate words, but recording the podcast is easy because you just need a microphone and a computer to edit and publish it. Sometimes the site that you wish to publish the podcast on provides a recording software. What do I mean by publishing? To publish a podcast means that you put it on a site or whatever so that other people can hear or watch it. You just need a site and register or sign up to that site and voila! You can now put your recorded podcast on the Internet. There are many different sites that you can publish your podcast on. For example: iTunes, mypodcast.com, podomatic.com, podcast.com, podcastalley.com and more. There are countless recording devices and softwares that you can use. You can record on you phone(some phones don’t have it), your computer or your mp3 player or just a recorder.

TEST
In the end of the unit, we will have a test to evaluate our final project. To test my podcast, I will ask the listeners questions:
• Do you think this podcast was true and it relates to my life from what you know about me?
• Was it over exaggerated?
• Does this relate to your life in any way? And how?
• Would you recommend this to other people? Who?
The more positive results I get, the better my podcast was.