Abstract
Podcasts have proven the perfect tool to share knowledge and information in the world’s most highly censored areas.
CREDIT: Janice Richter/Ikon
For those wanting to express themselves freely without interference from the state, it is easy to see the appeal of recording something on your smartphone and uploading it to the web over a virtual private network, attaching it to an encrypted email or copying it to a USB drive that can be placed in another person’s hand. It certainly draws less attention than erecting a radio transmitter, buying studio equipment and broadcasting live over closely monitored airwaves.
For a group of podcasters wanting to make their voices heard in Vietnam, pod-casting is ideal. The first Loa.fm podcast appeared in April 2015 and is produced by a global team of contributors, under editor Quyên Ngô. It is committed to covering “challenging stories, regardless of their level of political sensitivity”, and its largest audience share - a growing one, according to Ngô - is in Vietnam itself.
Ngô said Loa was established to meet “an unmet need for Vietnam-focused news that provides reliable content, nuanced perspectives and contextual insight in order to provide international audiences with a more complete picture of Vietnamese society, culture and people”.
Loa uses popular podcasting platforms, which are web-based outside Vietnam, and has had no problems with hosting or being blocked.
Like many podcasters operating in countries where freedom of speech is restricted, Loa has not explicitly sought permission from the authorities.
“We operate independent of state approval and we are in support of de-facto free media - voices that sit outside state control,” she said.
This is a common theme among podcasters in countries where media freedom is not a given. In Zimbabwe, Christopher Farai Charamba and Tawanda Henry Biti have produced the weekly Politics and Beyond podcast since the end of 2016. Char-amba works as a journalist for The Herald newspaper while Biti is a lawyer.
“We did not seek any approval to start Politics and Beyond, nor are we sure if we had to. We just started recording,” said Charamba.
He said they launched the podcast after noticing that Zimbabwe’s politics did not include young voices, either as participants or as commentators. Charamba and Biti come from political families. Charamba has links to the government and Zanu-PF, while Biti has familial affiliations to a former minister and now leader of an opposition party.
“This background influences our thinking and on occasion pits us at opposite ends of the political divide when discussing issues.
This naturally occurring balance gives us confidence in dealing with any number of issues that may arise,” said Charamba. “So far we haven’t had anything censored and haven’t had anyone challenge the content of the show.”
In recent podcasts, the pair have interviewed notable figures, including Noah Man-yika, who has presidential aspirations for the 2018 election. Although the interviewees and topics have been heard and discussed elsewhere, Charamba said the tone was unique.
“We discuss Zimbabwean politics in a manner that our generation can relate to,” he said. “We also have some access to political players in the country and saw it as a good opportunity to engage them and give our peers and generation the chance to hear what they have to say.”
Charamba admits they have had some technical challenges, however, such as electricity outages, slow internet connections and occasional difficulties connecting with guests on Skype or FaceTime.
Sinica, a weekly podcast on events in China hosted by long-time Beijing residents Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn, is also proving popular. It is currently downloaded more than 300,000 times a month. Gold-korn believes that because Sinica is produced in English and is audio-based rather than text-based, it tends to get past the censors, despite its strongly critical nature.
“In one, I called the Communist Party a bunch of fucking cunts,” said Goldkorn.
Podcasting has come a long way since 2004. Podcast-hosting platform Libsyn said it managed more than 4.6 billion downloads in 2016, up from 3.3 billion in 2015 and 2.6 billion in 2014. Edison Research has found that 24% of US consumers listen to podcasts at least once a month, up from 9% in 2008.
Arguably, podcasting’s Eureka moment came with the release of Serial in October 2014, which revisited the 1999 murder of Baltimore high school senior Hae Min Lee in depth. It was downloaded more than 80 million times.
Davy Sims, author of Podcasting for Community Organisations, said: “Podcasting had difficulty reaching a mass, generalist market because it lacked a leading brand. Then Serial came along and it was a phenomenal success. There was a bandwagon to jump on, something for people to talk about, and suddenly people wanted to know about podcasting.”
Consuming a podcast has become easier, too, most notably thanks to Apple updating its mobile operating system, iOS, to include a native, undeletable podcast app.
Podcasts are even making their way into North Korea (as reported in Index Summer 2015, 44.03, p.16), thanks to NK News and the Flash Drives for Freedom project, which was founded by the Human Rights Foundation and Forum 280. HRF’s Alex Gladstein said 20,000 USBs had entered North Korea in the past two years.
“Our partners already put podcast and radio material on to USBs. For example, the BBC’s upcoming North Korea broadcast will make for excellent content,” he said. “Through defector testimony and feedback from our partner networks, you get a very clear picture that outside information is in high demand.”
Podcasting DIY
“You start with the story and the passion to tell the story. Get to know your audience and understand what they want to hear,” said Davy Sims, author of Podcasting for Community Organisations, when discussing the first step to creating a podcast. You will quickly settle on the format that works best for you and your listeners.
“Interviews are powerful, and the simple one-on-one interview show, like Marc Maron’s WTF, is a key podcast form,” said The Guardian’s Jason Phipps. “If your subject is by default more communal, the round-table discussion makes more sense. Saying that, the powerful thing about pod-casting, and its advantage over radio, is its capacity to innovate different forms.”
But what about the equipment?
“If you are starting with no experience or knowledge, start cheap and learn. Invest later,” said Sims. For many people, this means using the voice-recording apps on their laptops or smartphones.
If you get bitten by the podcasting bug, you will want a proper digital recorder, such as a Tascam DR-100MKII or an Edirol Roland R-05HR; a good microphone, such as a Shure SM58 or a Rode Podcaster; and headphones.
Editing what you have recorded is an essential skill to learn. Audacity is a free audio editor with a great community of users willing to help newbies, while Apple users have GarageBand. Adobe Audition is for those who want to take podcasting to a more professional level.
“Aim for a consistent time and probably think in 20-minute segments. Listeners can put down an episode when the dog is walked or the bus has stopped and pick it up again next time,” said Sims. “Once a week is good. Perhaps have an occasional update between episodes if there is something worth saying.”
Once you have your beautifully recorded and edited podcast, it needs to be hosted somewhere. There are a number of platforms, including Blubrry, Libsyn, Podbean and Soundcloud. If your podcast is popular, you will want to host it on one of these rather than on your own site. They also offer detailed listener statistics, which could help you get sponsorship. Note that access to Soundcloud is restricted in China.
Then, once it’s out, reach as many people as possible by registering it in directories such as Apple Podcasts, using your own social media, message boards and mailing lists, and developing alliances with other relevant podcasts.