Reprobates and bloggers - The Digital Edge Podcast

I'm still not convinced by the validity of the Podcast in the local market. Yet Saul and Jarred continue to try and prove me wrong. They've been doing a relatively good job of it lately and even went as far as to invite me on to the latest episode of the Digital Edge.You can download it or listen to it live by heading over to the Digital Edge website.From the site:

We speak to Nic Haralambous of SA Rocks, Seth Rotherham of 2Oceansvibe, Exmi from Expensive Mistakes Cheap Thrills, Shaun Oakes of Shaun Oakes.com, Jason Bagley from the Incredible Connection blog and finally Se7en from Se7en.org. We round up that line up with a summary of the blogosphere by Justin Hartman, head of blog aggregator Afrigator.

Nothing particularly groundbreaking came out of the bloggers interviews: We are all egotistical, we all like to win stuff, we all brag, blah blah blah. It's riveting blogger "Days of our living lives online" sorta stuff.Definitely worth listening to. Do it.And thanks to Saul and Jarred for having me on the show. Always a good boost to the ego hey?!

Are podcasts useful?

Yes, I think podcasts are useful in fact, I think podcasting can be an extremely useful mechanism for relaying a message, point, story or event.I found a post on podcasting being dead or alive through one of Eve's blogs. I must say I immediately sprang to blog about it because I recently made use of podcasting as a citizen journalism media.Admittedly I focus much of my thought around social media and web 2.0 on how it affects the mass media on the whole and how the "little person" or Citizen Journalist can benefit from the trends emerging at the moment.

Early Adoption failed me

Podcasting really caught my attention and I tried my hand at it on SA Rocks and the RocksCast. Must like Dave and Mike with their Amplitude, SA RocksCast died.I think that I tried to jump on the bandwagon and appear to be an "early adopter" with my attempt at podcasting. I didn't really grasp the media platform itself nor fully understand how to market or create these podcasts effectively. So it died a quick death.Vincent Maher and I also tried our hand at a podcasting targeting the local sphere. Flamebait was short lived because we were a bit zealous in our approach to the content and it was shot down by editorial staff. Oh well. Needless to say the actual media itself still intrigues me.So are podcasts dead? No, I don't think so. Taly Weiss brings up a good point regarding the technology behind podcasting. If it is there then podcasting itself is not dead. In other words, if we have iPods and media players that are capable of storing and playing back podcasts then the media is not dead. But that isn't really always true. I still have a VHS player, that doesn't mean that VHS isn't dead, it is. And if you think it isn't, trust me it's on the way to the grave.

Podcasting and Citizen Journalism

While on a mission at the Million Man March this year I discovered that one doesn't need to consistently make use of a specific type of media for it to be effective.While making use of various platforms to update people about the event I was asked to do a podcast interview over the phone for The Times. What a great idea. One of their journalists called me and did a short (one or two minute) interview with me about the event.This proved to be a very effective means to get my message across. Yes it was for a big media organisation so that helped ofcourse. But the essence of that instance made sense to me. Why do we have to produce a podcast every week, month, day etc etc. When all that is really needed is an event or story to make a great podcast.Grassroots media or citizen journalists can really produce viable content for their websites over the phone with simple technology. Use a digital dictaphone, if fact, use the recorder on your cell phone, make sure you are succinct in your 3 minutes and publish it as is.Rally your media around events, don't make an event out of your media.

The Times And Video Embedding

I am curious to know if The Times is going to be releasing their video for other sites/blogs to embed?I know that their are some contentious issues surrounding this topic, however I do feel that it would definitely help to promote The Times and their multimedia team. I think that The Times is doing a great job with their new media ventures and holistic approach to media integration.Surely it must be somewhat beneficial to release their video production in order to enable others to embed the videos? Would it not be beneficial for SA Rocks to feature the latest video from The Times on the Lion King production? I think it would. This is not possible at this time however, unless I am missing something?If I am missing something could someone please let me know so I can catch up?!Since I am talking about The Times and I haven't made an attempt at blogging about the topic yet, here goes:The Times is meant to be an integrated platform for readers to access hyperlinks, video, podcasts, photographs, written stories and more. Why then, is it so difficult to access the multimedia aspect of the website? Yes you can tell me to click on the "Multimedia" tab in the navigation menu, fantastic, and then? Then you have a long list of video stories that appear but no video. You need to then click on the headline of the story and get to the story page and then search for the video which is tucked away in the top corner away from the main body of the story. The video is also strategically placed above an advert of some sorts to fool you in to thinking it's an advert.I am not an all knowing web designer/users but I know what I like and this is not it. I would like to see the main video placed within the body of the text, top or bottom and possible on the left of the screen as the main feature, since I am viewing what is coined as a video story.The Podcasts on The Times website are even more difficult to find. After clicking the main "multimedia" tab in the nav menu you then have to strain your eyes to find the submenu containing the podcast link which takes you to a blog format website. Why are the podcasts not featured on the main site?There are vodcasts on the podcasts page which I find somewhat strange. I really love the content on the site, I think that the media producers are doing a phenomenal job, as are the eds and the rest of the team so don't think that I am slating, I am just interested that's all.