Production Log #1 - Content/Format Brainstorming
(AKA - Week One of podcast pre-production)
If you were to look for any resources about starting up your own podcast - whether they be online or in print format, most will typically discuss the following:
The importance of knowing your target audience, and having a clear idea on what the podcast format will be like.
The analogy of making podcasting as building a story in audio form is some thing that consistently shows up in a lot of the DIY guides to starting a podcast - which gives weight to how structured the whole process is, regardless as to whether some podcasts may seem completely unstructured at times. This certainly seems very much akin to putting on a drama production of sort for live radio - with or without ample rehearsals and the need of additional props, sounds, music and any-other-extraneous-elements-to-entertain-the-mass; but I digress...
Admittedly, I already came up with a basic layout almost simultaneously with the idea of running a MLIS-themed podcast back in June of this year. Looking back at my notes from that month, the only thing I had written about at first was literally these words:
Nerdist meets Library/Info Sci Nerds
Allow me to give you some context about that.
Prior to getting this grandiose notion of producing a podcast, most of my experiences with podcasts stemmed primarily from the Nerdist hosted by Chris Hardwick and friends (along with several of other podcasts from the same website), and the fictional - and pseudo-audio play Welcome to Night Vale series. I was particularly drawn to how the Nerdist is able to make use of just having an informal discussions between the guest and its hosts - so much so that I wanted to use a similar approach with MLIS research/professional work as the main focus instead.
This of course doesn't mean that there aren't any LIS podcasts out there; there are plenty of great ones out there - and some of them even featured in an article by Steve Thomas from American Libraries Magazine. But to my knowledge there aren't any that are run by MLIS students, and frankly I think that we as library/information professionals to-be do have ideas, opinions and general geekery to contribute in our field. But at any rate, ....
Of course, there's no hard-n-fast rule for developing the podcast's structure. From what I gather, the structural nature is really hugely dependent on what the producer aims to do with it. If anything, what a podcast great is that the process of creating is very much akin to an ongoing dynamic process - inviting its audience to participate in some way, shape or form in subsequent creations. So, it's quite likely that I'll still be tinkering with the general structure well after the first two/three podcasts.
- V.
TL:DR - Came up with a general layout for the podcast back in June of 2016. Borrowing the "informal chat" style used by the Nerdist podcast series, the plan is to have researchers/professionals in the field of LIS to come and talk on about their work. Students in the program will have the opportunity to participate as either guest speakers or facilitators.