[Commlist] Call for Papers International Symposium: The native podcast: understanding its development, questioning its future

** Call for Papers  International Symposium/****The native podcast: 
understanding its development, questioning its future****/ University 
Paris-Panthéon-Assas*

Institut Français de Presse, University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas

December 14-15, 2023, hall 214


For more details and PDF version of the CFP, see 
https://www.u-paris2.fr/fr/aac-le-podcast-natif-comprendre-son-essor-interroger-son-avenir 
<https://www.u-paris2.fr/fr/aac-le-podcast-natif-comprendre-son-essor-interroger-son-avenir>

**

*INSTRUCTIONS*

The expected proposals are up to *3,000 characters* long (excluding 
bibliography). Please attach to your proposal a brief biographical note 
specifying your affiliation. Proposals should be sent no later than 
*June 10, 2023* to the following address: (_obcast.carism /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(obcast.carism /at/ gmail.com)>_



**

*CONTEXT*

Although this media has existed for about twenty years, the podcast has 
only really taken off in France and in Europe in the last few years 
(Button, 2020), whereas on the other side of the Atlantic it is already 
well established. This growth in production and consumption has been 
encouraged by the delinearization of radio, by the invention of the RSS 
feed, and by the generalization of /smartphone/ equipment. It is 
materialized, in France, by the success of some emblematic titles such 
as "Transfert" (/Slate audio/, 2016), "La poudre " (/New listens/, 
2016), or "Les couilles sur la table " (/Binge Audio/, 2018) on the 
native podcast side, or by the replay podcasts of the major radio 
stations ("2,000 ans d’histoire", /France Inter/; "Les Grosses têtes ", 
/RTL/).

For amateurs as well as for sound professionals, we observe a strong 
craze for this media these last years: to inform; to entertain; to 
spread knowledge; to promote institutions, brands, groups; to militate. 
However, the podcast, a digital audio file that can be downloaded and 
listened to on the move, is not a recent invention. The first 
professional initiatives in France date back to 2002 with the creation 
of /Arte Radio/ and at this same period (years 2000-2010), the digital 
audio universe was already teeming with numerous experiments, as 
Juliette Volcler (2018) has shown. Podcasting, especially educational, 
was the subject of initial research in Canada and the United States as 
early as 2005 (Campbell, 2005; Weiss-Lambrou, 2007).

The more recent period of development of the podcast (past its use as 
catch-up radio) would therefore only be a second, or even a third time 
in its history, which it is already possible to identify (Bottomley, 
2015; Cohen, 2019). Regarding native news podcasts (not previously 
broadcast in a linear fashion), the Obcast database helps to show that 
the boom began in France in 2017 and really took off from 2018, with an 
increasing number of podcast titles produced by the media each year 
(Lesaunier, Di Sciullo, Mercier, 2022). It is therefore appropriate to 
question the reasons for this success offset compared to the emergence 
of this technical device, partly heir to radio (Gago, 2006; Berry, 2016; 
Equoy Hutin & Deleu, 2019; Poulain, 2022).

*REASONS FOR THE BOOM*

One of the keys to understanding is undoubtedly to look for the side of 
the democratic imagination that accompanies the podcast, both from the 
point of view of thematic and formal potentialities as well as technical 
and economic dimensions.

*1° Democratization of the access to the public word*. The podcast is 
surrounded by many democratic ideals regarding the thematic and formal 
potentialities it offers: recourse to in-depth testimony and enrichment 
of the transmitted information compared to the media emergency, with a 
greater editorial freedom; possibilities to make alternative or militant 
speeches heard, with an ease to be able to give voice to the voiceless, 
to tackle taboo subjects; conception of hybrid formats with an assumed 
subjectivity well accepted by the audiences; promise of an à la carte 
consumption, in mobility, that would renew the uses of the radio, while 
putting sound in the spotlight.

**

*            2° Valuation of the subjective word and place offered to 
the intimacy. *Whether on the side of its "producers" or on the side of 
the guests who express themselves, the "I", the experience and the 
subjective point of view, the particular case, the intimacy are often 
central. The podcast is often associated with the idea, even the ideal 
of an easier evocation of intimacy for the interviewees and an increased 
feeling of proximity with the listeners. In that, it represents a 
specific device of enunciation (rather of the "me to you") which 
contrasts with that of the radio (rather of the "us to you"). It is part 
of a trilogy: /"broadcast, narrowcast/, podcast". The tone, the 
vocabulary, the contents of the podcast, as of the contemporary radio, 
significantly changed during these last twenty years. We can think that 
this subjectivity of the podcast is not without incidence on its 
reception and its success.

**

*3° A technical achievement that seems accessible to everyone.*The 
feeling of democratization is strengthened by the perception, by those 
who use it, of a certain technical ease to produce episodes. This places 
the podcast in the participatory and democratic imaginary of the digital 
world. If a polished and careful work can be relatively expensive to 
produce, requiring own skills, anyone can nevertheless record audio and 
put it online easily, as long as one is equipped with a /smartphone/. 
There are several players providing beginners and professionals alike 
with more or less free tools for managing the distribution of podcasts 
/(Acast, Soundcloud)/, but also for creation (recording, editing), such 
as Anchor or Vib3S, a French platform launched in 2022. In this sense, 
the podcast relates to the phenomenon already observed of /User 
Generated Content/, i.e., the production of multimedia content by 
amateur users facilitated by digital technology (Chantepie, Le Diberder, 
2010, Markman, 2011). Likewise, the original technology on which the 
distribution of podcasts is based, the RSS feed, accentuates the ideal 
of sharing, in that it makes it difficult to put brakes on the 
circulation of audio files (Hurard report, 2020).

*4° A craze from an economic and strategic point of view.*Various 
players are experimenting with podcasts, sometimes in a logic of 
diversification of audiences (traditional media in particular), 
sometimes in a context of /digital advertising/ driven by the marketing 
practice of /brand content/. Branded podcasts and /sponsoring /have thus 
emerged as the main revenue vectors for producers (studios or media). 
Intermediaries specialized in podcasts are positioning themselves on the 
advertising market and we are already witnessing concentration 
movements. We also find many actors who do not necessarily intend to 
monetize their podcast productions, but who want to use this medium to 
complete the range of their communication tools, knowing that it is 
adjusted to certain specific objectives (targeting a young public; 
maintaining a modern and "cool" image; but also discreet broadcasting to 
make it a counter public space to express morally condemnable ideas). 
This may concern activist networks, public organizations, private 
companies, universities (especially for educational use), /etc./

  If the international situation deserves just as much specific 
attention, it already appears that in France, it is a whole ecosystem 
that has been emerging for a few years, structured around four types of 
players: creators, producers, technical hosts, and aggregators. At the 
same time, we see the emergence of traces of an institutionalization of 
the sector, via the creation of unions (the Union of Independent Audio 
Producers (PIA) – founded in 2020), festivals (the Paris Podcast 
Festival is created in 2018, the Printemps of Podcast in 2020), 
specialized media (launch of /Podmust/ in 2018, /Podcast magazine/ in 
2022, or in 2017 of P/odnews/ on the English side) cultural reviews 
entirely dedicated to podcasts (the "radio" pages of /Télérama/ are 
opening up to podcasts, and podcasts on podcasts, such as "Without algo 
" on /Slate audio/, are becoming more and more numerous), the setting up 
of observatories to analyze podcasts (the Arcom observatory announced in 
the winter of 2022 and the Obcast research program created in the fall 
of 2021 at IFP).

In the academic world, we see flourishing in recent years training in 
the realization of podcasts, Master's theses on podcasts, dissertations 
in audio format ... All these phenomena clearly indicate that the 
podcast has become a media support and a cultural object visible and 
legitimate.

*OBJECTIVES OF THE SYMPOSIUM*

*It is to this work of visibility and legitimization of the podcast and 
to this all-round commitment of multiple actors, and in particular 
information actors, that this symposium is dedicated, questioning past 
choices, present adventures and future prospects. This booming ecosystem 
indeed deserves to be questioned because, both from the point of view of 
supply and demand, the podcast remains a niche.*

*On the supply side*, we have been able to observe, for example, in the 
print media that although many editorial offices have launched on the 
podcast, an overwhelming majority have not (yet?) invested the sector. 
Only half of the regional daily press titles produce podcasts, and less 
than 30% of the magazine press titles. In addition, the viable economic 
model for the podcast remains to be found. The issue of the fair 
measurement of listening, with a view to monetization in a two-sided 
market, continues to affect the sector. Finally, the "coronation of the 
amateur " (Flichy, 2010) mentioned above, is also to be questioned, 
insofar as the main studios were founded by actors who already enjoyed a 
certain reputation, where the podcasts that work best are /replay/ 
programs, where we observe concentration movements (Bonini, 2015 ; 
Sullivan, 2019), where the issue of discoverability of podcasts in the 
face of the ocean of productions also requires means and know-how 
(Clifton and /al/, 2020; Morris, 2021). Many enthusiastic actors, 
therefore, but few who monetize, and a majority who do not take part in 
the ecosystem.

**

*On the consumer side*, 70% of French men and women do not listen to 
native podcasts, 30% of whom simply do not know that this format exists 
(CSA/Havas survey, 2022). In addition, the different studies that have 
focused on the profile of consumers of podcasts highlight a very 
specific profile, niche, far from a democratic ideal yet carried by the 
podcast. The typical user is young, urban, hyperconnected to social 
networks and a multi-media consumer: music streaming, TV series, 
television, print media, books /(Ibid.)/.

Lastly, *on the side of the contents*, the imaginary of intimacy linked 
to the podcast is to be reinscribed in a media genealogy, since intimacy 
on the airwaves is far from having started with the podcast (radio 
programs like "Hello Menie!" on RTL). In the same way, the democratic 
imaginary of the podcast is also to be questioned and recontextualized, 
so much it is true that many other media (free radios, local TV...) have 
already been invested with similar hopes.

*In other parts of the world*, podcasts also seem to be consolidating, 
or even already well established in some national media landscapes, like 
in the United States where 79% of the population is familiar with 
podcasts, 62% have listened to a podcast, and 38% have listened to one 
in the past month (Statista, 2023). In Europe, podcast listening also 
appears to be growing exponentially: up 52% in the UK, 64% in Germany, 
244% in Italy and 298% in Spain (Spotify, 2022). Taking into account 
what is happening elsewhere seems to us to be able to shed light on the 
state of the French podcast market, which we take as a central but not 
exclusive focus. Monographs from other regions of the world or 
international comparisons by invited foreign researchers (United States, 
Canada, Australia...) will thus mark the symposium.


*EXPECTED PROPOSALS *

*So the question is: where is the podcast going in France and Europe? 
Why, when it does not present a major disruptive innovation and has been 
around for a long time, has the podcast recently developed so quickly 
and so strongly? How can we explain the social, economic and 
technological drivers and challenges of this success and its ambivalences?*

*This call for papers aims to encourage proposals that will shed light 
on some of the social issues and logics at work. A particular attention 
on the information podcasts is wished for a part of the proposals*. The 
Podcast Observatory considers that the study of podcasts is not intended 
to become the prerogative of a few specialists, even if we can only be 
delighted that /podcast studies/ are being organized at the 
international level (_https://podcaststudies.org/ 
<https://podcaststudies.org/>_), but encourages all researchers to study 
this medium as an additional corpus in the range of all the media and 
means of expression that different social actors use. The podcast can 
therefore be the subject of a communication in our symposium for 
specialists : sociology of mobilizations; political rhetoric; brand 
marketing; media economics; anthropology of reception; journalism or 
ICTE studies; popular science; discourse studies on history or 
literature; semio-discursive analysis of sound formats; gender studies; 
media and communication law... All disciplines are potentially concerned 
and this colloquium hopes to be the proof of it thanks to the diversity 
of the proposals received and accepted.**

*We expect the papers, whatever their theme and methodological approach, 
to bring elements of response to the two questions that drive this 
symposium: How to explain the rise of the native podcast? What is the 
future for this medium (to remain a niche or to become widespread)?*

The proposed communications may be related to one or more of the 
following themes (indicative and non-exhaustive list)

-Overview of the actors investing in the podcast: traditional media, 
specialized studios, listening platforms, brands, universities, public 
institutions, activist networks, /etc/.

-Analysis of the speeches on the podcast: mythology, idealization, 
imaginary of the podcast

-Study of the socio-professional dynamics of the production of native 
podcasts, especially for information

-Narrative modes, formats, press genres

-Economic model of the native podcast: business models, intermediation 
chain, role of listening platforms, technologies, reception

-Podcast and branding for companies and institutions

-Mediation and transmission of knowledge, the podcast as an educational tool

-Elective affinities of the podcast with certain themes (sexuality, taboos)

-Podcast, activism and public issues

-Podcast as a visibility tool for communities

-Podcast and the radio: hybridization and remediation

-Regulation, copyright, ethical and legal issues

**

*CALENDAR *

Deadline for submission of proposals: June 10

Return to the authors after evaluation: July 15

Sending of the written version of the papers for the conference 
proceedings: November 30th

Holding of the symposium: December 14-15, 2023

Publication of proceedings: First half of 2024

**

*Organizing committee*

Flore Di Sciullo, postdoctorante au CARISM, programme Obcast

Marie-Eva Lesaunier, postdoctorante au CARISM, programme Obcast

Arnaud Mercier, professeur à l’IFP, responsable du programme Obcast

*Scientific committee*

Lucie ALEXIS — Université Grenoble Alpes

Maëlle BAZIN — Université Paris Panthéon-Assas

Hélène BOURDELOIE — Université Sorbonne Paris Nord

Marie-France CHAMBAT-HOUILLON — Université Paris Panthéon-Assas

Christophe DELEU — Université de Strasbourg

Flore DI SCIULLO — Université Paris Panthéon-Assas

Pauline ESCANDE-GAUQUIÉ — Université Sorbonne Université

Hervé GLEVAREC — CNRS CERLIS

Agnès GRANCHET— Université Paris Panthéon-Assas

Marie-Eva LESAUNIER — Université Paris Panthéon-Assas

Tristan MATTELART — Université Paris Panthéon-Assas

Cécile MÉADEL — Université Paris Panthéon-Assas

Arnaud MERCIER — Université Paris Panthéon-Assas

Sophie NOËL — Université Paris Panthéon-Assas

Chloë SALLES — Université Grenoble Alpes

Brigitte SEBBAH — Université de Toulouse 1

Nathalie SONNAC — Université Paris Panthéon-Assas



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