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Abstract:
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This thesis began as an audience exploration into early adopters of “podcasting” technology through the journalistic radio program Latino USA , distributed by National Public Radio . An explosion in the use of this new media has changed the way radio networks distribute programming , yet little communications research has been done about the audience . This examination documents how podcast audiences are significantly younger and are both
substituting and supplementing traditional media . The study also determined that iPod users are significantly more likely to abandon CDs , listen to less radio , and watch less television as the industry converts from 20th Century analog to 21st Century digital technology . Qualitatively speaking , the podcast audience is highly
regarded , but quantitatively small . Despite producer expectations that podcasting is the digital mass media of the future , the data shows audiences to have interpersonal connections to podcasting . As such podcasting remains niche programming and not a true mass medium . |