Calling for ‘Podo-gogy’: why podcasting needs to be a part of journalism education in India

Abstract

ABSTRACTNew forms and practices of journalism evolve and stabilize when they are socially, culturally and institutionally enabled [Bossio, Diana, and Jacob L. Nelson. 2021. “Reconsidering Innovation: Situating and Evaluating Change in Journalism.” Journalism Studies 22 (11): 1377–1381], signifying their acknowledgement in the triad of practice, academic research, and education. In the case of news podcasting, the practice is emerging in India, and so is academic research in the domain. However, the third vortex of education is largely missing in this case, as found in the course of the present research. This paper argues the need for podcasting to be included in the curricula of journalism schools in the Indian context.It presents the findings of 24 qualitative in-depth interviews with podcasting journalists and journalism educators in India, highlighting the need of including podcasting in curricula and the challenges to this. These two perspectives are then bridged to present a case for including news podcasting in the training of new journalists. The paper strongly argues that podcasting is a great value addition to journalism curricula, facilitating both aims of a journalism programme-employment and performing the normative function of journalism. Specifically, in India, this inclusion is necessary since news podcasting is a major way of reinventing audio journalism, which has been limited to only the public radio broadcasting.KEYWORDS: Audio journalismJournalism educationJournalistic podcastingNews podcasting Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsSneha Gore MehendaleSneha Gore Mehendale is a working journalist-turned-journalism educator from Pune, India. Her doctoral work traces the journalistic podcasting ecosystem in India and her broader research interests include digital journalism, sociology of news work, journalistic practices, digital content formats, media ethics and media and mental health. Sneha is also a Google News Initiative certified fact-checking and news verification trainer. When not teaching or researching journalism, she can be found reading, running long distances and working for heritage conservation.