Podcast Landscape in Germany
Structural characteristics of the most popular podcasts in Germany
About the project:
From its beginning, the World Wide Web has been closely associated with the promise of expanded public participation in public communication (Voss, 2014). However, it was not until the emergence of so-called Web 2.0 that the technical infrastructure enabling such participatory engagement was fully realized (Nuernberg & Neuberger, 2018). This shift transformed previously passive audiences into active contributors, fostering new forms of online interaction. These developments have given rise to a range of social phenomena collectively referred to as grassroots communication (Mocigemba, 2006). Among the most prominent manifestations of this trend are weblogs and podcasts (Schmidt, 2006; Sullivan, 2019).
While weblogs have long been a subject of scholarly inquiry within communication science (Schmidt, 2006), podcasts have only recently begun to gain traction as a legitimate focus of academic research. Although studies on media consumption behaviors—particularly with regard to podcast usage—have become increasingly common (AS&S Radio, 2018; Frees & Koch, 2018; Perks & Turner, 2018; Beisch, Koch, & Schäfer, 2019; Frees, Kupferschmitt, & Müller, 2019; Mai, Meinzer, & Schröter, 2019; Perks, Turner, & Tollison, 2019; Agma, 2020; Chan-Olmsted & Wang, 2020; Wiethe, Rudeloff, & Tellkampf, 2020; Reichow & Schröter, 2020; Schlütz & Hedder, 2021), a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the structural characteristics of the podcast landscape remains notably absent.
This project aims to address this gap by conducting an initial systematic survey of the structural features of the most popular podcasts in Germany. The central research question is: How can the structure of the German podcast landscape be systematically described? Employing quantitative content analysis, the study will examine all podcasts ranked within the top 200 on both Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The findings will provide a foundational, empirically grounded understanding of the current state of the German podcast ecosystem, contributing to both theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of digital media and communication research.
Project Director:
Funding:
This research project is funded by the Standing Commission for Research and Scholars (FNK) at the University of Bamberg.
Duration:
April 2021 to December 2022