Spotlight on Podcast Producers
Participation in the Digital Public: Motivations, Self-Perception, and Job Profiles of German-Speaking Podcast Producers
About the project:
From the very beginning, the World Wide Web has been imbued with the vision of fostering broader public participation in public communication (Voss, 2014). However, it was only with the emergence of Web 2.0 that the technological prerequisites for such participatory engagement were effectively established (Nuernberg & Neuberger, 2018). This paradigm shift enabled individuals who had previously occupied solely passive roles as media consumers to assume active positions as content creators and communicators. This transformation has given rise to new forms of online interaction, commonly conceptualized under the "term grassroots" communication (Mocigemba, 2006). Among the most prominent expressions of this phenomenon are weblogs and podcasts (Schmidt, 2006; Sullivan, 2019).
While bloggers have been the subject of extensive research in communication studies (Schenk, Niemann, & Briehl, 2015), podcast producers remain a comparatively under-researched group, particularly within German-speaking academic contexts. To date, empirical studies on podcast creators in this region are scarce. The existing literature comprises only a few notable contributions: an early qualitative study by Dennis Mocigemba (2006) on the origins and practices of podcasting, and a media psychological investigation by Christiane Attig (2020), which primarily examines the personality traits of podcast producers. Beyond these two studies, there remains a significant gap in the literature regarding the motivations, self-perceptions, professional backgrounds, and occupational practices of podcast producers in German-speaking countries.
This project seeks to address this research gap by systematically investigating the sociodemographic profiles, motivations, self-conceptualizations, and professional roles of podcast producers in Germany. The study is guided by the following research questions: (1) Who are podcast producers in Germany? (2) What motivates individuals to create podcasts? (3) How do podcast producers perceive their own work? (4) What tasks do they perform in the production process?
Drawing on theoretical frameworks from research on journalists’ self-perception (Weischenberg, 1993; Weischenberg, Scholl, & Malik, 2006; Hanitzsch, Seethaler, & Wyss, 2019), this study positions podcast producers as key actors in the evolving landscape of digital public communication. Given the internet’s foundational promise of participatory media, both professional journalists and non-professional podcast creators play crucial roles in shaping public discourse online.
To answer these questions, the project employs a quantitative, questionnaire-based online survey. Participants will be recruited through automated data mining techniques, utilizing publicly available information on podcasts and contact details of producers obtained from major podcast platforms. This methodological approach enables a representative and systematic exploration of the podcast production landscape in Germany, contributing new empirical insights into the sociocultural and professional dimensions of digital content creation.
Project Directors:
Vera Katzenberger M.A., Jana Keil M.A., Dr. Michael Wild
Assistant:
Lea Hruschka
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