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

Sneha Gore Mehendale

New 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.

Sneha Gore Mehendale (2023) Calling for ‘Podo-gogy’: why podcasting needs to be a part of journalism education in India, Media Practice and Education, DOI: 10.1080/25741136.2023.2263825