Beyond the mic: How one class teaches ethical, purposeful podcasting
In a time when anyone can hit record and call it a podcast, one Virginia Tech professor is challenging students to dig deeper in blending research, audio production, and ethical journalism.
School of Communication Associate Professor Megan Duncan developed a class called Crimes, Cults, and Conspiracies in Podcasting to teach students essential skills in podcasting and audio production.
The class structures its curriculum around the three topics in its name – crimes, cults, and conspiracies. Students are divided into pairs and tasked with producing three podcast episodes for each of the topics plus a personal choice for their final project. The class combines theoretical content with the practical skills of creating podcast episodes.
Duncan explained the deeper focus of her class: podcasting ethics.
Why are podcasting ethics important for students to learn? What are the ethical considerations that student should know and practice?
There’s lots of criticism about true crime in American culture - the way it creates a mean world syndrome, the way it can glorify criminals or produce copycat crimes, and the way victims are treated with an afterthought. It can create a culture where we see fear around every doorknob and become cynical that people and society are good.
But millions of people enjoy hours of true crime content. Plenty of people have found lucrative careers in true crime media. So we should take this genre seriously. Think about it deeply. And push students to think critically about it so that the genre gets better.
Because of my philosophy, we read a lot of research and hear first-hand accounts from co-victims or people who watched the stories they lived be produced for other people’s entertainment. We listen to how they would like the stories of their loved ones or their trauma told. And we read research about how to tell these stories in ways that don’t perpetrate stereotypes, diminish the humans behind the stories, or lead people to a cynical worldview.
How are you addressing conspiracies and crime in the class?
I was apprehensive about creating the class because we're talking about topics like mass murder, self harm, or ones that might abridge upon ideas of religion. I don't want people to be harmed by the class in that you leave the class depressed. I also don't want to lead people down a path of joining a high control group or getting wrapped up in the conspiracy mindset. I want to be careful in showing students how to think critically about these different concepts.
Why is it important to learn podcasting skills?
I had the perception that a lot of students thought podcast skills were sitting down and just having a chat with your friend, but the ones that succeed are ones that have done a lot of research, a lot of prep work, and are well edited. There's a lot more that goes into a successful podcast, and a lot of those are journalistic skills – doing the background research, getting the interviews, making sure you have all of the facts right.
If you are going into a company or a corporate structure where you're doing their communication, so many companies are looking at podcasts as a way to do content marketing. Even if you never go make another podcast again, it's likely that you are going to be a podcast consumer.
After taking the class you will have better knowledge about how to be an ethical podcast consumer and how to think about the opportunities that you have to support good podcast journalism versus those who may listen carelessly.
Written by Anastasia Simonenko, communications intern for the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences
