Podcasts

A podcast is a production made from audio and video files which is then housed at a specific web address. The recorded material can then be downloaded and listened to on a variety of audio/visual devices, like ipods. The most distinguishing feature of a podcast is that eople can subscribe to a certain feed, housed on a website, by entering the web address into an "aggregator," such as itunes. From then on, whenever a new podcast is placed on the hosting site, it is automatically downloaded by the aggregator. With this system, it is important to realize that there is no "live" feed or broadcast, rather the podcast is pre-recorded - allowing the user to listen or watch on their own time either from their computer hard drive or on a portable device. Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.