Radio feature and podcasting, the awakening of a sleeping genre in Spain. The Podium Podcast study case

Abstract

During the last three decades, the feature, one of the richest and best adapted journalistic genres to the sound ecosystem, has been ruled out from the grids in the Spanish speech-based radio stations due to diverse reasons. Nevertheless, the end of this lethargy may take place due to the accelerated development of podcasting. Precisely, the journalistic offer of Podium Podcast, the global network of Spanish native podcast fostered by the PRISA Group, would be carrying out a remarkable role in this change of trend. Thus, in this paper, the study of how much of the raise of this new audio format would be influencing the retrieval of the feature, evaluating at the same time the offer of this platform according to this genre. For this, a mixed methodology, quantitative-qualitative, has been applied, with an extensive analysis of Podium Podcast’s feature propositions and an in-depth interview with its principal manager. As an outcome of this investigation, interesting results have been collected, from what concerns to the recuperation of this journalistic genre, to its renovation, since it’s transforming by incorporating techniques and characteristics from sound fiction or audiovisual field (cinema and television). Furthermore, interesting information about distribution techniques and the most frequent monetization schemes for this kind of productions has been obtained.