Imitating the Conventions of a Podcast:

The Podcast project is an IMITATION project, which means you’re going to analyze some podcasts and focus on how, in general, a podcast is put together–then your group will imitate that when you create your own podcast. All podcasts have similar conventions–elements that we expect once we know it’s a podcast–as you listen to the podcast you’ve chosen, annotate not only for content, but also for the podcast conventions that you and your group might imitate in your own work. For example:

Is there a main host who facilitates all the conversations, asking questions and then chatting with guests, or is it more like a group of people all just talking about the same topic?

How does it start?

How are the speakers introduced?

• How long does each speaker talk about something before another speaker comes into the conversation?
• How much time is spend in back-and-forth conversation?
• Are there segments, or obvious breaks, between different sub-topics discussed in the podcast?
• How does the discussion move from one topic to the next?
• Is there music used, and how?
• Does Disney Still Have a Princess Problem?
• Hourgasm: Gender in Disney Films
• Captain America: Civil War and Gender Bias in Films

The Changing Face of Fandom: The Women of Marvel

• Hollywood Remixed: (Not) Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting, with Simu Liu

Beyond Shang-Chi: Superheroes, Masculinity, and Asian American Representation 

• INSTRUCTIONS FOR ANNOTATIONS

Begin your annotations with a header–the full title of the podcast.

• When you listen, focus on BOTH—-

CONTENT:

• Important ideas (main ideas and subtopics)

Evidence and development used in order to get the point across–Interesting stories, statistics, or quotes.

• CONVENTIONS:

How is the podcast put together? How is it organized? How does it move from one segment to the next–are there transitions?

• How does it start? Is there intro music? Does someone introduce the topic? How long is that intro? How are the speakers introduced?

How do the speakers interact–how long does each speaker talk?

Do speakers build on what the others say, do they disagree, how often does the host interject?

Do they address the audience? Are there questions taken from the audience?

How does it end? How do they make the conversation come to a satisfying conclusion? Are there credits? Music?

1. Make at least TEN (10) timestamp/summary annotations for the podcast as you are listening. Here is a formula to follow for your annotations:

Identify the timestamp of what you¥ making notes about.

Write 1-2 sentences to summarize what is being discussed at that time stamp, and if the annotation is about content, include a quotation somewhere in your summary. Look for quotations that you might want to use in your own podcast script–remember, this podcast can be one of your sources.

Cover both Content and Conventions (see #4 above); Of your 10 annotations, make sure that some have to do with the content and some have to do with the conventions of the podcast

• 3. After the 10 timestamp/summary annotations, write a paragraph (6-8 sentences) that:

Describes the podcast (give all the details: date, title and speakers);

• Summarizes the most important ideas discussed;

Summarizes some of the conventions of the podcast that you think your group might

want to follow; 

Make suggestions to your group members–

are there topics discussed that you think should be included in your group’s project?

• which elements in this podcast should your group use as models for your own project?
• Is the podcast so good in terms of how it discusses your group’s topic that they should take time to listen to it too as part of their own research for the project?