Week 5: Scholarly Source Synthesis

This week, I read the scholarly articles titled ​Pounds Off Digitally Study: A Randomized Podcasting Weight-Loss Intervention and Exploring Podcasting in Heredity and Evolution Teaching​. Both of these articles examine podcasting and health, which are two topics that intrigue me deeply. For the first article, a study was conducted that showed that in the United States of America, sixty-six point three percent of the adults who live there are either obese or overweight. The  study showed that these people are at a significantly higher risk of catching many different chronic diseases. In addition, it is stated that the main remedies for being obese and overweight are increasing physical activity, making changes to one's diet, and other modifications to one's behaviour. Most importantly, this is relevant to podcasting, as many researchers have been using the internet to deliver online podcast interventions. Lastly, this study is explained as  being broken into seven different sections. The first was the background, which is specified as being all about the following statement: "As obesity rates rise, new weight-loss methods are needed. Little is known about podcasting to promote weight loss, despite its growing popularity." The second was the design, which was that a twelve-week RCT was executed. The third were the setting/participants, where the study samples consisted of overweight women and men, who were from North Carolina, between the areas of Raleigh and Durham. The fourth was the intervention, where in 2008, the participants of this study were randomly chosen for 24 episodes of a weight-loss podcast that was available for a duration of twelve weeks. The fifth were the main outcome measures, wherein the weight of the participants was measured using a digital scale on a baseline and a follow-up afterwards. Both groups also filled out questionnaires that assessed demographic points, food intakes, physical activeness, and SCT constructs at both the beginning of the study and the meetings that occurred over the period of twelve weeks. The sixth were the results, in which the data collection and analysis happened in 2008, and an intention-to-treat was put to use. It was discovered that enhanced group participants had a greater decrease in their weight. Lastly, the seventh was the conclusion, which stated that the results of the study suggested that the use of behavioural, theory-based podcasting could very well be an effective way to promote losing weight.

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The second article was slightly different than the first one I read. The main difference is that while this  article, just like the former, involves human health, but focuses more so on how people respond to podcasts, as opposed to podcasting to study a different subject. This article investigates the podcasts that were first produced by the University of Minho during the first semester of 2008, made for the course of Heredity and Evolution, which was from the Biology and Geology Degree Program. This study was conducted for the following purposes: A) to introduce podcasts as pedagogical tools, B) to explore different podcast types and their lengths in teaching, and C) to evaluate the reception of students to the use of podcasts while learning. The way data was gathered was by using two different questionnaires that had previously been developed, which are known as the Digital Literacy Questionnaire (DLQ) and the Option Questionnaire (OQ). 8 podcasts were produced in total, where 5 were labelled as "informative," and the other 3 were labelled as podcasts with "feedback." All of the episodes were distributed to the students as audio files, and most of them had a rather short length of under five minutes. They were recorded either in a formal or informal style. After the episodes were produced, they were delivered to the students using the learning management system known as Blackboard. Results of this study showed that the podcasts the students felt were the best were the ones with summaries. While this article did not entertain me as much as the previous one, I still found it extremely enjoyable, nonetheless.

Reading both of these articles made me learn a tremendous amount about podcasting, and my knowledge on it is substantially higher than it was before. For example, I learned that audiences use podcasting in many different ways than the ways they use other media. For starters, they tend to use podcasting for educational purposes whereas they use other media solely for entertainment purposes. The medium states that podcasts have thrived because of how they deliver something that the internet and other forms of modern technology have not been particularly good at providing, and that is intimacy. Podcasts are very well-suited to cater to the personal preferences of listeners, and have made them continuously learn new things that no other medium has ever managed to make them accomplish. The only possible disadvantage is someone not having any kind of internet connection, but that is very rare, rendering this point somewhat moot. In addition, the particular kind of content that tends to be typical in podcasting is non-fictional information. Because of this, the particular kind of audience that tends to be drawn to podcasts involves people who are looking to learn new valuable factoids.  Podcasts generate income for producers through the money that is generated through streaming services, and it is usually only a sustainable business model if the podcast turns out to be very popular and generates many streams from the general population. Lastly, podcasting is used for education and public information by being broadcast to people who are both studying and looking to learn useful information that can improve both their book smarts and street smarts. Overall, doing this research was an extremely useful endeavour that was both stimulating and enjoyable for me, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

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Work Cited:

1. Almeida-Aguiar, Cristina, and Ana Amélia Carvalho. “Exploring Podcasting in Heredity and Evolution Teaching.” Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, vol. 44, no. 5, 2016, pp. 429–432., doi:10.1002/bmb.20965.

2. Seale, Shelley. “How Podcasts Became a Popular Medium.” State of Digital Publishing, State of Digital Publishing, 10 May 2019, www.stateofdigitalpublishing.com/content-strategy/podcasts-one-of-the-most-popular-mediums/.
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​3. Sullivan, John L. “The Platforms of Podcasting: Past and Present.” Social Media + Society, vol. 5, no. 4, 12 Dec. 2019, pp. 1–12., doi:10.1177/2056305119880002.