Podcast

— Podcasts. It provides updates and breakdowns of current events, henceforth, if we desire to mitigate this social issue of gender inequality, we believe that podcasting is the best way to accomplish that goal. Podcasts are an attractive way for someone to educate themselves on a subject matter as they are much less daunting than textbooks. Generation Z is contributing a lot to the rise in the popularity of podcasting as they like to stay on top of what is happening in the world relevant to their subjects of interest.

Being part of Gen Z, we CAN NOT survive a day without the internet, and yet at the same time, podcasts are accessed via the internet! Therefore, there would not be a single problem in listening to different podcasts. Underneath this paragraph lies why podcasts are recommended today :

➥ As podcasts usually don’t show the hosts’ faces, good sound quality is indeed important.
⌦ The sound quality is a must audience need! It is given that the audience will be listening all throughout the episode, thus, it should be ensured that the audio can be clearly heard. If the voice of the host is overpowered by the background music, that’s a problem. If the voice of the host is muffled and hard to understand, that’s another problem. If the voice of the host is barely heard even with maximum volume, that leads to another problem. In terms of sound, a lot of complications may arise, henceforth, checking your podcast episode before uploading is included in every podcaster’s to-do list. Sound Quality is a perceptual reaction to the sound of a product that reflects the listener's reaction to how acceptable the sound of that product is: the more acceptable, the greater the SQ. Gathering the points explained above, just shows how essential the audio quality is in podcasts to both the audience and the podcasters as it determines the success of the content.

➥ Engage with Your Audience.
⌦ Engagement is a crucial thing in podcasts, that’s what makes the audience stay in a 30-minute-long episode or even longer! Make them feel like they’re in the room with you! Don’t tell them about what they “will hear” or how “great the interview was”. Don’t tell them how the episode would go! Instead, let them discover it along with you, in “their” moment. This helps your listeners to feel like they are right there with you, listening to the interview for the very first time as it is happening. Although this is not true, it definitely creates a much more life-like atmosphere and draws your listeners into the crucial and sometimes intimate conversations of your podcast. Most importantly, think of your listener as a third person listening to your conversation, not a crowd of people listening to your conversation. This creates a one-on-one feel, inviting them into the conversation with you to go on the journey together! The audience NEEDS engagement, that’s their driving force to continue.

➥ Silver - Tongued. Good with words. Well-spoken.
⌦ As a listener of podcasts, it is not a requirement to be good with words but it is a bonus if the speaker knows their way with eloquence, with words. It’s such a good feeling if the host knew what they were talking about, what they’re trying to address, and the flow of their dialogue. Being silver-tongued delivers the message that one is very informed and very knowledgeable of their subject, thus, it would be much easier for their audience to grasp what they’re conveying, for their audience to easily follow the discussion. The challenge here is what to say to keep your audience engaged and convince them to subscribe to your podcast. Most can speak but not everyone can be engaging. The audience needs a host with good communication skills to keep them glued in their podcasts! To conclude, though it is not really a necessity for podcasters, to gain a wider audience, one must be really good at expressing their opinions and delivering their words.

➥ A clear topic.
⌦ In a podcast, there may be one decided general topic and multiple subtopics which are called the ‘episodes’. In each episode, a new discussion is opened! New insights are brought to light, and new experiences are shared. With that being said, these subtopics should still correspond to the main topic. If your content is all about daily reminders of grace, therefore, what you tackle must only linger around that topic. In our case, our general topic is talking about gender inequality / gender gap in generation z, which means we must connect and limit what we blurt out in the podcast. This gives clarity to the viewers which they need to continue listening to your episodes! Without clarity, if the sequence of events doesn’t match, most likely your audience would halt and set your podcast aside. The significance of a clear topic is to have your audiences engaged, and not lost in your own world.

➥ Telling stories.
⌦ Podcasting makes storytelling alive and kicking! In podcasts, you don’t do math problems or explain the difference between meiosis and mitosis, podcasters tell a story! And the audience remembers them for it. Your listeners will not quote you for giving accurate statistics on particular matters, but they will remember how you overcame such limitations set upon you due to your gender, right? They remember you, not for your name, but for your passionate deliverance of life obstacles you’ve encountered. When people can relate to your pain, hear the authenticity in your voice, and remember how you made them feel in your stories, these stories stick with your listeners. That’s how they remember you. This is a need for the audience as with storytelling, you make them feel involved in your story somehow. Be casual, be relaxed. This is not a college interview that determines whether you’re going to your dream university or not, this is more like catching up with an old friend you’ve passed by the street. The audience needs your sincerity and can sense your naturality.

➥ When the host is not the hero.
⌦ A story can easily be the host’s fantasy. Audiences don’t need make-up stories wherein the spotlight is always on the storyteller. What they need is a real person, who can be accountable, who can be vulnerable whilst sharing their life experiences. They do not need a hero who saves the day! The host’s role is not to be the superstar, not to be the hero, but to be the guide who imparts wisdom and knowledge gained through encounters and learning. Their role is to open the minds of their listeners to possible solutions to their problems and give them options in their quest to achieve something. One can always be a hero in another story, but heroes do not call themselves heroes. It is not one’s job to prove themselves to their audience, all they need is to inspire and aspire.

➥ Enthusiasm.
⌦ The viewers need enthusiasm, excitement in the podcaster’s voice, passion and love! Even if the audience doesn’t see the person behind the voice they hear, they know whether or not the host is smiling during the recording. Yes, one can “hear” the smile in your voice and in the manner you speak. What the listeners want is for podcasters to show them that they are genuinely excited about being able to help and, no matter how small, to make an impact in their lives.

Enthusiasm is indeed very contagious and that is what you want to “infect” your audience with - your enthusiasm to find answers to questions, to not give up, and for them to carry on. The podcast can serve as a guide for the audience towards where the sunshine is. A podcaster must love what they do, which is being of service to others, being a role model, and being an encourager. Be enthusiastic.

➥ Confidence.
⌦ Knowledge comes with confidence. If you know your subject thoroughly, if you have subject authority, thus, confidence would come naturally. Viewers need a host that is confident, and not shy. They need someone who they can trust, and not someone who’s unsure of the information they’re exclaiming. With our topic, research is not really required to gain perspective on it, it’s all dependent on one’s observation and perception of gender inequality in their generation. As a teenager who’s observing open-mindedness, I can expound my insights regarding this topic with complete confidence. That’s an example of what the audience needs. With regards to our topic, they do not want nervousness due to thinking if the researched statistics were wrong, they want the confidence that comes along with every story told, and every experience shared.

Podcasters don’t feel the need to shout or scream or force you to hear what they have to say. There is a sense that they know what they’re doing, and they ‘belong’, like they know they have something worth listening to. And this is an attractive quality for listeners.

➥ Willingness to Learn — Open-Mindedness.
⌦ As gender inequality continues to be an issue that not everyone wants to hear about, willingness to learn, incorporate and absorb information from our podcast is a must. The public may not categorize this as an issue needed to be addressed but according to the respondents of our survey, all of them agreed that gender inequality is an important issue that we, as a community, must address. Having that said, it is quite a need for the audience to be open-minded since not every experience is familiar to them, and not every opinion is in favour of them. There is very little worse than listening to a host or even having an audience who thinks they know it all. With podcasting, not only does the audience learn from the host but a great host is one who is willing to learn from those around them.

➥ A Great Inspiring Voice.
⌦ This does not mean your voice should sound like rainbows and butterflies, it simply means we can hone our voice, strengthen those vocal cords, practice our breathing, work on a pleasing cadence, and find a voice that’s all our own! That’s how we define a great voice. Podcast listeners need a strong voice which can shut the negative voices in their heads down, they need someone who uses their voice as a power to create a change in society. Your voice is like a muscle, the more you train it, the more refined and developed it becomes. And a great podcast host recognizes this and puts in the work to make their voice the best that it can be.

➥ No to Information Overload.
⌦ Podcast hosts are casual, like having coffee with a friend at a nearby coffee shop, and not college professors that are giving a lecture! What the podcast audience need is a calming environment, a relaxing ambience from the podcast they’re listening to. The last thing they’d like to feel is being overwhelmed with such information as if it’s the last episode in the podcast ever uploaded. A lot of people use podcasts to make them feel at ease, at home! Great podcast hosts know that podcasts are not all about shoving information down your listeners’ throats…or rather, pushing it down their ears. People tend to remember a good story than a lot of facts and statistics combined.

Anyone should know how to strike a balance between valuable information and engaging conversation. Everyone desires to have a great teacher, and podcast hosts must train to be one. Great podcast hosts are very much comparable to great teachers, they find unique ways to share their stories, impart their information, or drive home their core message. Exactly what the audience needs.

➥ Has Empathy, Has a Deep Understanding of their Audience.
⌦ When you do a podcast, you also need to build an effective relationship with your audience. As a person, I won’t listen to anyone who doesn’t even make an effort to understand how I feel, to understand who I am as a human being. So why should podcast listeners listen to a host who doesn’t have empathy towards their only audience? The audience needs a host who knows them. How else can a host consistently give them the type of content they’re looking for? A podcaster needs to know them like how one knows their best friend. Know what guests they’ll love, what new segments will resonate with them, or what questions they would want you to ask your guests, or answer in your content! By knowing your audience sincerely, you’ll be more exposed to what they need and what they want. They’re the people who notice things you don’t, thus, take them seriously.

➥ Seek the best guests.
⌦ The podcast audience needs the best guests! Especially if we’re connecting podcasting and our take on gender inequality, not only would they need the best, but the most accurate guest for the subject. If we decided to talk about the encounters of generation z with gender inequality, we won’t invite our grandparents, will we? Even so, if that would be the case, we need the most suitable gen z as our best guest! There must be qualifications and observations done before the recording of the episode to guarantee the satisfaction of our listeners. We can’t possibly just drag a random gen z stranger and have a chat with them all of a sudden! To ensure the best of the bests, we need someone who’s exposed to inequality that’s happening in education and household, someone who can define gender inequality on its own, and someone who can share personal experiences and opinions on the topic.

Great hosts know that great guests can make their show great! But they also know that a bad guest can tank their downloads, or worse, their follower/subscriber numbers. Guests also need to add value to your audience. If they are inexperienced with the podcasting format, or poor communicators, perhaps they’re not the right guest for right now. Consider that even if someone has asked to be featured on your show, you need to contemplate whether or not they are the right fit! Remember, a great host knows their audience! In times like these, think about what they want. Is this guest going to help them and provide them with the information they need? If the answer is “no”, don’t be afraid to decline their offer.

➥ Respectful Debates.
⌦ It is a matter of fact that debates add fuel to the fire! It’s exciting and gives the audience the “chills” they’re finding. The research we’re currently conducting is a comparative study, henceforth, a component of debates can be clearly seen! Our research can be compared to debates on paper, however, once we launch this podcast, we can put those debates into action! Although, bear in mind that great podcast hosts are able to encourage and facilitate debates with calmness and respect.

➥ Killer Episode Titles.
⌦ That’s what draws the attention of audiences, or better, NEW audiences! With great episode titles, they become curious, they become thrilled to listen to your episodes! A killer episode title is their first impression of your episode! The grander it is, the more will it attract. Besides, the title determines if one wants to listen to the entire episode or not, therefore the audience needs an awe-inspiring title for them to know whether they’ll spend time for it or not.

➥ Consistency, Schedule and Time-Management.
⌦ With podcasting, you can’t simply upload an episode and leave it as it is. The audience needs your consistency in producing content, the audience needs your commitment, and they need to know your schedule in uploading! You can’t keep them waiting for your uploads, if so, then simply update them with the reason why you can’t upload for the week or why your episode is delayed! Here comes time management in the recording.

Time management is necessary for podcasting. We all know that, yes, it’s enjoyable to watch or hear an episode but it takes a lot of work to produce a quality show on a regular basis. If you promise new content on a particular day of the week, you have to deliver. A number of podcasters release new episodes weekly or twice a week, so just imagine the effort they put into that. This means the host must be able to put out episodes on a regular, consistent basis. One of the best ways to do this is to plan a publishing schedule – and then make sure to meet the deadlines! A consistent publishing schedule is one of the keys, but often overlooked, ways to gain traction and momentum in the podcast industry, as well as help podcasters gain and build a loyal fan base. Having a good schedule which is realistic produces time management! Having that laid out, you’ll be able to have a smooth journey as a podcaster, and your audience would have something to enjoy listening to!

➥ Exceptional Questions.
⌦ Questions are truly powerful! Questions make the audience feel that they’re involved in the scenario, questions have the power to create an impact on the audience that stays with them for a long while! That’s how much power questions hold. They allow communication, exchange of ideas, formation of new innovative solutions, and a lot more! Questions that are fun and engaging are what the viewers seek. Furthermore, it gives podcasters the opportunity to enter into their audience’s mindset and get unique insights that they have never heard before!

Formulating questions is never easy, based on personal experience in creating our research questions, but we shall always start with step 1 — genuine curiosity. If you are really interested to learn more about your subject, you will find yourself asking the same questions that your audience wants to learn.

➥ The Overall Quality.
⌦ What’s good quality audio with bad quality content? The viewers need the highest quality that you can offer, in all aspects of podcasting! When we talk about “quality”, we’re not just talking about the quality of your show’s content, but also the quality of your sound and the audio production as a whole. Make sure that you’re getting the best quality recording you can, and that you’re putting effort into your editing and sound mixing. Listeners will keep coming back for more if your show sounds pleasing and professional, as well as is chock-full of valuable content.

If you want your podcast to stand out from the crowd, then it is essential that you always strive to create high-quality, valuable content. If your episodes are full of sound information, golden nuggets of wisdom, and eye-opening insights, you’ll be the first place your listeners go for answers or advice. Take great care to ensure that each and every episode you create is of high quality and you will find that your show’s reputation will grow in leaps and bounds. The higher the quality you produce, the more will it benefit you and your listeners.

➥ Keeping It Fresh.
⌦ It may be hard to maintain a podcast fresh, however, there is a huge difference between consistent and boring. There are many things you can do to keep your show feeling fresh! This may mean periodically introducing new segments or occasionally changing your format. It can also mean aiming for innovation by trying new things on your show or putting a new spin on a fan favourite. Ensuring that you’re always looking for ways to be innovative and inventive with your show, you will keep your listeners tuning in to your show and recommending your podcast to others because they are excited by what you offer. By keeping it fresh, the audience would not get sick of your episodes due to new plot twists and exciting discussions! Comparing it to a relationship, it means having that “spark” always between a podcaster and the audience. Without that spark, things may seem dull, may seem not motivating, or not inspiring at all. That can cost a podcaster their whole podcasting career.

➥ Awareness.
⌦ Podcasts target raising awareness and bringing updates on recent issues and on recent happenings. It serves as a platform to inform, entertain, and even educate its audience. That is a need when it comes to our topic, gender inequality in generation z. We, the genzation, would like to increase awareness when it comes to issues of gender in our generation. What we need from our audience is their vulnerability, their willingness to be aware, and their willingness to be informed about the ongoing discrimination against all genders, not only limited to men and women. We aspire for our audience to spread awareness with regards to our topic just like how we increase the level of realisations and acknowledgements in them.

Our decision to have a podcast addressing gender inequality is made due to the fact that a lot of people our age are listening to podcast episodes a lot, especially during this pandemic. We’d like to take this opportunity to inform the whole world how the gender gap affects the youth today, how it affects their health, and how it affects their overall self-esteem! We want to inform as much as we want to entertain. We believe that’s what our viewers need as well. It can’t always be just fun, laughs and smiles. The truth must be told, they must be ready to view how dark society can be.

➥ Reality / The Truth.
⌦ In connection with awareness, the audience does not only need to know the truth, they would also want to learn the truth. The listeners need to have their eyes and ears open for reality, and that’s one thing the host must successfully accomplish — elaborating the truth. It has been accepted that not all people want the truth, most of them would like to be blinded by lies to continue living their supposed unproblematic life. Podcasts should not offer that, podcasts should not offer lies and sugar-coated words. Usually, podcasts are used to create a massive impact on their listeners, just like an unexpected 12-wheeler-truck hitting you even if you're on the pavement. It’s one of the great ways to push -+reality into the audience’s minds and have them regain their conscience.

Talking about our topic requires sharing the truth, sharing occurrences that truly happened, and sharing stories that are not fictional. It is not only to raise awareness within generation z, but it is also to prove that after how many decades, gender inequality continues to be an issue that’s perceived by the public to be solved but in reality, it’s even worsening. Our target audience is old enough to comprehend the ugly truth, which is why our podcast would be made. The truth of the same unpleasant happenings occurring over and over again to different people, we’d like to be the ones who voice them out to the public. With the audience’s willingness to learn, accepting reality shouldn’t be that hard for them.

➥ Enjoyment.
⌦ It’s hard to do something when we don’t enjoy it. Just like how time flies by so fast whenever we are having fun doing something! The viewers need episodes that are not dull, episodes that will make them forget the time as they enjoy listening to your podcasts! That’s what they’re looking for, something that can take their mind off their problems and struggles. A podcast that someone can enjoy is considered a great podcast as they keep its audience entertained, informed, and at the same time, happy! Podcasts are not the news wherein you’ll state your insights and go, it’s a streaming category that needs entertainment, enjoyment, amusement, excitement and all of those thrilling feelings! It’s something that the audience continues to seek in a podcast. No matter what your content is, be it educational or for entertainment purposes only, your listeners albeit their ages, gender, status or demographic profile in general, need to enjoy the content and the overall experience or else they most likely would stop in the middle of your podcast and find much better ones.

➥ Originality.
⌦ To give your podcast the best start in life, it needs to be different from the rest. And it needs to offer listeners something that other shows don’t. Having a unique premise will help you stand out in the sea of noise. Good podcasts are built around one idea or concept, and they stick to it. They don’t try to please everyone. Based on personal experience, I haven’t seen many podcasts that target the occurring gender inequality in generation z, thus this would be a great opportunity for us to show what we’ve got! The listeners need something they haven’t heard of before, or maybe something that’s not too common for them. They need something NEW and not just because it’s a trend. They need something that’s worthwhile, something that’s not plagiarised from other podcasters, or from other artists. Have an inspiration, that’s totally fine! However, when it comes to fully copying the work of others to launch a podcast, the time would always comes wherein the audience will figure everything out. Therefore, originality is a must as it is a component of sincerity, commitment, and integrity.

— Podcasting is not easy because it is more than just speaking on the microphone. Podcasters also do interviews and should be very conversational, which is not a gift endowed to everyone. Truthfully speaking, age, status, and beliefs are not that applicable when it comes to podcast listening. There are a bunch of things that the audience needs aside from streaming materials, great recording and well-written scripts. The audiences need consistency, enjoyment, engagement, clarity, honesty, and all those sincere qualities that a podcast host shall be able to observe. That’s why they listen to podcasts, not only will they learn, but will also they realise a lot of things, moreover, they can regain consciousness regarding the current issues that are in need of solutions and attention. Podcasts raise awareness in all ages, all genders, and in all statuses. With the right and joyful approach to the audience, a host can meet all of the needs of their audience. If podcasters are truly committed and sincere with what they’re doing, there won’t be a problem with the audience as long as both parties are making an effort to get to know each other.