Podcast and RSS Feeds - Assignment Example

Journal Podcast A podcast refers to a digital recording of a radio broadcast that is made available over the internet for download for free by users into their various portable Mp3 players.This technology provides the user with new music to listen to on their Mp3 players on a daily basis and hence presenting the user with a variety of music to listen to and to choose from. Podcasts are free, and they are thus affordable to most people. They eliminate boredom and the monotony of having to keep listening to the same songs every now and then. Anyone can create a recording and upload it instantly for broadcast all over the world and at a very low cost. All that one needs to have are a computer, good internet connectivity and a microphone. The use of podcasts makes possible to share content via the internet to a large number of mp3 players. I have listened to an audio podcast of lady Antebellum album of “Own The Night” and it is a nice audio album it keeps you really captivated and its very interesting to listen to. Have as well watched Earth breath and it explains how this takes place, and the use of video just fits perfectly for this topic. The difference between podcast for instance broadcast media is that with podcast, there is a variety to listen to and watch, unlike in broadcast radio there is the issues of monotony as the same songs are being repeated over and over again. Another difference is that when one is using podcasts, one does not require waiting till they hear something that they want to here because the user is provided with the option of choosing what exactly to listen to. This is not the case with Broadcast radio since one listens to what is currently playing and they do not have the option to choose what to listen to, they have to wait till something they are interested in being played. Podcasts are quite easy to create, and most people can create one and use it to share content, music and videos with the world. Podcasts allow for many formats and subjects as the podcasters are not limited by the traditional broadcast formats as well as broadcast regulations. Podcast subjects can range from politics, science, technology, movies, music and many other different subjects. The content in podcasts is very original and new and is created by innovative people who want to share with the world. Podcasts are downloaded automatically into your laptop or computer and synced automatically to your mp3 player. This makes it convenient hence very popular. A podcast aggregator is a software program used when one is subscribing to a podcast and when one wants to receive podcasts. Podcasts keep you in control in that you can actually delete a podcast when you want, you can pause it, you can rewind it, you can replay it as much as you like and you can store it wherever you feel like. Once also has the option of listening the podcast on their laptops or personal computers, they can also burn the podcast in compact discs as well as move it to once mp3 player. One can download as many podcasts as they like there is no limitation and it is not limited to specific media players its compatible. Listening to a radio for instance is not interesting as the relevant corporations control what to listen to and at what time. With streaming content, one is tied to their pc, and it has to have good internet connection. The advantage with a podcast is that you can carry it wherever you are going. With the podcasts that I have watched and listened to i have discovered that it is advisable to use videos for giving directions or instructions on how to go about something. The audio podcasts are suited better for communicating important or useful ideas as well as concepts to a persons’ audience. RSS Feeds Ways to add an RSS Feed was that one can type the RSS feed URL in the field provide don their browser then click on the "Add" button. One can also subscribe to the RSS Feed which will enable them to get automatic updates on the information in the sites they are following. RSS refers to a technology used by users on the web in keeping track of their favorite websites. Previously people used bookmarks to keep track of the updates on the websites, and they had to manually visit the website on a regularly to see what had been added. The advantage with RSS feeds is that they automatically keep you updated with up to date information which helps save time for the users due to the ease of getting information needed after it was published. RSS lets you know every time a website is updated. You subscribe to RSS feeds. I would personally advocate for the use of RSS Feeds because they are way faster and convenient as I have and will discuss in this journal. The use of bookmarks on the other hand makes it hard to keep track of many websites at a go, one see the same information continually on the websites that fail to update regularly. Forgetting to check the bookmarks may lead to loss of information. I would find it better to use RSS feeds for my daily duties because of a couple of reasons among them being that RSS feeds are better to use because they save time instead of having to visit individual site. RSS feeds help you keep track of the favorite websites quite faster and more conveniently. They keep the unread entries from the sites that you are keeping track of in Bold. When you click to open them they show you the latest updates. Other ways to tracking websites are the use of pages such as MyMSN, MyYahoo among others. I would personally prefer Google reader because it is web-based and a user can log on to access their feeds from any computer as long as it is connected to the internet. They do not have to stick to one computer and even as they travel they are not limited to access their feeds. Google Reader is much more popular because it is flexible and offers many features. Works Cited Education Podcast Network, www.epnweb.org .Directory of Educational Podcasts covering a wide range of topics. Read More