What are Podcasts?

Podcasting is a way of publishing audio and video broadcasts via the Internet. Specifically, podcasts are feeds (such as RSS feeds). Feeds can contain digital audio (such as MP3), video (such as MP4 or M4V), document (such as PDF), and/or news headline. Listeners can subscribe to feeds using software that periodically checks for and downloads, i.e., "pushes" new content automatically. This software is available on the Web and is generally free; here is a sampling of available programs:

For Windows/PC

• iTunes
• iPodder
• Doppler
• Blog Matrix Sparks!
• Pluck

For Mac

• iTunes
• iPodderX
• Playpod
• NetNewsWire Lite

For Web Browsers

• My Yahoo!
• Bloglines
• newsgator
• My MSN
• Pluck
• My AOL

Once you subscribe to a podcast, you can either listen to it on your computer or transfer it to a portable MP3 player, such as an iPod. (PBS, 2006)