Monday, June 13, 2005
Podcasting becomes another pulpit
Like a mustard seed doused with Miracle-Gro, podcasting is rising rapidly as a new way of delivering religious messages to people across the street or around the globe.
Whether one's taste is for Buddhist dharma talks from Western Australia, brief thoughts from Devotions 4 Gamers, or Bible readings done in the language of Klingons from "Star Trek," an expanding universe of faith-based audio offerings is available for automatic download to personal computers in formats that can be listened to there or transferred to portable devices such as Apple Computer's popular iPod.
Anyone with a microphone, computer and some technical savvy can launch an Internet radio show to preach, teach or screech. Melded with software that can deliver digital recordings, these transmissions - usually free - become podcasts.
The word is a combination of iPod and broadcast, with some people using the term "godcast" to refer to faith-related messages. Podcasting has skyrocketed in less than a year, with religion and spirituality just two of the categories of an expanding array.
A national survey earlier this year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 4 million to 8 million adults in the United States have downloaded a podcast or an Internet radio program so they could listen to it on their digital audio player at a later time, said Mary Madden, a research specialist with the project in Washington, D.C.
Steve Jobs, chief executive officer of Apple, estimated last month that there were 8,000 or more podcasts available. Others peg the total around 6,000.
Although owners of iPods and MP3 players tend to be young, the people producing podcasts include retirees, Lewin (Elisabeth Lewin, 40, who operates Podcastingnews.com) said.
Most of the listeners are in the United States, but some tap in from Brazil, Great Britain and various European countries.
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