Trust in podcasting goes beyond the host and listener to a larger

overall trust in the idea of podcasting.

Interestingly, podcasting enjoys a greater level of trust than other forms of media.

But for how long?

Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

Do you trust the media?

And by "the media," I mean, traditional broadcast media, and

by "trust," I mean, well, trust.

Do you trust them to deliver accurate and relevant information to you?

Now, it kind of doesn't matter what your answer is because it's quite

clear that, at least in the States, trust in traditional broadcast

media is nearing an all-time low.

And that's a trend that has been happening since the 1970s.

What about social media?

Do you trust the platforms?

All of which are driven by algorithms to deliver you

accurate and relevant information.

Once again, your personal mileage may vary greatly here, and I'm

sure that you, like me, have a few trusted sources that you do follow.

But collectively, we know that the social media platforms that we use every single

day, they have their own interests in mind far, far above ours sometimes.

Now, weirdly, podcasting doesn't follow that trend or those trends when people,

again, people in the States, are surveyed or polled, they come back with rather hard

to believe trust scores in podcasting.

So much so that they report greater trust even in the ads and the commercials that

they hear on the podcasts they listen to.

And, real quickly, I'm talking about trust, not truth.

Truth is a whole different topic that I've gotten into before and

I may dive into later on, but this episode is all about trust and

people trust podcasts, like a lot.

Or better to say, the listeners, they trust the podcasts that they listen to.

Much like trusted social media accounts that we follow so we can make our

newsfeed and doomscrolling somewhat more palatable, listeners follow only a handful

of podcasts, shows that they trust to give them, the listener, what they need.

And that's precisely because there's no algorithm behind the

scene deciding what episode someone should and shouldn't be exposed to.

And also, because there aren't multinational media conglomerates all

vying for their share of a limited set of channels, frequencies, or shelf space

on a newsstand, podcasting has mostly escaped the issues of trust that plague

the other forms of media at large.

But that's changing, which means the high trust we've come to enjoy

as podcasters might be eroding.

We're already starting to see some of the problems that caused these,

well, trust problems for consumers of other forms of media starting to

worm their way into podcasting, both at the micro and the macro level.

At the micro level, we're seeing the rise of celebrity podcasters, as well as the

minting of very strong influencer-like personalities having their own podcast.

And as shows like those continue to pull in fans from outside of

podcasting, and yes, I will also concede that they do attract plenty

of already-listening-to-podcast fans.

Those shows grow large enough to attract the attention from outside media.

Those shows that do really well win podcast awards, or are somehow deemed

press-worthy with getting accolades for whatever reason, which then further

elevates their status outside of the roughly 30% of the population who

consume podcasts on a regular basis.

Now, that's good for podcasting for sure, but is it good for the

perception of trust in podcasting?

It's benign if the podcast hosts who are at the top are also

benign, but not all of them are.

I mean, just take a look at any of the podcast ranker charts and you'll

find plenty of shows, incredibly popular shows, that you probably

disagree with strongly and would find not all that worthy of your trust.

Also, we're seeing continued investment from mainstream media into podcasting

with media properties launching, not just podcasts, but entire networks of podcasts

that leverage the same biases and points of view in every show and episode they

produce of their podcast network that they put out on their broadcast medium.

Which is fine.

I mean, that's them giving their fans what they want, just in a different format.

And again, I will state for the record they clearly have a right to do so.

And also, oftentimes, having a very strong point of view, and even some

biases, makes for an excellent podcast.

And then there's the investments, the billions of dollars of investments

from other industries and players that keep flowing into podcasting,

which consolidates voices, enables more rapid production, and also

further silos the content we consume.

That means a lot more opportunities to get podcasts, podcasters, if you will,

and people in the business of podcasting paid, which is also a very good thing.

But I do wonder about the cost to the trust podcasting has enjoyed thus far.

Maybe that was just a temporary condition.

I hope not.

With that, I shall be back directly with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.

He's on a mission to make podcasting better.

Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes

section of your podcast listening app.

A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at

podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected

transcript, both created by Allie Press.

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.