Lost In Hype

Blog of Funk In Danger Of Succumbing To Podcast Hype could be the title, but it's too long. Hype comes from the word Hyperbole, meaning over-statement, verbosity, and that definition is two words too many.

There is a real danger with the current podcast feeding frenzy that the scene might implode as a result of believing its own hype. We may be lithe mammals, knowing we represent some element of the future, yet we are tiny. Dinosaurs still rule, and they can eat all the vegetation for smiles and step on us without noticing.

This BBC article makes the point that the relatively small size of the podcast audience cuts through the hype surrounding podcasting. Yet this article appears on the BBC website, and the BBC itself is responsible for promoting both RSS and podcasting via it's broadcast and internet services. As the respected voice of Auntie Beeb makes podcasts something your mum knows about, small businesses erupt with new-found syndicated opportunity, and podcasting appears on school curriculums, it is hardly surprising that podcasting seems to be punching above its weight. I think the BBC is as much to blame as anyone for this upsurge in interest. It seems contradictory that they are in such denial about it.

What happens to those whose aspirations drive them onwards, but who lack the awareness to know their limitations? Exhaustion. What happends to those seers who know the future and its glorious possibilities but are condemned to live in the present? Exclusion.

Meanwhile, I've noticed that my writing has suffered and I put that down to taking podcasting far too seriously, wasting my energy trying to mix audio in too small a room, and in this way losing some of my creative focus. Can't have that... So I'm off to write about a gold hoop earring which flew from the ear of a sour-faced woman on the Victoria Line.

podcast hype BBC earring