Embracing Change

Ethics In Podcasting

Future-Forward Thinking

We The People Are Changing Podcasting For The Better

We tend to assume the power is in the hands of the voice behind the mic. But as podcasting matures and expands, other hands are exerting their influence on what makes it to our ears.

September 21, 2020

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Actions have consequences. Cause and effect. Even words are actions with consequences, effects that are caused by the speaking aloud of those words. If you shout into an empty canyon, you’ll get an echo. It’s been popularized (but never proven and highly doubtful) that shouting loud enough can cause an avalanche.

Podcasters aren’t immune to this fundamental reality. The actions we take on our show, typically in the form of the words we speak into a microphone, have consequences. Nor is podcasting special in this regard. The same holds true - and has held true - for all forms of media. Big media or small media. Independent media or corporate media. Social media and any other type of media. Nothing is immune. If you say it (or write it) there will be consequences. That’s how the universe works. It’s simple cause and effect.

Our Information Age Has Plenty of Mis- and Dis- To Go Around

It should come as a surprise to no one that the media we consume is polluted by misinformation and disinformation. Poll a few people and most will tell you they think the flow of false and misleading information is increasing. And though I haven’t done the surveys to confirm, I think that’s directionally correct. Misinformation and disinformation aren’t new concepts. But the amount of information we consume on all forms of media has without question increased. So even if the percentage of garbage info to factual info has remained fairly constant, it’s a safe bet that we’re exposed to more misinformation and disinformation than ever before.

Podcasting is part of that media mix, which means that podcasting has a similar level of misinformation and disinformation propagating through the podosphere. I’m not casting blame or shade. That’s our shared reality.

It’s also a problem that extends well beyond the borders of podcasting in the States. Disinformation and misinformation permeate all forms of media in every country. It might be better or worse for some countries based on a variety of endemic political, social, and economic factors, but no citizen of any country is insulated against misinformation and disinformation.

Threatened Money Fights Back

Though I’m reticent to assign blame and am quite aware that correlation does not equal causation, there’s an argument to be made that the perceived increase in falsifiable claims in podcasting and all forms of media is due, at least in part, to a privileged class feeling threatened.

Because we can talk all we want about the egalitarian nature of podcasting and how any podcast host has the same chance as every other podcast host to make it big. But that’s bullshit. There may not be (and there isn’t) a smoky dark room where monied old white men decide what podcasts get the most attention. But there are organizations with a vested interest (and power, and money, and influence) in keeping the status quo the status quo, if only to profit from others who also want the world to remain static. Or roll backward.

This isn’t a conspiracy. This is human nature. When those in power feel threatened by societal change, often a change that’s been decades in the making, they react. Misinformation and disinformation - either in the form of blatant propaganda or by echoing the fears of others in power - are often deployed in an attempt to stem the tide.

And once again, podcasting is not immune. When those threatened have a podcast, they shout louder. They become more reactionary. And willingly or unwillingly, they perpetuate the misinformation and disinformation. It’s in their immediate financial interest to do so.

Podcasting’s Crooked Path Towards Justice

When examined solely on the basis of available observational evidence, the universe doesn’t care about us. If anything, the universe as we know it is actively hostile to life. It’s a fluke that we’re here at all. And if the fossil record teaches us one thing, it’s that our species too has a limited shelf life.

But let’s leave that depressing reality (a depressing reality we can do nothing about) behind for a moment and focus down on humanity overall. There's an old saying attributed to Theodore Parker that I, like many before me, am going to bastardize for my own purposes. Here it is:

“The arc of the moral universe is often crooked, but it bends towards justice.”

That means that bad things happen. There are setbacks. New atrocities will be dreamed up and inflicted upon groups of people. Yes, those things are true. But when examined in totality and on a long enough timescale, things tend to get better. Not all at once. And not for all people. Sometimes it takes years, decades, or centuries. But the trend towards justice does seem to exist.

And so while podcasting currently has (and always has had) a fair amount of misinformation and disinformation in it, and a fair amount of privileged class members feeling threatened by changes they are just now picking up on that have been rolling through society for some time; it is (or will be) trending towards justice.

Meet Those Working To Change Podcasting From The Inside Out

There’s a growing movement inside the podcasting landscape working to curtail the misinformation and disinformation that permeates our medium. They certainly won’t make any friends with the privileged class, but they aren’t trying to make friends.

Some have microphones of their own, but many are exerting their influence on the words that go into those mics or before the words reach our ears. The bigger the show (in terms of audience, revenue, and influence), the more support staff required to keep the machine running. And a growing number of people working inside podcasting are realizing they too have a voice.

They’re taking a stand against the misinformation and disinformation often disguised by the privileged class as “opinions” or “just asking questions”. They're stepping up saying, “No, we won’t be a part of this”. They're banding together and taking their grievances up the ladder, trying to convince shareholders and stakeholders why misinformation and disinformation is damaging to the platform and organizational brand. And they’re not being quiet about the very real need to, if not eliminate, then seriously reduce the amount of information and disinformation that's distributed from the organization that signs their paycheck.

And they’re seeing results.

How Will You React, Working Podcaster?

The activism we’re seeing in podcasting isn’t going away. This trend towards responsibility is a grassroots effort that will continue, as it has been continuing. So what are you going to do about it?

I see one of three choices you have to make.

You can help. You can help straighten the crooked path. You can actively fight the spread of misinformation and disinformation by simply not spreading it on your show. You can speak up when others in your sphere of influence fall short of that. You can work to change podcasting for the better.
You can get out of the way. Not everyone has the stomach for fighting. We need lots of podcasters making great content that has nothing to do with “the fight”. So yes, you can choose to not engage and step out of the way.
You can get run over. The purveyors of misinformation and disinformation aren’t going to stop. But those actively fighting it will get better in their ability to detect falsehoods. They’ll be better equipped with more options to take action against shows and hosts who continue to distribute misinformation. So sure, you can get caught up in that if you want, I guess?

Remember the arc of the moral universe is often crooked, but it does bend towards justice. Even in podcasting.

Heavy stuff, I know. Perhaps you’re reading this and thinking about another podcaster who needs to hear this message? And if not this message, then perhaps another thought-provoking episode of mine? The only way Podcast Pontifications grows is when one podcaster tells another, so do that!

And if you’re digging the concepts I bring to life on the show, please go to BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra and toss a couple of shekels my way.

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra. He’s on a mission to make podcasting better. Allie Press proofed the copy, corrected the transcript, and edited the video. Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.

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PPS3E36 We The People Are Changing Podcasting For The Better - Transcript

[00:00:00] We tend to assume that the power is in the hands of the voice behind the mic, but as podcasting, matures and expands, other hands are exerting their influence on what makes it to our ears.

Hello, and welcome to another podcast. Pontifications with me, Evo, Tara actions have consequences. Surprise. That's the [00:00:30] way physics works. Uh, it is a little situation in that we like to refer to abide by lots of different ways, but the understanding that there is a cause and an effect, something caused something to happen.

And when you say something, when you do something, your actions tend to have consequences. If you shout into an empty Canyon, you'll get an echo. That's a consequence of your action. If you do that. And I suppose you were in some. Alpine village somewhere. You might cause an avalanche. Oops, that will be really [00:01:00] bad.

So actions have consequences and they've always had consequences. We just tend to ignore that fact, but that's a standard reality, even in the podcasting world, your actions, and oftentimes the things that you use say have consequences that shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but the reality of today, all of the media.

That we consume, whether it's big media, small media, [00:01:30] independent media, corporate media, social media, podcasting media in media today. And in media for all time has been a fair amount of misinformation and disinformation. It seems like it's getting worse and I'm not here to say it is, or it is not getting worse.

I haven't done this, their surveys or the studies of that, but [00:02:00] certainly it feels like there's a lot more simply because, and I'm reticent to make an assumption of correlation and causation, but I'm going to here simply because we now have more access to more information all the time. Podcasting is part of that information, which means.

Podcasting being part of the media, that information coming in is also filled rampant. You might say with both misinformation and this information, and [00:02:30] I'm not just talking about podcasting in the U S of a, I'm talking about a problem that exists everywhere in the world seems to be growing, seems to be more concentrated.

We're seeing a lot more misinformation and this information. Out there, even in our podcasting space and that's problematic also, and perhaps leading towards that is the fact that the privileged class or [00:03:00] privileged classes. Are feeling threatened because that same tool that is now filled with misinformation and disinformation, perhaps, as I said, previously, likely was always influenced heavily.

I think I used the word filled a moment ago when I shouldn't say that, but there was a lot of misinformation and disinformation in the media and the privileged class now feels threatened because anybody literally can get on and say stuff, good stuff, bad stuff. That's part of the misinformation and the disinformation, but also.

Start [00:03:30] shouting about things that aren't right. Things that situations where society is changing. And that causes a lot of threats to people who are privileged, who are benefactors of where things are no real big surprises there. Same thing is happening in podcasting. Some of the voices that are feeling threatened are shouting louder.

More often getting people to say, [00:04:00] because they feel threatened. So they start shouting louder and louder entire networks crop up, not just in podcasting, but in the whole wide world. When the privileged class is feeling threatened. Now there's an old saying that I'm going to bastardize because the reality is the universe doesn't care much about us.

True. Right. It doesn't. You may think that it does, but then we look at it. It's like actively hostile against us. We'll look at the universe overall, but there's a moral universe. Ooh, morality on this show really [00:04:30] soon. So it's an old quote that I'm going to modify that it says the, to my way of saying it is the arc of the moral universe is often crooked, but it bends towards justice.

That basically says that in a long enough timescale things get bad things, get better, things get bad. They go up and down like this. But if we look at it overall, generally speaking one, it might take hundreds of years sometimes. And hopefully today in [00:05:00] our information dense environment, it won't take that long, but things do tend to bend towards justice things get better over time.

And so while podcasting currently has, and always has had a fair amount of misinformation and disinformation in it, a fair amount of really loud shout from the privileged to classes who are feeling threatened by the changes that they are just now picking up on in society [00:05:30] that have been rolling through for a long time.

Even those, these things are out there. It's going to get better on a long enough time scale. It's going to get better, but we don't not everybody here works on the team, same timescale, right? And more importantly, there is an active class right now in podcasting, sometimes behind the microphones, but oftentimes not speaking into the mic, but helping podcast work and [00:06:00] helping companies that have podcasting central to their core work properly.

They're stepping up saying. We don't want to be a part of this, or they're stepping up and saying, we don't want this kind of content on our platform. So we're to work hard to change that to if not eliminate seriously, reduce the message, information and disinformation that's coming from something labeled us.

[00:06:30] We're working hard. These people say. To realize that the privileged class might feel threatened, but we also kind of don't care because we need them to understand the changes we're going for have been here for a long time. There's an active class out there right now that is changing podcasting for the better.

Looked at objectively, which is hard to do things like better and worse are very difficult to be objective [00:07:00] about. It's very subjective terms, but I think again, back to my concept of the arc of the moral university and crooked, but bending towards justice, these activists, and many times they'll go too far, but in aggregate, they're really working to change podcasting for the better to make it more reflective of the changes that have already happened to the world we live in right now.

What are we going to do about it? We active podcasts as well. I think we really Henny [00:07:30] to see what position we're going to be in. And I think it's only one of three things, cause it was this active class out there working. And by the way, they're not organized. There's not a big leader. Doing this it's just happening.

Grassroots changes are sweeping away and people talk about it and it just continues. So the three things you have to make a decision, which position you're going to take. Are you going to help that's position one? Probably the preferred position. If in fact, you think along the same lines that I do, [00:08:00] that people are actually changing podcasting for the better.

Are you going to help looking at your show or looking at the shows you listen to look at the shows you promote. Will you actually help with that? Or option two, will you get out of the way? Will you continue to do your thing and not worry too much about what those pinko commie kids today, you know, because it's 1964, what they're doing, let's just ignore them, but I'm just going to get out of the way.

Put my [00:08:30] blinders on, do my thing, not really going to bitch and complain about it. You're going to walk out of the way that's option two or option three. Will you get ran over, will you get ran over? Which looks a lot like the second option, but in reality it says, no I'm going to actively rail against this and continue to yell because there are plenty who will, but remember the arc of the moral universe is often crooked, but it does bend towards justice.

Will you get run [00:09:00] over podcaster? Now, while you're thinking about that crazy thing, would you think about someone who needs to listen to podcast? Pontifications not necessarily not necessarily someone who needs to have their mind changed by this episode, not asking for that, but if you do know working podcast or who's not yet listening to podcast, pontifications please tell them about podcast.

Pontifications that is very helpful to me. And if you like the. Conversations. I bring too in the things to think about, which is all part of podcast. Pontifications please [00:09:30] go to buy me a coffee.com/evo, Tara, and a donate. Give me a couple of shekels. That would be very helpful. I appreciate that. That's it enjoy the rest of your Monday.

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another podcast. Pontifications cheers.

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