podcast

podcast

(iPOD broadCAST) An audio broadcast that has been converted to MP3 or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player. Although many podcasts are played in a computer, the original concept targeted portable devices; hence, the "pod" name from "iPod."

Podcasts may be offered as downloads from a Web site, or they may be made available via a syndication format. Users install a media aggregator program in their computers such as iTunes or Juice. Also called a "podcatcher," the application captures the audio feeds from the Internet for downloading to the music player. See syndication format.

Podcasting Everything
Conceived as a way to listen to audio broadcasts, podcasting evolved to include images and video (see photofeed and vidcast). Electronic slide shows are created as podcasts (see enhanced podcast), and "sound seeing" is the audio recording of a person's experiences when traveling. Some museums make audio tours available as podcasts, and art students and professors create their own unauthorized and often controversial narrations of famous works. See autocasting, punchcasting and learncasting.