Audio-visual podcasts as the future of news reporting. An experiment in audience engagement across different podcast formats

Podcasts are a growing phenomenon in digital media for their ability to supply audiences with extremely varied content across a wide variety of interests. Yet, video streaming platform YouTube is the most widespread used platform to listen to these podcasts, hinting at a wish from the audiences to have visual stimuli included in the stories, as they may add a new dimension to the stories. As podcasts are concerned with immersing their audience into a world to fulfill their needs, these stimuli might have a positive effect on the engagement of the audience. The study was concerned with how these visual elements as well as the length of the stories people are subjected to impacts the way in which they engage accordingly. By creating an online survey experiment in which participants were subjected to either a short or a long podcast that included visual elements or did not, the importance of stated variables was uncovered. This was executed in order to not only find out which of these conditions would generate the best response from audiences in terms of engagement, it will also provide publishers with greater insights into what motivations drive audiences to consume podcasts. It was found that length did not impact the engagement with the news to a strong degree. A connection between length and visual stimuli was found in the resulting engagement being strongest in the long video podcast. However, the inclusion of visual stimuli made the experience more enjoyable for audiences and led to higher engagement. Even though the podcasts are concerned with the news, entertainment and social values can be seen as drivers to engagement with podcasts. The inclusion of visual elements was able to bring this out more, opposed to a level of intimacy usually felt from audio-only podcasts and therefore puts into perspective the plethora of ways in which podcasts could and should be utilized. Video podcasts show the potential to aid the citizenry by clarifying news stories more in-depth and provide information in a way that simultaneously fulfills other gratifications podcast listeners seek out and should therefore be reconsidered as a main way of disseminating news online by producers and publishers of the medium.