The future of communication. New class at Católica teaches students how to listen and create Podcasts

Sound Media and Podcasting is the new class of the Master in Communication Sciences of the Faculty of Human Sciences of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, which we present today, on International Podcast Day.

Taught by Rita Curvelo and Luís Loureiro, FCH's new training offer will introduce students to the most recent means of information and entertainment which, especially during the pandemic, became a true communication phenomenon.

But after all, what is the Podcast? The word comes from the combination of "iPod" and "Broadcast". As for definitions, there are many, but we can say that the Podcast is an audio content, made available through a file or streaming, which can be heard on various devices, when one wants, and which addresses a specific subject, with the aim of creating a loyal audience.

As for the advantages of this format, we can also point to several, but perhaps the greatest of all is that it allows us to take advantage of the time available and increase daily productivity. It is therefore natural that it is attracting more and more listeners and generating great interest.

According to Rita Curvelo, this class intends to give the students one more tool that will be useful to them and that is based on two dimensions: "we want them, as listeners, to understand what they may find and how to prevent it, but we also want to prepare them to use this tool professionally as a work instrument".

Despite having emerged in 2004, the Podcast has "grown in leaps and bounds", as Rita Curvelo recalls that "it made perfect sense to have this offer taking into account the emergence of the podcast and the interest of students."

"We have had the subject of Radio Communication ever since the Social Communication course existed. Then the subject of Radio Project was created and, following on from this, the subject of Sound Media and Podcasting. It's a natural sequence", stresses the professor.

Luís Loureiro, the other lecturer in the chair, recalls that "the 21st century is extraordinary because it marks the return of sound and the spoken word", adding that "technological platforms, after being centred on messaging, have moved on to a dimension where audio is placed at the top".

"What happened was a conjunction of the huge development of voice recognition platforms and the reality of the pandemic that brought people to an audio-visual platform, mostly audio," the professor adds.

Plan, create, record, edit, publish. This is the process of the podcast, a medium that, according to Rita Curvelo, "has in common with radio the simultaneity of actions that can be carried out while listening to a conversation. Then it has the advantage of being the listener who imposes the coordinates. To choose what they want to hear, when and where. A freedom that radio doesn't have."

In addition, adds Luís Loureiro: "more and more, podcasts are used by organisations to communicate", in other words, "they are already a business."

To conclude, we wanted to know which Podcasts the two professors are currently listening to. Rita answers with a smile: "I continue to listen with great interest to 'As Mulheres Não Existem', by Carla Quevedo, from Expresso, 'Extremamente Desagradável' from Renascença Radio and 'Governo Sombra', from Carlos Vaz Marques".

Luís Loureiro, on the other hand, confesses that "after having been through them all", he is now "more loyal to music podcasts, where composers explain the origin of their songs", but also, he can't resist "looking for everything that is strange, new and different."