Whats the Difference Between New Media and Podcasting?

This is a question that definitely causes people to get their dandruff up. But now that Podcasting is three years old many people still do no understand podcasting and many people think you need a iPod to consume Podcasts.

In a world where everyone could agree on terms my thoughts are that anyone individual, business or company excluding traditional media outlets that are largely household names are creating new media. Take for example people putting content on YouTube that they have created. This media is New Media. Whether it be Audio or Video generally media created for the purpose of consumption that is not mainstream media driven should be considered New Media.

Podcasting on the other hand is a medium largely associated with highly targeted portable media that you as a consumer can consume on demand. It is very similar to your DVR in your home. You subscribe to the content you want on your computer then that content is automatically loaded on your media device and you consume it when you have the time when and wherever you are.

Therefore while those creating the content are new media creators the media they create and distribute via the web and or a RSS feed is a podcast. The underlying technology though of podcasting is the automatic downloading and synchronization of that content that was downloaded and put on your mobile media device.