Podcasting Certificate CTPCCU

Scripps College of Communication  
100 Schoonover Center
20 E. Union St.
Athens, OH 45701
Phone: 740.593.4883
scrippscollege@ohio.edu
www.ohio.edu/scripps-college/

Elizabeth Hendrickson, Associate Professor/contact person
hendrice@ohio.edu

Program Overview

The Podcasting Certificate will provide students with media and journalism training for one of the fastest growing and most popular areas of audio storytelling in the modern media marketplace. It will be administered in the School of Media Arts & Studies with assistance from the E.W. School of Journalism. The program is comprised of a core group of four podcasting courses (two MDIA and two JOUR), as well as a single elective, made available for all Ohio University majors. Through this certificate, students will gain instruction in the fundamentals of writing, producing, and distributing podcasts.

The four core courses in the certificate will include an introductory and advanced MDIA and JOUR course, with the objective of students eventually producing an original podcast to distribute. The media courses in the Podcasting Certificate will provide instruction of the technical audio production skills required to produce podcasts. Students will cover recording techniques, dialogue and narration recording, principles of field recording, mixing for podcasts and finalizing processes for the podcasting marketplace. The final core media course will combine the accumulated editing and storytelling skills acquired in the journalism core, along with the technical recording and mixing skills acquired from initial media instruction, and allow students to develop an original podcast series for production and distribution.

Students will be able to develop ideation strategies for concept development, scriptwriting and editorial resources, as well as access to digital resources for applied technical skills and distribution strategies. Marketing and business considerations will be incorporated into the latter portion of the core courses, with students considering tangential assets for their podcasting series including title, logo development, audience research, marketing to their consumers, as well as best practices for episode access and distribution. The journalism courses will focus on concept ideation, storytelling, editing, and writing for the podcasting format. In this portion, students will engage in a comprehensive review of the podcasting industry’s past and present with a focus on audio journalism. In-class discussions will pertain to readings and podcasting industry news, and students will regularly interact with podcasting professionals via videoconferencing technology. Assignments will provide the material necessary for a student to formulate a journalistic podcast series project, and include aspects such as defining the podcast’s purpose, creating prospects and running order, planning the first episode and reporting and interviewing.

The latter stages of journalism instruction will take an experiential approach to the podcast medium. The associated coursework will combine enduring journalistic methods and contemporary podcast examples to generate classroom discussion and product creation. The core courses for the Podcasting Certificate will incorporate extensive research and creative development. Student evaluations will be tied directly to the development of their podcast series, involving extensive group work including story creation, subject research, writing and editing, narration and/or voice recording, music acquisition/creation and placement, sound effects mixing, episodic completion and critique, quality control and distribution. One elective of each student’s choice will be the additional component of this Podcasting Certificate. A list of courses from across the Scripps College of Communication that provide associated skill development have been included for selection, including courses in Media, Journalism, and Communication.

Admissions Information

Freshman/First Year-Admission

No requirements beyond University admission requirements.

Change of Major/Minor/Certificate Policy

To enter the Podcasting Certificate, students must have: A cumulative 2.8 GPA or higher To complete the Podcasting Certificate, students must: Complete 15 hours of coursework for a total of 5 classes: 4 core courses (12 hours) and one elective course (3 hours), maintain a cum 2.8 GPA and a 2.8 certificate program GPA, and have a minimum of C in JOUR 2230 , MDIA 3705 , MDIA 4706 , and JOUR 4200 .

External Transfer Admission

No requirements beyond University admission requirements.

Opportunities Upon Graduation

The United States has seen an explosion of content generation and consumer consumption of podcasting, with audio storytelling becoming one of the fastest growing areas in the media ecosystem. Recent developments have included leading audio streaming platform Spotify (217 million active users) acquiring three of the largest podcasting companies, including Gimlet and Anchor Media, the investment of major labels such as Universal and Warmer Music into developing original content, and the massive growth of audio podcast streaming across platforms such as Amazon, Apple Music, Stitcher Radio, IHeart Radio, and Pandora, who recently created an open-submission platform for user-generated podcasts.

In 2018, podcasting generated nearly $500 million in revenue, with that number forecasted to grow to $1billion by 2021. Recent surveys show that half of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast, with 62 million consumers now listening weekly. In short, the marketplace for the podcasting medium has grown with considerable force and is forecast to continue doing so into the next decade. Yet with such growth at hand, there is little to no educational counterpart at Ohio University. In fact, students wanting to acquire skillsets and training for this marketplace have almost no opportunities for exploration and development. As it stands, there is currently but one course in the whole of the university that is teaching how to develop a podcast and there are no courses that teach how to do technical audio production for the medium.

Through the Scripps Podcasting Certificate, we are poised to develop an engaging new curriculum that will showcase the resources of the university within the Scripps College of Communication, opening vital resources to both current and prospective students, and preparing the next generation of leading storytellers for this field of media. The Scripps Podcasting Certificate will allow students across all majors to develop critical media and journalism skills within their fields of study, providing pathways of research and vital discourse across majors, and enabling students to develop professional content for their portfolios and resumes. Tangentially podcast distribution from this certificate will allow the university to market itself as a leader in podcasting education.

Requirements