The Berkeley Beacon

Issue date: 10/20/05 Section: Lifestyle

Media Credit: Beacon photo/Erin White

Jennie Palluzzi, a sophomore print journalism major, spent hours crafting a story for her Covering the Day's News class-and now she is slashing it line by line. As adjectives are cut and paragraphs dwindle, Palluzzi reads her work aloud, shakes her head and continues to pull words. Only when her story is raw news sprinkled with a few quotes is Palluzzi satisfied that her print article is ready for the broadcast media. She reads through again, taps her microphone and flips the record switch on.

Taking stories students have written for Emerson's Journalism Students Online News Service (JSONS) Web site and rewriting them for audio, Palluzzi has helped to create one of Emerson College's first official news podcasts.

Fellow podcasting pioneers at WECB have also launched a podcast program, the Fred Freddy Podcast. It is now available on iTunes. This program stars Fred Young, a sophomore media arts and political communication double major. According to Young, his program was technically the first Emerson podcast, aired on Sept. 29, a day before the first JSONS broadcast.

Many other media outlets are racing to take advantage of this trend as well. Podcasts are free online audio shows in mp3 format. Much like downloading music for portable media playing devices, users can browse the Internet for audio programs to listen to with mp3 players.

The term "Podcasting" was created from a combination of the words "broadcast" and "iPod," according to Journalism Technology Manager Jonathan Satriale. Owning an iPod, however, is not necessary to listen to a podcast, as the audio files will work with any mp3 player or computer with audio software.

"Podcasting is an important technology for Emerson as it fits squarely with our mission to bringing innovation to communication and the arts," said Satriale, who helped Palluzzi and her professor, Emmanuel Paraschos, put together the JSONS audio program. "A podcast is one of the latest technical innovations and we are now applying that to the journalism craft."

Adam Curry, a former MTV jockey in the early 90s, created the concept of podcasting in 2004. An Internet entrepreneur since he left his MTV gig in 1994, Curry used news feed programs developed by software scriptwriter Dave Winer. According to Satriale, the two are known in the tech world as the Podfathers.

Since podcasting's inception, major news organizations and average audio-recording PC owners alike have created thousands of programs that can be downloaded for free from host Web sites called "podcatchers." Podcatching Web sites operate as "aggregators," or collectors of information on the Web, which are programmed to gather syndicated Web content and regularly check for updates. The Apple media downloading portal iTunes and www.iPodder.org, a site independent from Apple, are two examples of popular host programs.

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