Plugged In: Predicting Podcast Audiences and their Political Participation

Monica ChadhaAlex Avila

Homero Gil de Zuniga

School of JournalismUniversity of Texas – Austin

Introduction and Rationale

Researchers know little about who podcast audiences are.

The technology is being adopted rapidly.

Little is known about the secondary effects of this technology- namely political participation.

Podcast- operationalized

“A digital audio or video file that is episodic; downloadable; program-driven, mainly with a host and/or theme; and conveniently accessible, usually via an automated feed -- such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed -- with computer software.”

RQ and Hypotheses

RQ: Who is downloading podcasts? What is a typical demographic snapshot of a podcast listener and do demographic variables predict podcast use?

H1: Podcast use for news will predict political participation online.

H2: Podcast use for news will predict political participation offline.

Methodology

Sample data provided by the Media Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.

Information was collected via a web-based survey between Dec 15, ‘08 and Jan 5, ‘09.

Sample was matched with the important demographic variables of the U.S. National Census, specifically gender and age.

1,482 valid cases; response rate was 17.3 percent.

Final sample = 958 participants

Findings: T1- DemographicsUsersN=115 Podcast type

PoliticsN=39

SportsN=17

EntertainmentN=59

NewsN=40

EducationN=39

OtherN=42

GenderFemale

Male57.442.6

56.443.6

64.735.3

55.944.1

65.035.0

56.443.6

64.335.7

RaceWhite

Non-White72.227.8

66.733.3

82.417.6

72.927.1

70.030.0

69.230.8

73.826.2

IncomeBel 39,99940–69,99970-109,999110,000 up

20.825.136.417.4

25.720.536.018.0

29.417.723.529.4

17.023.840.818.7

25.020.040.015.0

23.128.328.320.5

21.438.131.0 9.5

T2- Demographic RegressionB s.e. Wald Exp (B)

Demographics

Gender (Female) -.424* .209 4.131 .65

Race (White) -.794*** .236 11.350 .45

Age -.046 .030 2.289 .96

Education .124# .072 3.016 1.13

Income .058* .027 4.699 1.06

Nagelkerke’s R Square .072***

 Cell entries are B coefficients (unstandardized), standard error, Wald χ2 and odds ratio.N=958 * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

T3 – Online/Offline Part.Online Political

ParticipationOffline Political Participation

DemographicsAge

EducationGender (Female)

IncomeEthnicityR Square

.031 .139***

.027 - .088**

.027 2.9%***

.064* .277***

.050# .069* .059#

12.3%***

Media use & PartisanshipMedia Use

PartisanshipR Square change

.297*** .121*** 11.9%***

.189*** .066*

4.6%***

Podcast UsePodcast Use

R Square change .164*** 2.6%***

.105**1.1%**

TOTAL R SQUARE 17.4%*** 18%***N=958. Cell entries are standardized Beta coefficients.     # p < .10, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

Conclusions

Males tend to use podcasts more than females. Also, higher income bracket = increased likelihood of using podcasts.

Minorities seem to use this technology to a larger degree than White individuals.

Entertainment seems to be the most popular genre for podcast users.

Established an empirical relationship between podcast use and political participation, online and offline.