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Podcasting: Opportunity to connect creative audiences across borders
The digital distribution of on-demand audio content — commonly known as podcasting — has been growing steadily in recent years. To analyse industry potential in the Caribbean and improve career opportunities for young content creators, the EU-funded UNESCO programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity organised the online debate ‘Waves between the Caribbean and Europe: Connecting Creative audiences through Podcasts’ on 22 September 2023.
Podcasts have proven to be one of the most resilient tools and one of the most consumed cultural services during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that this dialogue will contribute to the establishment of a network for the exchange of practices, the transfer of opportunities and mutual collaboration.
In collaboration with the European cross-border journalism network Sphera, the event convened podcast creators from Spain, France, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, as well as Trinidad and Tobago. They discussed how to create relevant and engaging content for international audiences in a way that allows them to generate revenue, develop sustainable projects and establish collaborative networks within the Caribbean and between the Caribbean and Europe.
Define your target audience and your purpose. Before creating your podcast, you should be clear about who you want to reach and what you want to convey. This way you can choose a topic, a name and a style that suits your objectives and the needs of your listeners.
Participants highlighted the versatility and accessibility of this format, which supports democratisation in the use of information and communication technologies to produce and distribute creative content. In this regard, the panellists pointed out that the above podcast qualities also extend the geographical reach of listeners, especially in those countries and regions that share a common language.
The infrastructure for the podcast ecosystem is not fully developed in the Caribbean, for example, podcast production and editing. The support and resources for independent podcasts, such as grants, training, acceleration programs, and industry events are not readily available for this region.
This online event was broadcasted live across social media, providing visibility for Caribbean youth-led initiatives, namely the podcast Power Nugget by Jamaican Richell T. Henry, The Climate Conscious by Trinidadian Derval Barzey, and Gente Brava by Dominican Laura Castellanos Hernández.
This event is part of the exchange activities organized by Transcultura that facilitate knowledge sharing, professional networks creation and market access for young artists and cultural professionals from seventeen Caribbean countries.
