Podcast: a view through the prism of social philosophy

Abstract

The podcast is a digital product of human activity, which fulfills a function of comprehension of being at the level of meanings, values, images, norms, and goals. It reflects the peculiarities of language and speech, consciousness and thinking of a person of a specific sociocultural tradition. The main underlying idea of this paper can be put as follows: covering various aspects of human life, it does not only describe the society but also gives an appreciation, promotes an understanding of the social processes of our time. The purpose of the paper is to examine the holistic essence of podcast’s being as a phenomenon, to reveal the tendencies of its functioning in the World Wide Web, its role in society and information processes. The methodological basis for this study was the general scientific methods of empirical and theoretical generalization, induction and synthesis, the sociocultural method, the method of comparative analysis. In order to study podcasts’ content, the contentanalysis method was also used. Podcast resources in the web were the empirical basis of this research. The achievement of this goal required solving a number of research tasks, such as: to reveal characteristic features of podcasts on the basis of their content analysis; to consider their ontological, epistemological foundations and social functions; to specify the place and the role of podcasts in society. The use of these methods made possible not only to describe and study podcasts with considering a wide range of their sociocultural meanings and subtexts but to consider their philosophical foundations, their social functions, and gnoseological aspects. The podcast was considered as a human activity in understanding the surrounding world. The content analysis of various podcast resources in the network gives grounds to suggest that in the socio-cultural plan, the podcast is an objectified result of man’s mastering and understanding of the world, a modus by which a person seeks to «denote oneself», and reproduces oneself in the integrity of one’s natural, linguistic, social, and cultural life. Among basic social functions of podcasts, the informative, cognitive, communicative, socializing, and compensatory could be named. The ontological basis of a podcast is communication, a dialogue, and people collective communication in the network, regardless of geographical and social boundaries. Further, the effectiveness and success of a podcast’s existence and functioning in the web are determined by its content, and therefore its influence, both on the individual and on society as a whole. The scientific novelty of this study consists in applying an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of this phenomenon, and the replenishment of knowledge about current trends in its use. Finally, the analysis of podcasts existence in the web, based on their content and characteristics, allowed the author to come to the following conclusions: the podcast reflects the system of social norms, spiritual values, cultural realities, and people’s attitude to the surrounding world and to each other. In a functional aspect, a podcast is a digital «carrier», a means for storing and transmitting information, knowledge and experience, an intermediary, and a way of communication. Podcasts role is unique in various spheres (media, educational, scientific, and political)