The US is the biggest market for podcasting in the world. China's podcasting industry is much smaller, but is growing fast. On February 22, the first “Voice Exchange Series: Podcasting across China and the US,” brought together podcasting professionalsfrom both countries to share their insights and exchange ideas and best practices.
Organized by NYU’s Podcasting and Audio Reportage program in collaboration with NYU Shanghai’s Interactive Media Arts (IMA) program, Voice Exchange aimed at fostering collaboration and innovation through US and Chinese podcasters, increasing the understanding of culture and values, and promoting cooperation between podcasting communities in both countries.
“We love collaborating with different departments and connecting students with professionals in the new media world,” IMA Area Head Marcela Godoy said. “In the IMA program, our students get to explore how new technologies change storytelling, so this event was a fantastic chance for them to tie what they learn in class to what's happening right now in podcasting.”
NYU Associate Professor and Director of the Podcasting and Audio Reportage program at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute Ellen Horne, award-winning podcast producer and one of the co-creators of the podcast RadioLab, kicked off the all-day event. She explained that the podcasting master’s degree program has received a tremendous volume of interest from students in China, which inspired her to organize the exchange, and added that Chinese and American podcasters can learn from each other.
Adriana Zou, the marketing director of leading podcasting production company Justpod delivered the keynote speech and gave an overview of China’s podcasting industry and market. She reported that the number of podcast listeners had reached an estimated 117 million people in 2023 and are continuing to grow. Zou shared the case study of Justpod, which has created over 20 podcasts since its establishment in 2018, including branded podcasts while delivering key messages of the brand. Unlike American podcasts, which in large part developed out of an established public broadcasting system and enjoy support from individual, corporate, and philanthropic foundations, Chinese podcasts are still in their nascent stage, she said. ”In China, it is enterprises that drive us to make podcasts. We look forward to creating podcasts that are more diverse and rich both in format and in content in the future,” Zou said.
Emanuele Berry, the executive editor of the long-running podcast This American Life, gave a talk from a journalistic perspective and shared what makes a good audio story. With 3.5 million listeners tuning in each week, This American Life is one of the most popular podcasts in the US and its distinctive sound has influenced a generation of podcasters. A seasoned podcast producer, Berry illustrated the key elements in story-telling through audio by playing clips of “live tapes” collected by journalists that paint vivid plots with an “emotional truth” or a “conflict,” from the sound of excitement of a little boy about to ride a school bus for the first time, to a phone conversation between a woman and the man she suspected of murdering her niece. “There's just something unpredictable about being inside of a scene like that,” Berry explained. “And you can't do that in other forms of media. If you do that with film, there's sort of an intrusiveness of a camera that sometimes like a microphone doesn't create.”
During the afternoon panel discussion, the producers and hosts of well-known Chinese podcasts, including Selina Liu of Teleread, Xu Bingqing of That is Business, and Yang Dayi of We Know Nothing and Share Your View, joined Berry to discuss the art of interviewing. From how to prepare for an interview to navigating challenges that might happen during an interview, the panelists drew from their expertise and experiences to offer insightful and diverse perspectives.
Professor Horne and Adriana Zou wrapped up the day’s events by exploring potential opportunities for the industry. “What's happening in China's podcasting scene is thrilling,” Horne said after the event. “The growth is staggering and I'm excited to see the industry evolve.” She said that American podcasters have much to learn from China, including Chinese podcasting app Xiaoyuzhou’s interactive nature. “[It] gives Chinese audiences much greater interactivity and engagement with their podcasts than we currently have in the US,” she said. She added that she hopes to continue exchange between US and Chinese podcasters. “It's clear to me that Chinese podcasters are looking to learn more about the production process and techniques utilized by American audio journalists and I can imagine that it will further enrich the content landscape here if more educational opportunities are created,” she said.