Perspectives on Alternative Ministry Paradigms - The Pew Internet & American Life Report on Podcasting

The Pew Internet & American Life Report on Podcasting

David Posthuma @ Jul 18, 2005 08:50 AM

The Pew Internet and American Life study has released a report on the progress of Podcasting...the practice of broadcasting MP3 audio files via RSS-capable blogs and websites that may be downloaded to personal computer's and MP3 portable players. Select the link below to view the full report in pdf format...

>> View Report

Podcasting? What is that and why should I care?

That's what many ministry professionals often ask me. They have heard about podcasting, but they don't understand its awesome potential for ministry.

Podcasting is literally broadcasting audio files via the internet. The common audio file format is .MP3. Through podcasting, your ministry can broadcast teachings, meditations, announcements, worship...literally anything that people would prefer to listen to rather than read. Just like radio and television broadcasts ministry programming, podcasting broadcasts your important ministry programming online.

Pew Internet and American Life recently conducted a study on the development of podcasting. Their summary states:

More than 22 million American adults own iPods or MP3 players and 29% of them have downloaded podcasts from the Web so that they could listen to audio files at a time of their choosing. That amounts to more than 6 million adults who have tried this new feature that allows internet “broadcasts” to be downloaded onto their portable listening device.

The popularity of podcasting is growing at a sky-rocketing rate. Two things are necessary for your ministry to begin taking advantage of this new broadcast technology:

A blog site that supports podcasting. E-Church Essentials offers full multimedia blogs, with MP3 podcasting capabilities for only $7.99/month. If your ministry is already a member of the E-Church Network, you may activate your blog by loging in and going to the Relate > Weblogs menu. If your ministry is not a member, but you desire a personal blog, simply register with E-Church Essentials by selecting REGISTER NOW. Registration is FREE. Once registered, you may activate your blog by going to the Relate > Weblogs menu.
A podcast reader that your listener's may use to receive your broadcasts and listen to them automatically. E-Church Essentials also provides your ministry with a FREE podcast reader.

The podcast reader is an essential element if your membership are to receive your broadcasts. The reader is simply configured to "subscribe" to your blog's broadcast. Then whenever your ministry posts a new broadcast, all of your members who have the reader installed on their PC's (a Mac version is also available) will automatically receive your broadcast right on their computer.

To download and install the FREE podcast reader from E-Church Essentials, select the link below. You will need a program like WinZip to unzip the executable file.

Download the FREE Podcast Reader

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