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About Really Specific Stories

Welcome to Really Specific Stories: a series about tech podcasting, its devoted community of producing and listening fans and the value of a medium based on open RSS. Standing for 'Really Simple Syndication', RSS is a web feed that enables users and apps to receive updates from websites, including podcast episodes and blog posts.

Really Specific Stories is recorded, edited and hosted by Martin Feld—a Mac fan, podcast studies researcher and co-host of Hemispheric Views with Andrew Canion and Jason Burk. The show is also a part of a broader PhD project, in collaboration with Dr. Kate Bowles and Dr. Christopher Moore at the University of Wollongong. Each episode includes an interview with a producer or listener from a selected tech podcast case study and uses the qualitative method of narrative enquiry to uncover their experiences. Down the line, responses from each interview will be included in a final PhD thesis, aiming to achieve the following:

  • determine what it means to participate in the community that surrounds tech podcasting and what role RSS plays;
  • explain how and why shared creative practice acts as a form of creative resistance against big tech, news media and broadcasters, based on the open technology of RSS; and
  • contribute to the academic field of podcast studies, drawing from other disciplines such as media ecology, blog theory, fan studies and persona studies.

Not to mention, the podcast acts as an open historical archive of MP3 files for all tech podcast enthusiasts. Academic research is important, however these stories should remain accessible to the community that fuels it.

The publication of any interview linked to a podcast case study depends on formal consent from and ethical collaboration with involved producers and listeners. So far, project case studies include:

Thanks for visiting, and keep an ear out for more episodes!