abstract:

Using close interviews with podcast listeners conducted between July and September 2020, this essay explores the affective role podcasting played for listeners during the COVID-19 pandemic. For some participants trapped indoors due to COVID restrictions, podcast hosts became like friends, providing feelings of sociality in a physically distanced landscape. Furthermore, through their on-demand, converged, and idiosyncratic features, podcasts created mediated opportunities for agency for individuals bereft of their usual mobilities and freedoms, which provided a kind of affective agency that helped listeners make sense of the crisis. This essay argues that podcasting's overriding value—both in the pandemic and contemporary life—lies not necessarily in its unifying properties, but in its individual affective impact.

摘要：

本文通过对 2020 年 7 月至 9 月期间播客听众的近距离采访，探讨了播客在 COVID-19 大流行期间对听众的情感作用。对于一些因 COVID 限制而被困在室内的参与者来说，播客主持人变得像朋友一样，在物理距离远的环境中提供社交感。此外，播客通过其按需、聚合和特殊的特性，为失去通常行动能力和自由的个人创造了中介机会，这提供了一种情感代理，帮助听众理解危机。这篇文章认为，播客的压倒一切的价值——无论是在大流行中还是在当代生活中——并不一定在于它的统一属性，而在于它对个人的情感影响。