Wednesday, August 6, 2008

The Importance of Podcasts to the Black Community

 Well, it's  been a while since I've been in "summer mode" and taking advantage of the mild weather to get away from the computer. I'm still always looking for podcasts +  that are interesting to me and geared toward the upliftment, entertainment or information of our people. 

I usually download and burn these podcasts as mp3 files on a CD and listen to them on a portable CD player when I''m walking the dog or waiting in any "waiting room".

I listen to them on the car CD player if I'm stuck in traffic or on a long trip. Doing this, has cut my non-productive time drastically. I now find that an 8-hour trip is quite short, rush hour traffic is simply more time to listen to interesting and informative material created by Black folks for Black folks.

On the minus side, I have a tendency to be isolated in the world between my earphones and even get a little annoyed sometimes when a situation arises that calls for me to stop listening to my program. Of course, this is not serious because I know that I can always resume where I left off. The isolation however is of more concern to me so I am trying to reach out to others via this blog in the hopes that I can share what I discover and reciprocally learn about some things that I might not otherwise find. Comments, ideas and other input, even criticisms will be welcomed. We have such a great opportunity to develope our own media, on many levels and everything we need to get it started is at our fingertips.

 The different  subjects  and fields of interest are many and steadily growing. Whether it's music, a college course or lecture, politics, subjects of interest to Black women, erotica, interviews with prominent people in the community, local or national radio talkshow hosts,  international concerns, health issues, crime and much much more, it's being covered in many cases excellently and expertly by people in the Black community. 

 Even the amateur presentations offer an insight into places that "mass media" doesn't venture into, while at the same time giving us the opportunity to discover new talent and keep up with the attitudes and impressions of  youth and those on the fringes of our society.

 In closing , this blogger feels that we should use every resource at our disposal to expand the use of  the podcast, to introduce the podcast to the uninitiated and create a wide network of Black produced material with the idea of  keeping all of us in touch with the pulse and nerve endings  of the Black Community.