The technology of MP3 audio and video files—the technology behind downloadable music and the new portable players—has made possible a new Internet medium, the podcast.
A podcast is in some ways comparable to a blog. While blogging is a kind of online self-publication, podcasting is a kind of online self-broadcast. The creator of a podcast makes an audio or video recording and posts it at a web address. The audience for the podcast listens to or views this “show” by downloading it to a computer or, more commonly, to a portable MP3 player.
The term podcasting derives from the Apple brand name iPod, but the technology is not exclusive to Apple products. A podcast can be recorded by many means and can be downloaded to any computer or MP3 player. Avid followers of a podcast series—a travel advisor’s weekly tips, for instance, or an art museum’s monthly gallery talk—can subscribe for free to the series and automatically receive each installment at a “podcatcher” such as iTunes.
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At the National Zoo
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A student from Jamestown Elementary in Arlington, Virginia, uses an MP3 player to record "live notes" while on a field trip to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington.
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