Podcasts & vodcasts: the “alternative radios” of the digital world

Abstract

Starting from the process of digitisation of radio, the aim of this contribution is to investigate radio in the digital world with the emergence of what could be defined as the new alternative radios, echoing Umberto Eco's concept in Apocalittici e Integrati. In recent years, the digital world has seen an explosion and consequent saturation of images in every form, content and mode of use: from selfies to reels, from streaming platforms to virtual reality. Taking up and re-locating the scientific principle whereby for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, we have recently witnessed a push towards forms, contents and modes of fruition linked to orality. Visual storytelling, in fact, is flanked by sound storytelling that has found - and continues to find - fertile ground in the platform society through podcasts and vodcasts. The analysis, therefore, focuses on two platforms, namely Spotify and Twitch, on how they have remediated the contents and languages of analogue radio, both in the sphere of production and distribution, and in the sphere of users in which an important generation of radio-amateurs can be found: Generation Z.