After Serial took off in late 2014 everyone swooned over the idea of podcasts and how amazing they can be, and how unique Serial was. Podcast aren’t new, and have been around for over a decade now. Serial however gave podcast lovers and advertisers the chance to see podcast are loved and can make money. While podcast’s are not new no one has found a way to properly monetize or track the audience of these podcast.
Upvoted is Reddit podcast which wants to take the same approach as Serial by expanding on stories that the Reddit community upvote and find interesting. “Every day, across thousands of communities on the network, some story bubbles up because a bunch of people click upvote,” explains Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian in the first episode. “But that’s not the end … we’d like to use this podcast to dig a little deeper.”
It’s not clear if Upvoted will have investigations and who will take charge of these or what they will be over. We have seen Reddit’s citizen journalist and while they do amazing jobs they don’t have the best track record. In the first episode a couple of Reddit users tell the story and conduct the podcast.
This podcast is Reddits continued approach to citizen journalism and the site being the front page of the internet is stretching into the site curating content and hosting community events. The site is become more of a open and diverse community that has a close and dedicated following.
The biggest problem for podcasts in the near future will be finding a way to track and better understand how its audience reaches and listens to its podcast. Tell us what you think about podcast and what the future for podcast will look in the comments below.