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**Rise of Long-Form Podcasts As a Main Source of News: Introduction to Literature Review**

In the last two decades, the media landscape has significantly changed the ways people consume news. In the era of print, broadcast and subsequently social media, audio consumption is gradually gaining popularity and becoming a distinctive part of information flows. With long-form podcasts – audio episodes usually lasting over 60 minutes that include extensive interviews, discussion or analysis becoming the main consumption for more educated and younger audiences – this review addresses the existing literature on the phenomenon, covering the technological background, the motives behind this shift, journalistic issues at stake, and political aspects.

Podcast became a reality due to technological advances and changes in economy. At its early days podcast was considered a medium of participatory journalism and thus was an amateur or niche phenomenon (Berry, 2006). With the development of mobile devices, new distribution platforms, and low costs of production technologies, podcast has become widespread. According to numerous industry surveys by Pew Research Center, Reuters Institute and others, the significant percentage of adults claims using podcasts as news resource, with a portion of listeners treating podcast hosts as primary news source instead of the mainstream media.

Various motivations of listening to podcasts were identified by the researchers. Uses-and-gratifications theory suggests that people value intimacy, convenience, and ability to multitask provided by audio media (Chan-Olmsted & Wang, 2022). Another point that is being addressed frequently is that listening to podcast hosts enables people to establish para-social relations, thus establishing additional sources of trust (Horton & Wohl, 1956; Sherrill, 2022). Moreover, declining trust in traditional news sources adds one more reason why listeners are switching to podcast: people seek the alternative to biased and sensationalized news and consider podcasts as the only place where the news is unscripted and honest.

On the other hand, these developments pose normative problems. While lengthy conversations are able to provide more nuance to the topic and enable to dive deeper, podcasting lacks any sort of fact-checking and editing processes. Thus, people are facing debates about the question whether podcasting democratizes or disrupts public discussion (Sunstein, 2017).

Nevertheless, the literature in the field still remains inconsistent. Most of the existing studies deal with either narrative journalism podcasts or size of the audience. Epistemic function of podcasts is relatively understudied.

Methodological difficulties related to lack of accessibility of user data and analysis of hours of recorded audio contribute to this problem.

Thus, this literature review will examine the research in relation to podcasting covering four areas: technological and economic aspects of development of podcast, reasons of audience usage of the media, the norms of journalistic profession related to podcasting and impact of podcasting on political sphere.

*Note: Citations used above are illustrative; please check each source and substitute citations relevant to your research.*

**A literature review introduction of how long-form podcasts have become the primary news medium.**

Over the past twenty years, audiences experience the news differently. The once-dominant channels of print, television, and later social media are joined by a rising new and unique challenger of audio on demand. Long-form podcasts, which typically refer to episodes longer than sixty minutes featuring extended interviews, analyses or conversation content, are now increasingly taking market share from news – particularly among younger, more educated consumers. The review looks at scholarship on that development, focusing on its technology, audience motives, journalist authority and impact on public life.

Podcasting has evolved due to the convergence of technologies and economics. According to early scholarship, the medium was seen as an amateur or niche format, as a form of participatory media outside institutional journalism (Berry, 2006). Due to cheap production devices, smartphones, and streaming services, barriers became lower and reach became broader. According to various industry surveys, such as those carried out by Pew Research Center and the Reuters Institute, a significant percentage of adults (especially younger ones) now say they are getting news from podcasts. In some cases, audiences treat individual hosts as their primary sources rather than just a supplement to traditional news outlets.

According to researchers, there are many such reasons. According to studies of uses and gratifications, audio is an intimate, convenient, and potentially multi-task approach. (Chan-Olmsted & Wang, 2022) Other researchers highlight the parasocial relationships formed through long-term listening, which may cultivate trust which is not necessarily present in standard reporting (Horton and Wohl, 1956; Sherrill, 2022). As audiences look for alternatives to perceived bias and sensationalism, diminished confidence in legacy institutions adds to the picture, as they may be drawn to product formats that seem unscripted and open.

Are these standards the right ones? Communities often become alternative spaces for debate in contrast to the prevailing shallowness of dominant media, even if their regimented form of production doesn’t include an editorial process for review and correction. Researchers have engaged in a debate as to whether podcasts democratize public debate or intensify ‘epistemic fragmentation’ over the shared ground of facts, a concern broader research on selective exposure and polarization (Sunstein, 2017).

Even if interest is growing, the literature is uneven. Many studies have been undertaken on narrative journalism podcasts or on audience size, which leaves the epistemic function of conversational, host-driven programs comparatively underexplored. These methodological issues are also compounded due to the lack of accessibility to listener data and the hours of spoken data.

The paper synthesizes existing research across four broad areas – technological and economic drivers, audience motivations and trust, journalistic standards and accountability, and political and civic effects. To date, the vaccine has been shown to be safe and effective against COVID-19 in a population of adults and those aged 16 years and older.

*Note: The citations are only for illustrative purposes; please check whether each source can be used for your project and change them for project specific references before use*