Research method to carry podcast studies out in Librarianship and Information Science

Abstract

This article introduces the Podcast Ethnography as a research method under the following question: How to define a scientific methodology based on the theoretical and practical approaches on the podosphere? The main objective is discussing Podcast Ethnography as a research method and as a methodological basis to purpose techniques and instruments for collecting and analyzing data from podcast aggregators, by resulting in a research script to carry podcast studies out in Librarianship and Information Science. As a theoretical discussion, the podcast is analyzed as a sound document, which has been gathered into digital audio collections in a virtual environment called podosphere. In this respect, Podcast Ethnography allows the development of research tools, strategies and techniques for collecting and analyzing data available on podcast aggregators. As a purpose, metadata, fields and open questions are presented aiming to develop research forms. In addition, there are suggestions to collect data by using an electronic research diary and by organizing a research schedule. In order to analyze the content of podcast episodes, the audio transcription, the definition of timestamps, and the categorization by subject are presented as strategies for discussing the results obtained through Podcast Ethnography. It is concluded that podcasts have contributed to scientific communication as a growing media which has become an object of study to researches and librarians.