Blogs v. Podcasting

I think the advantages/disadvantages might come down to individual preferences for media consumption and retention; in my case, it's down to how I learn best.

I've learned over the years that I can truly get sucked into audio and lose track of the rest of the world, especially during certain types of audio that require extended attention, like books on tape or spoken word monologue files. It's why I listen to neither while driving. But weirdly, this rapt attention does nothing for my retention. If I'm listening to something, it goes away rapidly. The same can't be said for what occurs when reading. If I read or see it, I'm not only more likely to recall and understand it, I'm more likely to quote it back to you. I'm a visual learner. It's why, for me, listening to vodcasts requires several replays, but what's going on visually always registers.

However, podcasts have the virtue of making things more human:

• We can hear voices, personalities, nuance: all hard to convey in text
• We can add soundtracks, and sound fx, and use silence - text can't
• We could convey in a short bit of sound all the message we need - we might need a lot of words to 'say' the same
• It's more communal, say, then reading alone - or gives that impression.
• Many of us are used to the concept of 'story time', in which someone read to us.

Add to this the idea that you've created a recording that's accessible to all at their convenience, and the virtues of podcasting are apparent.

Luckily, at this point, we're not in an 'either/or' position as far as text blogs and audio podcasts. We can have both.