Blogs, podcasting: what the hell are you talking about?
Thanks to AdPulp, I found out this article on Reuters which should really make us think:
“Proponents of the latest Web trends were warned on Tuesday that the rest of the world may not have a clue what they are talking about. A survey of British taxi drivers, pub landlords and hairdressers — often seen as barometers of popular trends — found that nearly 90 percent had no idea what a podcast is and more than 70 percent had never heard of blogging.”
A research by DDB London found out that there is no buzz about blogging and podcasting outside of our media industry bubble, and also that people have no understanding of what the words mean.
You’re right; as seen meny time in the history, a new technology gain success when people don’t referr to it as a “technology”. I think that blogs and podcasting will not arrive to a large audience with those actual names. It’s like “browser”: try to ask to current internet users if they know what browser is.
Mauro, I think 90% of people who use the internet know what a browser is. It’s not rocket science.
BTW the study was of hairdessers, cabdrivers and pubowners - people who spend 0% of their time on the net. Your average business man spends a lot more time on the net. Your average teenager, your average mom…
I think they should have spread their net a little further to get a true reflection.
In my opinion if you do that study in France you’ll have a lot of people who’ll know what a blog is. Why ? Because TV, press, radio talk about blogs at least once a week. M6 (a national TV channel) has unveiled Blogsix, a short program which is built around a blog (http://www.blog6.fr/blog/blogsix).
And i agree with Huhh? this study can’t even call study, it’s crap…
But people really do not know what these terms mean. Pew Internet & American Life did a research (and I mean “real” research) on the knowledge of “buzz words” among people. And “rss” and “podcast” landed at the very bottom of that list.
Full article (in Polish) here: http://paweltkaczyk.midea.pl/205/
i’m glad that a study finally shows what many people are thinking without saying it ! Many people use Internet, and maybe know the word Blog, but don’t really know its meaning… And I’m pretty sure they never heard about podcasting or rss. I’m not saying that these technologies are pointless or are not going to become standards, i’m just saying that there is still work to do before they get adopted by the hairdresser next door, or even the average net surfer. To begin with, maybe a new name for “RSS feed”, which I can’t imagine said by this average internet user…
This research of the bleeding obvious. Podcasting and Blog are hardly mainstream terms. I agree with the browser comment above. Instead of researching the obvious, to get a headline, I would been interested in learning how consumers react to the idea of a more democratic media environment and more open access to corporations.
Perhaps WPP will do something on this!
The study as been conducted on subjects that, even if it was true that they rapresent a barometer of popular trends, wich are not exactly well known for their culture and their use of internet.
Furthermore it could be that DDB London might be more interested in classical media for economics purposes/interests [no class media, no agency fee?].
On the basis of this two quick considerations, personally, I can’t agree with the results and conclusions.
Best regards.
Pier Luca