We Want Media

I’ve blogged before about the internet and specifically blogs being a way to break down the barriers between news consumers and the opinion leaders and experts upon which we rely for information.

Well, today I want to point out another impressive upshot of this phenomenon: podcasts. For those of you who don’t know, podcasts are radio programs that rather than broadcast are syndicated via RSS and distributed over the internet. Law schools and wider university systems are using them to make their symposia and other lectures available online to anyone who wishes to listen. As a result, there is an extreme wealth of information available online. Knowledge that used to be available only to members of an elite demographic –- namely, attendees of a specific university –- is now available to literally the whole world. And, if this is your thing, it’s very satisfying.

Below are some of my podcast lists. Check them out.

http://www.law.duke.edu/webcast/mp3cast/podcasts.xml

I recommend “The Fourth Estate Under Fire,” “Media Coverage of the Duke Lacrosse Case with Jack Ford,” “Trying Cases in the Media – the Role of Prosecutor and the Press” for some insight into what was going on at Duke Law during the recent Lacrosse scandal.

“Happiness and the Law” is also pretty fantastic.

And for you science buffs:

http://www.yale.edu/opa/podcast/pod_science.html

This is just a taste of what’s out there. Virtually every leading university has a podcast, so feel free to Google if there’s any school in which you’re specifically interested.