John L. Sullivan is Professor in the Department of Media and Communication at Muhlenberg College, USA. His research explores the links between media and systems of social and economic power. He has published articles on podcasting production in the United States, focusing on the processes of formalization and monetization of amateur and semi-professional labor. He is the author of Media Audiences, 2nd edition (2020).

Includes an installment on the series editors' companion podcast, For Your Ears Only - #2 on the itunes chart for the technology category

1. Introduction: Podcasting in Transition2. Podcasting as a 21st Century Cultural Industry3. Institutional Formalization: Mapping a New Cultural Industry4. Distribution and Exhibition Shifts: The Platformization of Podcasting5. Professionalism and the Myth of Meritocracy6. Podcast Production: Fostering Communities of Practice7. Market Information Regimes in Podcasting: Formalization and Audience Metrics8. "This Podcast Was Brought to you By...": Advertising and Brands in Podcasting9. Podcast Conventions and the Entrepreneurial DreamConclusionBibliographyIndex

Podcasting in a Platform Age explores the transition underway in podcasting by considering how the influx of legacy and new media interest in the medium is injecting professional and corporate logics into what had been largely an amateur media form.Many of the most high-profile podcasts today, however, are produced by highly-skilled media professionals, some of whom are employees of media corporations. Legacy radio and new media platform giants like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Spotify are also making big (and expensive) moves in the medium by acquiring content producers and hosting platforms. This book focuses on three major aspects of this transformation: formalization, professionalization, and monetization. Through a close read of online and press discourse, analysis of podcasts themselves, participant observations at podcast trade shows and conventions, and interviews with industry professionals and individual podcasters, John Sullivan outlines how the efforts of industry players to transform podcasting into a profitable medium are beginning to challenge the very definition of podcasting itself.