Podcasting vs. blogging

A few thoughts about podcasting vs. blogging as an information source...

Podcasting's huge plus is the sound of the human voice. Text, particularly text on the internet, is subject to misinterpretation because of the absence of the inflections found in the human voice. Any topic where personality is as important or more important than content (perhaps a "Meet Our Librarians" feature), or even when a dry subject may be given more life by an enthusiastic speaker (scientists in the business of popularizing science know this well), could benefit from podcasts.

Subjects where specific facts are important and need to be retained may do better with text, however. A text-based blog post allows the reader to take in the information at his/her own pace, rather than trying to keep up with a speaker's pace by jotting notes and almost inevitably missing information. Searching within text-based blog posts is much better developed than search within audio files, as well, which is another factor in favor of text as a way of expressing information that needs to be remembered.