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journalists often ignore audio (and video) content when researching a
story.  Partially there is the “medium bias” at play (i.e. “Hey, I
work in print, so that must be the most important source.”), but that
bias also has something to do with the lack of search tools and the
difficulty of getting those audio words into a transcript that can flow
into text.  Still, there is gold in those sight-and-sound files
for a reporter who can find them and take the time to extract the ore.



The always helpful blog “PI News Link” run by Tamara Thompson posts the following:


“A new form of audio files called podcasts,
so named because they can be downloaded from the Internet to a portable
digital listening device (such as an iPod), are searchable through many
search engines. Yahoo has just rolled out their podcast search. A keyword search of “legal” returned Involuntary Manslaughter: A Double Standard?, a broadcast with the editor of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. The Podcast Search Service catalogs a more extensive collection of websites with podcasts, searching terms within the site title or description. Pod Spider includes international audio files. Individual podcasts are beginning to be tagged, which will enable the searcher to uncover specific relevant audio files.”