City Road fits within Australia’s strong tradition of community radio. These stations provide programming that caters to the needs of their diverse local communities, and many have strong traditions in social justice broadcasting. Six million Australians tune in to over 450 not‐for‐profit, community‐owned and operated radio services operating across the country each week. Community broadcasting is Australia’s largest independent media sector, a key pillar in the Australian media landscape, and recognised internationally as one of the most successful examples of grassroots media. Rather than presenting this co‐authored commentary with a single voice, the author quotes bring to light the critical debates that took place and the tensions that exist between the authors, and this is more representative of this final output of this podcast project.Ĭity Road Podcast is an interview‐driven podcast which is also broadcast on the 2SER community radio station in Sydney, Australia. This somewhat unorthodox collaborative academic approach to writing is emblematic of the methodological potential of podcasting and reflective of our exploratory foray into listening to and hearing about the unfolding impacts of COVID‐19 on cities around the world. Ultimately, this commentary reflects a multitude of voices – many in tune with one another but also some in tension. Moreover, various comments posed by the podcast contributors became an integral part of this commentary, in that they are included as either direct quotes (cited as per comms below) or as part of the overall narrative within the paper. This enabled an interactive collaboration whereby various colleagues’ contributions helped augment, refine and strengthen the overall structure, style and narrative of this commentary. Building on this earlier methodological work, an initial draft of this critical commentary was written by Dallas and Miles before it was circulated to those who contributed audio recordings to the podcast project, inviting them to make comments or edits on the initial draft which was hosted on GoogleDocs. Dallas has used collective biography and digital storytelling methodologies since 2014, and Dallas and Miles have been thinking through the methodological utility of podcasting since starting City Road in 2017 (Rogers & Herbert 2019). The podcasting methodology discussed here focuses on two key issues: (i) the planning and production of the podcast and (ii) the iterative critical reflections on the podcast process and content that underpin this commentary.
![struggle session podcast soundcloud struggle session podcast soundcloud](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/little-girls-rifle-practice-featured.jpg)
The project was completed in 12 days and had three key outputs: (i) an edited podcast broadcast on ApplePodcast and on community radio in Australia (ii) an associated podcast/radio write up of the project on the City Road website and (iii) a public‐facing online media article published by The Conversation with the podcast embedded. City Road collected and edited the audio files into a structured 30 minute podcast. The contributions included a mix of personal and academically‐grounded readings and personal in‐the‐moment reflections on how their respective cities were being impacted as a result of the COVID‐19 pandemic.
![struggle session podcast soundcloud struggle session podcast soundcloud](https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-AbR6tGndaCuo270F-bw4eKw-t500x500.png)
This critical commentary reflects on a rapidly mobilised international podcast project, in which 25 urban scholars 1 from around the world provided audio recordings made about cities in Australia, Canada, the US, UK, India, Iran, Germany, Singapore and New Zealand.
![struggle session podcast soundcloud struggle session podcast soundcloud](https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000437573445-b6enzq-t500x500.jpg)
Then putting this methodology into action some limited reflections on cities under COVID‐19 lockdown and social distancing initiatives around the world are provided to demonstrate the utility and limitations of this method.
![struggle session podcast soundcloud struggle session podcast soundcloud](https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000498206574-runlkh-t500x500.jpg)
In this case the methodology includes the curated production of the podcast and critical reflection on the podcast process through collaborative writing. The substantive sections of this commentary discuss the digital methodology opportunities that podcasting affords geographical scholarship. Many of those who provided short audio 'reports from the field' recorded on their mobile phones were struggling to make sense of their experience in their city during COVID‐19. Voice recorders on mobile phones and digital audio editing on laptops allows researchers to collaborate in new ways, and this podcast project pushed at the boundaries of what a research method and community might be. New digital tools are increasing the speeds, formats and breadth of the research and communication mediums available to researchers. This critical commentary reflects on a rapidly mobilised international podcast project, in which 25 urban scholars from around the world provided audio recordings about their cities during COVID‐19.