How journalism uses podcasts and how people listen

Podcasts have become one of journalism’s chosen formats for sharing news and producing quality journalism. They have restored the power of sound to daily news delivery and, above all, revived the journalistic audio documentary (Torres et al., 2025). Moreover, “the richness and immersive sound of podcasts offer unique opportunities to restore trust in the media, reinforcing its legitimacy and authority as a credible source of information” (Dowling, 2024, cited in Torres et al., 2025, p. 5). Torres et al. (2025) found in interviews with journalists that quality was considered “essential” for both daily news and documentary podcasts, with editing seen as a particularly vital stage for in-depth productions.

Podcast journalism today takes several forms: some outlets publish exclusive audio investigations (such as Fumaça in Portugal); others adapt live radio broadcasts that can also be heard on demand (NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered in the US, for example). Many print media outlets have also invested in podcasts for their online audiences—among them Today in Focus (The Guardian, UK), The Daily and The Headlines (The New York Times, US), NRC Vandaag (NRC, Netherlands), O Mundo a Seus Pés (Expresso) and P24 (Público, Portugal).

Although podcasts are often described as a flexible, portable medium, research by Kormelink et al. (2025) focusing on news podcasts and how they fit into listeners’ daily routines suggests that listeners tend to associate news podcasts with specific routines or daily moments — from commuting or jogging to household chores. When that routine is disrupted, “the podcast listening was less likely to occur” (p. 974). News podcasts were also seen as time-sensitive, meaning listeners rarely return to older episodes, as they contain outdated news. Even when combined with other activities, this type of podcast requires the listener’s focus and cannot be played in the background, unlike humorous podcasts (Kormelink et al., 2025).

On the other hand, it became clear that listening to a podcast is often linked to multitasking, which the authors suggest may be even more common with news podcasts. This is for several reasons: it makes mundane tasks less tedious; it can make listening to the news itself more enjoyable; it provides a sense of efficiency; it can turn an already pleasant activity into a moment of relaxation; and it occupies a space between engagement and distraction, making it easier for listeners to focus on the podcast (Kormelink et al., 2025, p. 975).

Given these characteristics, Kormelink et al. (2025) suggest that it may be relevant to study how podcasts can help counter selective news avoidance, an issue also related to the quality of information. They also note that, since regularity is essential for systematic listening, news organisations could help audiences frame podcast consumption in specific moments of their day by publishing at consistent times or designing episodes for daily routines, such as commuting.

Note

Sixty participants from the Netherlands were interviewed. The researchers first asked them to listen to a news podcast for four weeks and to record their experiences in a diary. Of these, 24 participants were assigned the podcast NRC Vandaag, another 24 received Dit Wordt Het Nieuws, and the remaining 12 were assigned De Dag.

Machine Translation Post-Editing: Anabela Delgado

References

Kormelink, T. G., Hadden, B., Linssen, D., Santangelo, E., Blaauw, F., Kiewiet, L., & Keppel, P. (2025). Anytime, anyplace? The context-dependency of news podcast use. Journalism Studies, 26(8), 961-979. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2025.2487857

Torres, E. G. de, Legorburu, L. M., Parra‐Valcarce, D., Edo, C., & Escobar‐Artola, L. 2025). Intimacy in podcast journalism: Ethical challenges and opportunities in daily news podcasts and documentaries. Media and Communication, 13, Article 8994. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.8994

Photography: Will Francis, on Unsplash