From Research to Creation: The ‘Behind the Scenes’ Steps of Participatory Podcasting for Knowledge Dissemination

Scholarly podcasts are increasingly recognized as a promising strategy for knowledge dissemination within participatory research contexts. As multimodal knowledge-sharing tools, podcasts and infographics offer opportunities to make research findings more accessible and engaging for diverse audiences. Within the field of podcast studies, recent scholarship has encouraged researchers and podcast practitioners to move away from focusing solely on the podcast as artifact, and instead, explore important processes such as care processes, ethics, researcher positionality, audience engagement, and the development of paratextual elements. However, while scholarly podcasting as a genre is gaining traction, there remains limited scholarship on the practical, ‘behind the scenes’ steps involved in participatory podcasting—podcasts that are collaboratively designed and produced by teams who critically interrogate questions of participation throughout the process. These projects often integrate podcasts with other dissemination outputs, yet detailed guidance on how to operationalize such approaches is scarce. In this article, we clearly document our own participatory podcasting ‘steps’ so that others may adapt participatory podcasting to their own project needs. We present the co-development of a podcast and infographic series on online participatory visual methods, co-produced by the Centre for Community Based Research and Trillium Health Partners. Participatory Visual Methods (PVM) are a series of facilitated methods such as photovoice, digital storytelling, or cellphilming (i.e., short videos produced on a phone in response to a prompt) which invite participants (or, “co-researchers”) to collaboratively identify, discuss, and analyze issues of importance, via the creation of photographs or videos. In what follows, we describe concrete steps and processes involved in participatory podcast development as a knowledge sharing strategy. Following these steps, we discuss lessons learned, outlining the opportunities, tensions, and challenges of podcasting for participatory dissemination. We conclude by putting Chapman and Sawchuk’s research creation framework (2012) in conversation with podcast studies and participatory methods scholarship to reflect on the promise of participatory podcasting. We position our research-informed podcasts and infographics as bridges between data collection and dissemination - what Mitchell et al. (2017) called “digital dialogue tools” (p.122). Together, podcasts and infographics offer a dynamic and accessible way to share research findings, spark new conversations and ideas, engage participants, and apply research findings through real-world contexts.