Module 3 Podcasting for Resilience
Introduction
Welcome to the module ‘podcasting for resilience’.
For youth professionals it can be difficult to address polarised thinking, racism and expressions of hatred. Creating space for young people to explore their concerns and ideas is important, but it is not always easy to talk about these subjects, even among colleagues. Often youth professionals experience “professional loneliness” when they have to deal with young people who are expressing challenging or even hateful ideas, or are becoming more distant in their relationship. Professionals need support and exchange, but can feel they are on their own.
In this module you will research how podcasting can support the conversation about these issues with young people, professionals and others. While you do this, you will work on a plan for a podcast. You will go through all the steps, from preparation to recording, to publication and evaluation.
The module draws on our own and others’ experiences of these steps and draws on a variety of sources available on the topic. To illustrate what is said in this module we use clips and examples from the podcast series ‘Resilience’. We will also regularly refer to interesting resources that can be found on the internet.
This Dutch podcast has been developed within the framework of the EDURAD project. A project that aims to offer pedagogical tools to youth professionals to deal with themes like radicalisation and extremism. In the development we worked together with Platform JEP (Platform Youth Prevention Extremism and Polarisation). This platform supports professionals who work with and for young people with their questions about polarisation, radicalisation and extremism.
Credit:Stijn Sieckelinck 2021
Why a podcast?
Podcasts are audio recordings that can be listened to at any time and any place by anyone who chooses to download or stream them. Podcasts vary greatly in form, style and content, but they often consist largely of spoken word and are often focussed on a particular topic or theme.
Almost anyone can make and publish a podcast. A simple smartphone is enough to make and distribute a podcast. This means that the use of the medium is not the preserve of large media companies or individuals and organizations with access to large financial resources.
Creators can, in principle, give their own interpretation to the content of their podcasts and enter into a conversation about subjects that not every organisation wants to get involved in. These can be certain niche topics, but also topics that are perceived as controversial or can provoke resistance. In doing so they can be used to give a voice to people who may not always come forward in the traditional media landscape.
Perhaps partly because of the intimate and personal form of the medium, podcasts often attract a loyal audience. This can offer scope for entering into a dialogue on tricky themes and possibly offers the opportunity to devote the necessary time to this. All these factors together make podcasting an interesting medium for entering into dialogue about sensitive and important subjects such as polarisation, radicalisation and extremism, and themes related to these.
The podcast ‘Resilience’
How can you support young people in developing a resilient identity? And how can you strengthen their resilience in the face of polarizing and radicalizing forces? These are the questions that are central in the podcast. In six episodes professionals working with or for young people share how they look at these questions and how they answer them in their work. The podcasts build on the research Speelruimte voor identiteit (Room for identity), conducted by Stijn Sieckelinck and Femke Kaulingfreks. The aim of the podcast is to discuss the sensitive topic of polarisation and radicalisation from a pedagogical perspective and to allow youth professionals to learn from each other’s experiences. Although the podcast is primarily aimed at youth professionals it has been designed in such a way that the topic is also relevant for a wider audience.
This short clip should give you a flavour of the podcast series.