As internet use draws audiences away from conventional radio, podcasting in Indonesia presents a paradox: it may reach a large audience, yet remains relatively underdeveloped. This matters not only as a question of distribution, but also of participation. Podcasts could open opportunities for creators and support industry growth, while offering listeners audio that can fit different needs and circumstances. The pandemic made this question more immediate, as education studies considered podcasts as alternatives or supplements to live, meeting-based instruction. One way to understand this shift is to look at communities that make podcasting learnable. A netnographic study—an online form of ethnographic research—examined The Podcasters group on Discord, a communication platform. It used computer-mediated communication (CMC), meaning communication conducted through computers, to show how peer interaction can support podcast learning and an Indonesian podcast market [1].
Prior work frames podcasting first as an alternative channel for distributing audio, not simply as a new kind of programme. A library study of podcast opportunities in Indonesia argues that success depends on aligning materials, presentation, distribution, and promotion with audiences’ needs, preferences, listening practices, and the character of the medium [2]. This distribution question is linked to educational use. In one English-learning classroom study, students’ post-test speaking scores were higher than their pre-test scores after podcast-based instruction, suggesting that podcasts can support speaking practice [3].
Research on “coursecasting”—recording course material as podcasts—offers a more cautious educational model. In higher education, students generally treated recorded lectures as additional resources that helped them understand lecture material, while preferring the live lectures; the study also provides practical advice on producing and distributing academic podcasts [5]. Language-learning research likewise presents podcasting as flexible and capable of supporting personalized learning, but emphasizes that different audiences use podcasts in markedly different ways [6]. These findings make audience practices important to any account of podcast development.
Finally, netnography—ethnographic research conducted online—offers a method for examining cultures and communities formed through internet interaction. Kozinets presents procedural and ethical guidance for studying online communities, including podcasting and social-network environments . The prior evidence therefore supplies useful foundations, but it is heterogeneous: it includes library research, a classroom experiment, higher-education observation and survey work, a review, and methodological guidance. It does not by itself explain how creators learn podcasting together through community communication.