Casting Call

Unicef turns to Internet-based podcasting to communicate with millions of tech-savvy supporters

When Unicef dispatched relief workers to Congo in December to help those who were uprooted during fighting in the

African country, Unicef’s supporters didn’t have to rely on written accounts to learn about its efforts to help the estimated 10,000 refugees. Instead, they could hear Anthony Bloomberg, the charity’s top official in the country, describe in vivid detail the refugees’ pain and hardship.

Mr. Bloomberg’s description came courtesy of a podcast, an Internet-based broadcast that is available free to anyone with Web access.

Unicef has been using podcasts since early 2005 to tell such stories to its supporters around the globe. During that time, Unicef’s podcasts have featured the voices of tsunami survivors, Hurricane Katrina victims, and relief workers. Through these voices, the charity has provided listeners with front-line accounts of natural disasters and humanitarian crises.

The audio programs have quickly become popular among Unicef supporters, with more than three million downloads during the first year, according to Stephen Cassidy, who oversees Internet, television, and radio programs at the charity.

“The technology is cool and it’s interesting,” says Mr. Cassidy, a former deputy managing editor for CNN. “But our principal focus is to get people to recognize the challenges that the world’s people face and get people to do something about it. We’re one of the organizations that can help people do that.”

Growing Popular

Unicef is one of a small but growing number of organizations that are using podcasts to communicate with supporters.

Podcasting itself is in its infancy. Only a sliver of Americans — about six million — had downloaded audio recordings online, according to a survey taken in February 2005 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Podcasts earned their name because they can easily be downloaded and transferred onto a portable music device, such as Apple Computer’s popular iPod, for future listening.

But podcasts are not limited to those who own iPods. Anyone who has a high-speed Internet connection has the ability to download and listen to the programming through a computer. Several online sites — including Apple’s iTunes site, iPodder, Podcast Alley, and Podcast.net — offer access to podcasts, most of which can be downloaded free. In many cases, those who create and develop podcasts also link to the programs on their Web sites.

Creating a podcast is, in many cases, a straightforward and inexpensive process. Many of the online podcast directories allow people or organizations to place their recordings online free. As a result, it simply takes a computer, a microphone, and some low-budget software to create the most basic podcasts.

Because of the relative ease of creating these programs — and the growing popularity of iPods and other portable music players — podcasts have exploded in popularity. For example, Apple’s iTunes site boasts that it has a catalog of more than 20,000 podcasts. Just six months ago, that number was only about 7,000.

What’s more, the number of people who own iPods continues to swell. Apple sold 22.5 million iPods during its 2005 fiscal year, which ended in September, according to Apple’s annual report, and another 14 million during the holiday season.

Low Cost

Podcasting’s low cost, combined with its growing popularity, makes it an appealing format for charities, says Mr. Cassidy. In the past, charities would have to buy air time on a radio or television station to broadcast their messages unfiltered or get lucky enough to get a sound bite on a newscast.

Through podcasting, nonprofit groups are only paying the cost of producing the content and making it available to people who can download the programs.

“In the beginning, the means of mass communication were owned and controlled by governments and corporations,” Mr. Cassidy says. “The means of communication are now in the hands of every man, woman, and child on the planet. We believe every organization has an opportunity today to speak to large numbers of people from the large numbers of platforms that are available.”

With that idea in mind, Unicef began recording and broadcasting its own radio programs for use on its Web site early in 2005. The first broadcast discussed HIV and AIDS in Botswana and Namibia. Later versions have included a Cambodian child talking about stepping on a land mine, an Iraqi girl talking about her country’s elections, and an original song performed for Unicef by MAGZ, a New York rapper.

Blue Chevigny, a freelance radio journalist, produces most of the pieces in recording space at Unicef’s U.S. headquarters in New York. The pieces are then put on the Internet and distributed to podcasting sites such as iTunes by the charity’s Web staff. “The Web, in general, is really an easy way to get stuff out there,” says Ms. Chevigny. “Anybody can put it up now. It’s the audio equivalent of the blog.”

But while the concept appears informal, Unicef’s podcasts carry a professional tone that one would expect to hear on National Public Radio.

Ms. Chevigny, a former producer of the Public Radio International program This American Life, says Unicef’s podcasts are typically divided into two categories.

The first are short, typically two minutes or less, and discuss important news events that affect the lives of children. The items are typically gathered through tape-recorded telephone interviews with Unicef staff members who are working on programs around the world or through audio recordings that are forwarded to Ms. Chevigny.

“These stories capture something, and they are dramatic and people respond to them,” she says. “It’s timely. It’s the issue of the day.”

The second format includes feature-length stories that run between five and 10 minutes and take an in-depth look at an important issue. Ms. Chevigny says she tries to produce and post at least one feature per week.

“They are regular radio pieces in terms of telling the story like it is,” she says. “But we also try to put Unicef’s angle on it.”

The goal, says Mr. Cassidy, is to create programming that appeals to people who are interested in the plight of children around the globe. The pieces are not an effort to raise money for the charity — Unicef never directly solicits donations during the spots — but rather an attempt to raise awareness and speak to an audience that is interested in its activities.

“We think that the podcast has been a tremendous success because it gives us an opportunity to be a good match for the way the audience has organized itself,” Mr. Cassidy says. “People interested in one subject or another are gathering themselves in one area. To find what I want, I no longer have to sit through the guy who is interested in bass fishing,” like when he listens to the radio.

On Unicef’s agenda in 2006 are vodcasts — video versions of its podcasts that can be played on cellphones and iPods that are equipped to play video clips. The organization believes these video newscasts can reach some of the 50 million people who it estimates will be using cellphones and other mobile technology to watch video by 2009.

Mr. Cassidy says Unicef’s attempts to produce programs on these new mediums is part of the organization’s strategy to get its programs and activities in front of as many different potential supporters as possible.

“The only way to win at roulette is to put a chip on every number,” Mr. Cassidy says. “Wherever the audience lands, we want to be there.”

And after getting more than three million downloads during its first year of podcasting, Unicef’s wager on new technology appears to be paying off. “I’m not sure if it’s a fantastic number. It’s probably not in the neighborhood of the number of downloads for a Britney Spears song,” Mr. Cassidy says. “But it’s three million more than we had.”

To find out more information about Unicef’s podcsts, or to download a podcast, go to http://www.unicef.org/videoaudio/video_allpodcasts.html.