Benefits/Detractions of Podcasts vs.Text Based Blogging

There are clear advantages and disadvantages to using podcast vs text based blogs. One of the clear disadvantage with any text based entity is that you lose a sense of inflection which is often vital to communicating a message. When people communicate verbally they are able to stress certain points by raising their voice, changing their tone, or take pauses when necessary to add more emphasis. These speech tools are lost in a text based environment. Sure we can add bold text or use ALL CAPS to add more stress, but this pales in comparison to the flexibility of the verbal communication.

However, podcasts are not a perfect tool either. Many times users may want a transcript or text based document of the message communicated in the audio file. So only using a podcast may have its drawbacks as well. In my opinion, using a blended model of both podcasts as well as text based blogging is the most beneficial and well rounded approach.