Podcasts

 Reply All: "A podcast about the internet"

For this assignment, I researched the podcast "Reply All" hosted by PJ Vogt, Alex Goldman, and Emmanuel Dzotsi. This is a podcast which tells stories about the internet and human interactions with the internet. I chose this podcast because it seemed very relevant to this course since it is all about internet communication. I accessed this podcast on Spotify but on apple podcast this show has 5 stars with 25K ratings. 

The episode I watched, Episode #165: The Mold and The Beautiful, covered two stories: the story of a conspiracy theory involving Jeffery Epstein and Wayfair and a story about an instagram food blog exposing a trendy LA restaurant. Both these stories showed the effects of media on culture. For example, the conspiracy theory surrounding Jeffery Epstein hurt a number of innocent bystanders such as the Wayfair company, two women named Julia Chandler, and actress Reese Witherspoon, as they all became connected to human trafficking through a ridiculous conspiracy theory. The second story showed the impact social media can have on a business and their reputation. An instagram food blogger shared a series of photos which exposed a very trendy and popular LA restaurant, Sqirl, for having moldy food and not following health guidelines. In response to this criticism, the instagram account for Sqirl disabled their comments and the owner never explicitly denied the accusations. This created a lot of backlash against the business, showing how when social media is used incorrectly, it can greatly drive away consumers. 

References

Dzotzi, E (Host), Goldman, A (Host), Vogt, PJ (Host).  (2020, July 30). Reply All [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/6nhw5w?utm_source=gimletWebsite&utm_medium=copyShare&utm_campaign=gimletWebsite

Green, J. M. (2017). Communicating online. United States: Mcgraw Hill Education Create.