5 Case Study 1 - Leicester Research Archive - University of Leicester

It is probably too early to assess the real impact of podcasting as a way to
integrate voices of visitors as well as to build bridges between different art forms.
However, what clearly comes out of the above is that museum professionals do
see a potential in podcasting to realise museums’ agendas on social inclusion.
They also increasingly see the Web as a medium of communication rather than a
platform for the display of authoritative museum content produced solely by
experts in various fields. Moreover, what the above also showed is that museums
show a commitment to making links between the ‘high’ arts and between more
popular forms of culture in order to make arts more appealing to wider audiences
of different backgrounds.
5.7 Conclusion
Staying on top of technological developments and reaching new audiences were
two of the key motivations for museum professionals to produce podcasts.
Aiming to break with the formal image of museums, producing new type of
content for a variety of different audiences and the belief that this medium lends
itself well for the integration of the visitors’ voice were other reasons mentioned
by museum professionals interviewed for this research.
It is interesting to now go back to some of the conclusions drawn in Chapter 3.
There it was argued that the Web 2.0 has brought a number of new tools and
services for Web developers, rather than radical new ideas about how the Web
might help realising the user-centred museum. It was argued, for instance, that
ideas such as the integration of the user in content production, the tailoring
content for specific target groups, customizing, personalizing and localizing
content, is not new to people engaged in the development of museum websites.
With podcasting now, one can argue that new ideas did develop. With many
exceptions in the UK, and with fewer in Germany and Austria, museums
websites today very often reflect an image of the museum as an institution of
authority.
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