Content by Anthony Dockrill

I consider myself a radio person, but I also love podcasts so much that I consider myself a dyed-in-the-wool podcaster.

Podcasting is where I’m currently spending my time. Having worked deeply on both sides of the fence, I often think the practices of each are more similar than they are different. Fundamentally, they are both about connecting to a listener using audio. The context can be different, but the goal is the same. However, there is one area where they differ, and that is trust. Before everyone reaches for their guns or their keyboards, let me unpack what I’m talking about.

Radio is the original new media and now has over 100 years of history to draw on. The bottom line about that history is there is an institutional heft to radio. Radio has structure built into and around it that brings editorial integrity and legal constraints. If you work in radio, you talk the language of editorial policies, codes and broadcast law. The end result, if done properly, is radio that is deeply trusted by its listeners.

Now, podcasting can have that institutional heft and the standards of radio— and with it, trust—just subscribe to a podcast from the ABC or ACMA, etc. But the beauty of podcasting is that if you have a smartphone and a working computer connected to the internet, you are good to go as a podcast maker. This wild west quality of podcasting has been great for creativity but it’s bad for trust.

And it’s not just small podcasters muddying the waters. The largest podcast in the world sometimes falls short of the standard we would call baseline in radio.

The Joe Rogan Experience is a podcasting phenomenon. Joe’s free-wheeling discussions through a wide range of topics have proven a huge hit, especially with young men, and there is a lot we can learn from this show, particularly on how to connect with a demographic that is spurning radio. But it’s also fair to say this coin has two sides. From Elon Musk saying the Democrats are using illegal immigrants to steal the election and destroy democracy, to RFK Jr misrepresenting scientific data to make wild claims with no science behind them, there are times when the discussion on the Joe Rogan Experience moves beyond the bounds of opinion into untruths and disinformation.

If these interviews happened on the ABC, for instance, there would be pushback from the host, and corrections would be made post-broadcast—if it ever made it to air. On Rogan, these distortions are not just left uncontested; in many cases, they are boosted by Rogan agreeing with the guest.

Because of issues like this, I personally view the Joe Rogan Experience as a podcast that provides entertainment, but I would not take my health information from it. I don’t trust it. Joe is a great interviewer, and he talks to a wide range of people, many of whom I respect, but when the discussion goes off into the weeds, the show itself does not have the editorial standards required to do the job.

Now, I’m not writing this piece to dump on podcasting. If you are a podcast maker and you don’t have a large institution like the ABC behind you, how can you build trust for what you do?

That old chestnut that ‘trust is earned, not given’ is true. The simple way to build trust with your listeners is to set a standard, hold yourself to it, and tell your listeners that is what you are doing. And then do it.

Write a simple editorial policy for your podcast. Just a page with bullet points. Here are two to get you going:

Opinion and facts won’t be misrepresented or used as interchangeable with each other.

Mistakes and errors will be corrected as soon as possible. Corrections will be announced at the beginning of the next podcast episode after the mistake or error has been discovered.

Just those two points will build trust. The last thing you need to do to build trust is be transparent with your listeners. Tell them about the standard you have set and give them a mechanism to provide feedback. If you are a solo podcaster or working in a small team, you may already be doing most of what I’ve just mentioned above, but it’s happening mainly in your head, and your listeners are unaware—or even worse, may assume you are not doing this work, so they may be discounting your work from the get-go.

Anthony Dockrill is a Digital Producer at Pod Jam and the former Program Director of 2SER FM Sydney.