Building a Better Participatory Culture and Enhancing Sense of Community in Podcasts: Systematic Literature Review

This article studies the mechanisms for building a better participatory culture around podcasts and narrows the information gap among the podcast studies from the perspective of a sense of community. The research question is “What kind of participatory culture enhances a sense of community among the audiences of podcasts?

A model of six enhancers of sense of community was developed. The research draws practical implications from this model and concludes that a participatory culture that embraces liveness, works in small communities, includes parasociality, provides opportunities for meaningful participation on transmedial platforms, and builds on shared intimacy will enhance a sense of community.