Entrepreneurial Podcasting: A Linguistic Ethnographic Perspective

Abstract

This article sets out to address a gap in the business communication literature by focusing on entrepreneurs’ use of podcasts. I will first report on the business communication research that has been done so far on podcasts and will then go on to expand the scope and explore the literature on podcasts in the wider communication field. This will lead me to propose a set of four key characteristics of the genre, which I will use as the basis for a qualitative study of a single six-episode podcast series launched by an entrepreneur in a North Western European country. Drawing on a linguistic ethnographically inspired analysis I will investigate the hybrid nature of the entrepreneurial podcast (featuring personal transparency and storytelling, but no process transparency or interactivity) and I will argue that it is opening up new opportunities for leadership communication. I will conclude by reflecting on how the analysis presented here can be seen to index the genre’s transition from a homespun to a corporate medium, echoing the notion of media re-colonization and tying in with concerns about leadership branding voiced in the critical management literature.