Mythcast: An EMDD Original Podcast

Project Overview

The Center for Emerging Media Design & Development is always on the lookout for new ways to appeal to prospective students and new project partners for the socially-concerned work we do.

Our students solve real-world problems through design thinking, transmedia storytelling, and human-computer interaction methods. However, competing for attention in an information-saturated mediascape requires a strategy of mythical proportions.

Problem Space: How might we draw attention to the disciplines, skills, and techniques engaged in the EMDD program in an entertaining way?

To address this problem, the team examined the exploding medium of podcasting and studied what formats, genres, and spirit of content delivery there might attract target audiences and effectively communicate how we approach the problems we solve.

Design Thinking

problem-solving that places the user at the center of solution development.

Transmedia Storytelling

designing a story to unfold across multiple media in an expansive rather than repetitive way.

Human Computer Interaction

studying the relationship between technology and people.

Project Deliverable

The whimsical and fun Mythcast podcast explores the popular myths and storyworlds of Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, The Avengers, and UFOs. Each subject is examined over two episodes with two members of the project team writing, producing, hosting, and editing each two-episode narrative.

The season features 10 episodes that explain the processes used in the EMDD program — design thinking, human-computer interaction, and transmedia storytelling — to answer questions, solve problems, or offer alternative tellings of these beloved stories. Mythcast aspires to deepen prospective students’ understanding of and interest in EMDD.

Mythcast premieres on May 12, 2021 with new episodes released every two weeks throughout Summer 2021.

Key Stats

Podcast Preferences Survey

Target audience research explored listener preferences such as podcast length, narrative structure and style, and inquired about the possible storyworlds we might explore during podcast episodes.

Survey Key Findings

Audiences prefer podcast episodes 15-30 minutes in length
To best compete for the target audience’s podcast listening time, EMDD should engage familiar story worlds with entertaining problem solving.
The storyworlds that attracted most interest from respondents included The Avengers, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Greek Mythology, and UFOs.

Design Thinking Session

Next, the team held design thinking sessions with stakeholders from the target audience. Sessions examined user preferences regarding podcast structure and content. The design thinking sessions used two pilot episodes from the Stranger Things storyworld to test both conversation and narrative podcast formats.

Combined with similar case research these sessions confirmed that:

Podcasts fuel personal exploration on a topic of interest

Half of the participants preferred a conversational podcast, so long as contextual information is provided to help follow the conversation

Half of the participants preferred podcasts that deliver a story through a compelling narrative arc, particularly when they are new to the topic

Audio Production

Based on the design thinking results, the team broke into four separate production groups consisting of two team members. Each production team focused on a specific storyworld. Each duo produced two podcast episodes: one narrative and a second conversational to appeal to each half of our target audience.

Recording Environment

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production tasks (scripting, recording, and editing) for each podcast episode were conducted virtually.

This grassroots production effort used creative methods to achieve the best possible recording environments. These included building makeshift sound studios in closets and under blanket forts.

Transmedia Campaign

To promote each episode of the podcast, the team developed transmedia extensions with content built around each myth. Podcast episodes and transmedia extensions will be published on EMDD social media accounts through the summer 2021 season.