Ilija Valkov
University of National and World Economy mEmail: valkov@unwe.bg
Georgi Minev
University of National and World Economy Email: gminev@unwe.bg
Antonina Lozanova
University of National and World Economy Email: antonina.lozanova@abv.bg
Abstract: The article aims to describe and analyze some of the good practices in European universities, especially their activities in creating podcasts. Various examples from Bulgaria and individual European countries such as Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Belgium, Finland, Italy, France, Spain, Romania, Poland and Hungary are given. The working hypothesis states that universities in Bulgaria do not make full use of the opportunities of new media formats such as podcasts, which are often important tools of strategic communications and the presence of universities in social networks, public and online space. There are two aims. The first one is to find out to what extent the author’s audio-visual content in podcasts produced by Bulgarian and foreign universities are aimed at external and internal audiences. The second aim is to clarify to what extent academic podcasts contribute to the creation of a positive public image through author’s content. The research methods are case study, content analysis, secondary data analysis, and observation. There are two focuses. The first one is on the analysis of scientific literature, definitions, and types of podcasts. The second focus is on the search for, selection and analysis of university and student podcasts and popular podcast programs in Bulgaria and Europe.
Keywords: podcast, university podcast, universities, good practices, original content, Bulgaria, Europe.