From blogging to podcasting: Boosting critical voices in social work

Abstract

This chapter will discuss opportunities in promoting critical and diverse voices through podcasting. The Aotearoa New Zealand Reimagining Social Work collective formed in 2014 in response to increasingly neoliberal regimes, rapid reforms of child welfare, and the ongoing silencing of many social workers employed by the state. The small collective of social work academics began a public blog intended to galvanise the profession and provide a vehicle for speaking back publicly to the dominance of neoliberal ideals. What began as a small cooperative project continues to gain momentum and is approaching 1,000 followers. It has become a collaborative effort to provide alternative views and responses to pressing problems and includes social work practitioners, academics, educators, unions, and other radical social work groups. In 2018, inspired by the development of new technology, and its increasing use in social work education, the collective began to publish podcasts on the blog, interviewing practitioners, academics and each other to provide an alternate medium for followers as well as for some a more accessible way for some practitioners to share their voice on matters critical to the profession. Our podcasts are promoted to a wider audience via social media platforms. This chapter will draw on our experiences as members of this blogging collective and will feature several brief case studies to illustrate some of the benefits and challenges of using podcast to create space for a diversity of social work voices.