Mapping Turkish health podcasts: ‘Strategic voice or storage?’

Abstract

This study maps the landscape of Turkish-language health podcasts produced by professionals and institutions in Türkiye and evaluates their strategic communication capacity. The sample of 100 podcasts identified via the keyword ‘sağlık’ [health] on Spotify and Apple Podcasts was analyzed by coding the most recent episode of each podcast against a five-item index: (1) presence of a call-to-action (CTA), (2) regularity of release cadence, (3) host expertise, (4) conversational tone, and (5) explicit audience specification. Of the podcasts examined, 55% are individual productions and 45% are institutional. Thematic distribution is led by mental health (32%), followed by nutrition (19%) and general health (18%). A substantial share of institutional podcasts functions primarily as a content repository, suggesting that the editorial conventions of podcasting have yet to be fully internalized. The highest strategic scores are concentrated in mental health, which shows that foreground professional credentials, employ behavior-oriented call to actions, and delineate their target audiences. Turkish health podcasts display marked formal and thematic fragmentation and generally operate without a systematic publishing ethos. This study also highlights the need for future qualitative research on producer strategies to holistically map the field and unpack the ‘podcast as content repository’ mindset.

Keywords

• Health podcasts
• strategic communication
• Türkiye
• health communication
• podcast ecosystem

Türkiye’deki sağlık podcastlerini haritalamak: ‘Stratejik bir ses mi, yoksa sadece depo mu?’

Abstract

Bu çalışma, Türkiye’de sağlık profesyonelleri ve çeşitli kurumlar tarafından üretilen Türkçe sağlık podcastlerinin genel görünümünü haritalandırmakta ve bu yapımların stratejik iletişim kapasitesini değerlendirmektedir. Spotify ve Apple Podcast platformlarında ‘sağlık’ anahtar sözcüğü ile tespit edilen 100 podcastten oluşan örneklem, her podcast programının en güncel bölümü temel alınarak beş göstergeli bir ölçek doğrultusunda analiz edilmiştir. Söz konusu analiz kriterleri; (1) eylem çağrısının varlığı, (2) yayın periyodunun düzenliliği, (3) sunucu uzmanlığı, (4) sohbet havasındaki anlatım tonu ve (5) hedef kitlenin açıkça belirtilmesi şeklinde sıralanmaktadır. İncelenen yapımların %55’inin bireysel, %45’inin ise kurumsal olduğu görülürken; tematik dağılımda %32 ile ruh sağlığı başı çekmekte, bunu %19 ile beslenme ve %18 ile genel sağlık takip etmektedir. Kurumsal podcastlerin önemli bir bölümünün yalnızca içerik deposu işlevi görmesi, podcast formatının editoryal gerekliliklerinin henüz içselleştirilemediğini göstermektedir. Stratejik iletişim kapasitesi açısından en yüksek puanların, uzman kimliği vurgulayan, davranış yönelimli harekete geçirme çağrısı içeren ve hedef kitlesini net bir şekilde tanımlayan ruh sağlığı podcastlerinde olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Sonuç olarak, Türk sağlık podcast ekosisteminin biçim ve içerik açısında dağınık ve sistematik bir yayın anlayışından uzak olduğu görülmektedir. Çalışma, alanı bütüncül bir şekilde haritalandırmak ve ‘içerik deposu olarak podcast’ anlayışını çözümlemek adına, üretici stratejilerine odaklanan gelecek nitel araştırmalara olan ihtiyaca işaret etmektedir.

Keywords

• Sağlık podcastleri
• stratejik iletişim
• Türkiye
• sağlık iletişimi
• podcast ekosistemi

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