"The Role of Digital Radio Programs in Enhancing Audience Engagement Through Electronic Platforms: A Study of Interactive Podcasts"

The study aims to analyze the media values employed in the episodes of interactive podcast programs, uncover the objectives behind the treatment of topics presented in these episodes, and identify the features that attract audiences to engage with podcast episodes available on electronic platforms, The researcher analyzed 40 episodes from interactive podcast programs included in the study sample, with 10 episodes selected from each program equally, totaling approximately 110 hours of content. The analysis covered the period from May 25, 2024 to March 5, 2025, additionally, the study was applied to a simple random sample consisting of 392 individuals aged between 18 and 38 years.
The study reached several findings, the most important of which are:

The episodes of interactive podcast programs relied entirely on the (dialogue) format, with a percentage of (100%).
The media values reflected in these episodes were primarily (novelty and timeliness) and (prominence), followed by (human interest), (conflict), (excitement), and finally (oddity). The general features that encouraged audience engagement with interactive podcast programs included: (providing new information) and (using easy and understandable language), followed by (high levels of interaction), then (enhancing the concept of participation), (offering symbols suitable for the audience), (using foreign words), and finally (encouraging specific actionable behavior).
The field study results also indicated a high percentage of individuals who interact significantly with podcast programs, reaching (50.9%), followed by those who interact at a moderate level at (34.0%), and finally, those who interact at a low level at (15.0%) of the total study sample.
Additionally, audience trends regarding the preferred characteristics of other users for interaction included: "the user enjoys a high degree of credibility," "the user follows up on my comments on podcast episodes," "the user shares my interests," "the user has a personal relationship with me (relatives or friends)," "the user interacts with all comments in a consistent manner," and "the user has a large number of followers."
The results also pointed to the factors influencing the digital audience’s trust in podcast content on electronic platforms, primarily: "the number of podcast followers on social media," followed by "the inclusion of illustrative images and set design," and "the number of shares of podcast content" as key factors affecting audience trust.