The speech genre specifics of educational audio podcasts

Egoshkina Violetta Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0000-0003-3173-8289 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Journalism and Media Linguistics, Dostoevsky Omsk State University 55 Mira ave., Omsk, Omsk region, 644077, Russia v.egoshkina@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Audio podcast as a modern media format: approaches to definition and typologization

Currently, traditional media are experiencing significant changes related to convergence and multimedia. The Internet is increasingly influencing journalism formats. So, in recent decades, a completely new phenomenon has appeared – podcasting.

A podcast is a digital media file in mp3 audio format that is distributed over the Internet and played using a computer, portable media player, mobile phone, car radio, home stereo system. The word podcast itself is derived from the English "iPod" (a trademark of media players) and "broadcast" (broadcasting, ubiquitous broadcasting)" ^{[1, p. 98]}.

In their format, audio podcasts resemble radio programs. As a rule, they are conversations or monologues devoted to certain topics: literature, fashion, cinema, sports, humor, etc. However, unlike radio programs, podcasts are available to listeners at any time, they do not depend on the broadcast network and are not limited by the radio format. Despite the fact that audio podcasts have a number of differences from traditional radio programs, researchers have not come to a consensus on the definition of this phenomenon. Whether they are a kind of radio or a completely new format is a debatable question.

A number of scientists consider audio podcast as a new type of radio. For example, I. I. Karpenko equates podcasts to the types of the latest radio forms ^[2]. However, there is a different point of view: podcasting is a separate form of providing information that belongs to online journalism due to the peculiarities of the form. This opinion is shared by journalists Marina Lasinska and Maxim Ivanov ^{[3, pp. 41-45]}.

In order to understand which point of view best reveals all aspects of the phenomenon of audio podcasting, let's compare the characteristics of a radio program and an audio podcast.

A. A. Dorofeeva in her work "Podcasting: a new radio on the Internet" identifies six criteria by which it is possible to identify differences between a traditional radio program and an audio podcast:

1. the method of broadcasting the material;
2. the shape of the output of the material;
3. distribution method for listeners;
4. ways to finance the program;
5. opportunities provided to the listener;
6. the level of professionalism of the presenter ^{[4, p. 195]}.

Based on these parameters, the following conclusions can be drawn:

1. The audio podcast can be recorded both in the studio and at home, goes online, is not tied to the broadcast grid, and therefore is available at any time of the day. It is always recorded in advance, which makes it possible to edit. While radio programs are prepared directly in the studio, they depend on the broadcast schedule – even if the program is recorded in advance, the listener will hear it only at a certain time. The program can be broadcast live when the journalist does not have the opportunity to edit the material.
2. To record audio podcasts, a minimum set of equipment is sufficient: a microphone and a computer. Traditional radio requires large material costs associated with the purchase of high-tech equipment and radio frequencies.
3. The audio podcast is released after the fact, so listeners do not have the opportunity to communicate directly with the presenters in the "here and now" format, however, everyone can listen to the podcast at a convenient time and leave a comment. Within the framework of the radio program, there are much more opportunities for interaction with listeners: calls to the studio, sending SMS messages, chatting in chat rooms and messengers of the radio station.
4. High demands are placed on presenters and radio journalists: clear diction, competent speech, skills in writing journalistic materials, etc. While recording a podcast is available to anyone, therefore, the level of professionalism of podcasters, especially beginners, is much lower.

Thus, it is obvious that audio podcasting is not a kind of radio, which means that an equal sign between a radio program and an audio podcast is impossible. A podcast is "a completely different format for transmitting information through audio broadcasting" ^{[4, p. 198]}.

Since audio podcasts have a diverse range of topics and genres, there are different classifications of podcasts by subject, genre and functional affiliation.

Julia Sapiro, head of the Radiotoria platform, highlights the following podcasts: infocast (informational), backcast (about the past), crimecast (crime investigation), chumcast (friendly podcast), realcast (what's now), fanfictioncast (science fiction), sequelcast (about stories). Its classification is based on the thematic principle ^{[5, p. 61]}.

On the same basis, M. A. Berezhnaya builds a classification of podcasts in her work "What kind of miracle is an overseas museum podcast?" ^{[6, p. 453]}. She identifies the following types of podcasts:

1. The History podcast is a complete story with one idea, one core, one narrative line.
2. A multimedia project is a combination of several stories united by a single theme. During the preparation, not only the correspondence of the elements within each story is considered, but also the correspondence of the stories with each other. Such podcasts are usually read in different voices.
3. "Montage", or a collection of solyanka – podcasts about everything that do not have a single topic.

Another reason for classifying podcasts is their genre affiliation. L. I. Khasanova offers the following systematization of podcasts: couplecasts (covering the personal lives of authors, more often families); audio blogs (an analogue of an online diary); audiobooks; comedy podcast; educational podcasts; radio plays and radio shows; other podcast categories: politics, science, health, sports, entertainment, travel ^{[7, p. 277]}.

Journalist V. Nekrasova also classifies podcasts by genre. She identifies genres: documentaries, comedy, investigative journalism, talk shows, analytical programs ^[8] for the systematization of podcasts, three more grounds can be distinguished: informativeness (content compliance with the current event agenda), format and plot. According to the information content, podcasts are divided into event-based (content is based on news and an information agenda) and timeless (podcasts are not tied to specific information channels), narrative and discussion podcasts are distinguished by format, plot and off–plot ^{[9, p. 58]}.

L. I. Agafonova and J. S. Anikina give a different classification of podcasts. They distinguish between podcasts used for teaching a foreign language: by technical platform (offline podcast – created using offline software; integrated podcast – created within a specific site); by type of multimedia (audio podcast, video podcast); by number of authors (individual and collective podcast); by author composition (teaching, student podcast); by genre (educational, entertaining, socio-political podcast); by learning purpose (formation of skills, development of skills) ^{[10, p. 173]}.

Despite the fact that the criteria for classifying podcasts are different (theme, genre, technical equipment, number of authors, purpose, type of multimedia), one typology complements the other.

Since the object of our attention is educational audio broadcasts, it should be noted that these include those audio productions that reflect "general cultural traditions in their universal significance for society (news of cultural life, thematic programs about certain types of art and literature); the state of public opinion" ^{[11, p. 4]}.

They carry out the following tasks: enlightenment, upbringing, education of the audience; assimilation of spiritual, moral and cultural values; familiarization with national and world culture.

Speech genre: definition and description model

The audio podcast format is interesting because it does not contain visual images, which is why the speech genre in which the authors work comes to the fore. Educational audio podcasts are not based on the traditional scheme of radio genres. Despite the fact that each issue of the audio podcast is dedicated to a specific topic, during a conversation or monologue, the authors and invited guests do not have a clear plot, allowing themselves to digress from the main topic. Thus, we can say that the classical structure of radio genres does not work within the framework of educational audio podcasts. That is why, before analyzing the genre originality of educational audio podcasts, it is important to understand what the speech genre is, what are its boundaries and approaches to typologization.

The theory of speech genres is a relatively new direction, which began to develop actively in the middle of the XX century. The Russian linguist M. M. Bakhtin is considered a pioneer in the study of speech genres. It was he who first raised the question of the allocation and description of speech genres.

In his works, he noted the close connection between language and genres ^{[12, p. 181]}. Each statement has its own purpose and conditions that determine the tone and direction of communication. This determines the choice of subject matter, lexical, phraseological, grammatical means, as well as the composition of the phrase. According to M. M. Bakhtin, "these three points are inextricably linked in the whole statement and are equally determined by the specifics of this sphere of communication. Each individual utterance is, of course, individual, but each sphere of language use develops its own relatively stable types of such utterances, which we call speech genres" ^{[12, p. 159]}.

M.M. Bakhtin called the following signs of speech genres (utterances): "the change of speech subjects (creates clear boundaries of utterance); addressability (utterance always has an author and addressee); completeness; attitude to reality / truth; eventfulness (historicity); expressiveness and novelty" ^{[12, p. 263]}. And the speech genre itself was defined as "a relatively stable thematic, compositional and stylistic type of utterance" ^{[13, p. 238]}.

Over time, more and more works devoted to the study of speech genres began to appear, and with them new views and approaches to the definition of the concept. Despite the fact that most researchers rely on the conclusions of M. M. Bakhtin, the fact of the constant development of the media environment, the emergence of new formats, and consequently the emergence of new speech genres is reflected in scientific works in the form of proposed classifications and definitions.

V. V. Dementiev analyzed different approaches to the problem of determining the speech genre and divided them into three groups ^{[14, pp. 109-113]}:

• In the first group, the scientist identified studies that rely on the classical definition of the genre formulated by Aristotle and N. Boileau. In this approach, the genre is understood either too narrowly or too broadly, therefore, according to V.V. Dementiev, "such an approach is of little use for the linguistic study of speech" ^{[14, p. 109]}.
• The second group included works devoted to certain aspects of the structure of speech genres (stable forms of speech behavior, stereotypes, connection with speech etiquette, and others). Despite the fact that the results of these works are undoubtedly useful and valuable, they do not have a "holistic and clear concept" of speech genres ^{[14, p. 109]}.
• V. V. Dementiev refers to the third group of studies based on the concept of speech genres by M. M. Bakhtin, which currently represent two areas of study of speech genres: linguistic (genristics) and pragmatic (genre studies) ^{[14, p. 109]}.

For example, according to I. V. Sherstyanykh, the speech genre is "a phenomenon of speech reality, a model of consciousness" ^{[15, p. 30]}. V. V. Smirnov in his textbook "Genres of Radio Journalism" calls the speech genre a "bridge", with which a journalist enters into speech communication with an invisible listener and communicates with him with a specific purpose embodied in the work" ^{[16, p. 12]}. K. F. Sedov believes that "the speech genre is a verbal and symbolic design of typical situations of social interaction of people" ^{[17, p. 8]}. This definition is the most relevant for this study.

Since there are many approaches to understanding the definition of the speech genre, several classifications of this phenomenon are presented in the works of Russian scientists. For example, N. D. Arutyunova calls goal orientation as the basis for the typology of speech genres, which determines "not only the connection between individual replicas, but also the types or genres of human communication, within which role structures and types of modalities characteristic of communication are formed" ^{[18, p. 52]}.

The researcher's classification is directly related to dialogical constructions, therefore, within the framework of this typology, the following speech genres are distinguished:

1. Informative dialogue;
2. Prescriptive dialogue;
3. Exchange of opinions in order to make a decision or find out the truth;
4. A dialogue aimed at establishing and regulating interpersonal relationships;
5. Idle speech genres: emotional, artistic, intellectual ^{[19, p. 166]}.

The genre-communicative aspect is laid down by K. V. Kozhevnikova in the basis of the typology, highlighting the classes of speech genres:

• texts whose content is based on rigid (somewhere to a greater, somewhere to a lesser extent) informative models - poster, instructions, recipe;
• texts whose content is based on informative conventional models (newspaper report on current events, review of a literary work);
• texts that are not regulated, the content of which is not subject to any strict specification from the genre-communicative side (private correspondence) ^{[20, pp. 53-54]}.

The typologies presented have a narrow focus, therefore they cannot act as a universal classification. It is worth noting that there is still no single typology of speech genres, which is explained by their constant modification associated with both the transformation of the implementation environment and the speech behavior of the addressee.

The ability of speech genres to change was also noted by M. M. Bakhtin. He divided all genres into primary (simple) and secondary (complex), considering that they are directly dependent on each other: "Primary genres serve as material for secondary ones. Having become part of the secondary genre, the primary genres transform, lose their independence, and become part of the whole secondary genre. <...> Secondary speech genres in the process of their formation absorb and process various primary (simple) genres" ^{[13, p. 239]}.

For the emergence of primary speech genres, "direct communication" is necessary, and for secondary genres – "highly developed cultural communication" ^{[21, p. 352]}.

The development of a model for the analysis of complex, i.e. secondary, speech genres was undertaken by T. V. Anisimova ^[22], A. Vezhbitskaya ^[23], N. B. Lebedeva ^[24], T. V. Shmeleva ^[25].

The most well-known and generally accepted in genre studies is the "questionnaire" of the speech genre by T. V. Shmeleva, within which the researcher identifies the following parameters:

1. The communicative goal is the most significant feature, suggesting the juxtaposition of four types of speech genres:
   1. informative – perform various operations with information (presentation/request, confirmation/refutation);
   2. imperative – their purpose is to trigger the implementation of certain events that are necessary, desirable or dangerous for someone involved in communication;
   3. etiquette – carry out actions related to the social sphere and provided for by the etiquette of this society (apologies, thanks, congratulations, condolences);
   4. evaluative – they change the well-being of communication participants, evaluating their actions and qualities with the values accepted in this society.
2. The image of the author includes information about the author of the statement as a participant in communication. The addressee can receive this information both with the help of verbal and non-verbal characteristics, and thanks to the information embedded in the standard project of the speech genre.
3. The image of the addressee is directly related to the image of the author. The success of communication depends on how well the recipient's ideas and his real role coincide within the framework of the chosen genre. In case of violation of this factor, misunderstandings may arise between the participants of the dialogue and, as a result, a communicative failure.
4. The image of the past includes speech genres that initiate communication, and "reactive" ones, which are reactions to other genres (response, refusal, consent, refutation).
5. The image of the future presupposes the further development of speech events, embodied in the appearance of other speech genres.
6. Dictum (event) content represents the objective content of the sentence, taking into account the intentions, goals, and tasks of the participants in the speech.
7. The linguistic embodiment forms the addressee's ideas about the author and his communicative intentions. For the model of the speech genre, its linguistic embodiment is important to see in the range of possibilities, lexical and grammatical resources of the genre ^{[25, pp. 90-98]}.

Despite the fact that many studies have been devoted to the theory of speech genres, including modern ones, in which both well-known speech genres and those that appeared quite recently are systematized ^[26],[27], it is not possible to cover absolutely everything, besides, they change every year, acquiring new signs and forms. That is why, in this aspect, many speech genres with specific features and peculiarities still remain unexplored and undescribed.

Representation of speech genres in educational audio podcasts

During the analysis of media texts objectified in empirical material, it was noted that the releases of audio podcasts are based on the communicative interaction of the presenter and the invited expert, who discuss the stated topic in detail and in detail, therefore, we consider informative conversation to be the basic secondary speech genre of educational audio podcasts.

The communicative purpose of an informative conversation is to expand the addressee's knowledge and ideas about the subject of the speech act. The authors of the analyzed audio podcasts, as part of their media product, raise various topics (literature, architecture, painting, psychology, etc.) in order to educate the audience. Despite the fact that in the speech of experts and presenters there are elements of faticism in the form of jokes, ironic remarks, minor deviations from the topic, the communication participants set the main task of informing, not entertaining the addressee.

In the course of the study, we identified the main features of an informative conversation:

• the presenter and the invited guest are equal participants in communication: the journalist understands the topic and acts as an interlocutor, not an interviewer;
• the audience receives new knowledge not in the form of superficial conclusions, but through a thorough analysis of the stated topic, within which arguments are given, quotations are used, and references to the research of scientists are given;
• the issue is always devoted to one topic, during the coverage of which the presenter does not allow lengthy expert arguments, building communication in such a way as to cover only those issues that were intended to be considered within the framework of a particular issue;
• The authors of audio podcasts act as a representative of the audience: they ask questions that reveal the topic, make sure that the information is understandable to listeners (not only those who understand the subject of the conversation, but also to that segment of the audience who hears about it for the first time). With the help of questions, the presenters build a conversation into a logical chain that is easily perceived by the addressee.

Characterizing the image of the author, it is worth noting that, despite the educational orientation of the audio podcasts, the presenters do not try on the role of a "sage" who shares knowledge with the audience. On the contrary, the authors position themselves as an inquisitive person who strives to discover new things, broaden his horizons and look at seemingly long-studied and understandable things from a different angle.

The hosts of the audio podcasts presented in the empirical research material have knowledge of the topics to which the issues are devoted, while their image is devoid of arrogance: the authors do not build communication with the audience based on the "teacher–student" model and do not act as a mentor. In addition, podcast hosts strive to establish contact with the audience by adding a positive tone to their statements: the remarks are devoid of mockery, ridicule, and irony at the addressee. At the same time, it cannot be said that the authors of educational audio podcasts position themselves as an interlocutor friend, rather they act as a friend who, together with his acquaintance (in this case, the addressee), seeks to expand knowledge in certain areas.

In general, the image of the author can be described as follows: he is an educated person with a broad outlook in various fields of science and art; constantly in search of new knowledge and expanding existing ideas about the subject of conversation. Curiosity, a sincere desire to learn new things are the distinctive features of the author's image.

Since the audience of educational audio podcasts is diverse, and the age limit is not specified in all projects, it is quite difficult to describe the image of the addressee. It is absolutely possible to say that the releases of the audio podcasts "Between the lines" and "100 Minutes" are aimed at an audience over the age of 18 (programs have an age limit), although it is possible that a younger audience may listen to them. In other audio podcasts that make up the empirical base of the study, the age limit is not specified, however, based on the analysis of media texts, topics and titles of issues, it can be concluded: the addressee of educational audio podcasts may be young people aged 16 years and older with different social status (potential listeners may be schoolchildren, students, teachers, representatives of technical and humanitarian professions); aspiring to gain knowledge in various fields of science and art. It is impossible to clearly define the upper age limit, since the information presented in the releases of audio podcasts may be of interest to people of almost any age. The purpose of listeners of educational audio podcasts is to learn new information, expand existing knowledge and have an entertaining time.

The authors understand that the audience of the program is diverse, so they use precedent texts familiar to most of the listeners, which allows them to avoid a communicative failure:

"Here is the formula of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin – "The less we love a woman, the easier it is for her to like us" – how did our great poet develop in his head?" ("Conversations about Literature", 09/16/2021). In this example, the podcast host quotes famous lines from the work of A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". The expression has become firmly embedded in the communicative environment of native Russian speakers, and even those people who have not read the novel have heard these lines more than once, and since most of the audience of the audio podcast "Conversations about Literature" is interested in literature, it is not difficult to recognize a reference to the work. Using this precedent text, Pavel Kartaev actualizes the image of the addressee: he is a person who understands literature and knows exactly the famous lines from the works of classics.

The image of the past is represented in the themes and precedent names to which the release of audio podcasts is dedicated. Here are just a few examples: "M.A. Bulgakov. Myths around the personality of Mikhail Bulgakov" ("100 minutes", 05/11/2021), "Alexander Nevsky. What we know about Alexander Nevsky" ("100 minutes", 05/31/2021), "Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik: how the poet's novel developed" ("Conversations about Literature", 03/23/2021), "Seventeen Moments of Spring" and other works by Yu.S. Semenov" ("Conversations about Literature", 10/13/2021), ""Voluptuous trader" Daniil Kharms" ("Between the Lines", 12/28/2022), "Alexander Blok and Andrei Bely: A Failed duel" ("Literary squabbles", 01/13/2022), "Love in the life of Vasily Zhukovsky" ("Diary of his wife", 02/07/2023), ""The House in which I live ..." by Ksenia Nekrasova" ("Between the lines", 03/29/2023) and others.

In addition, leading and invited experts often refer to quotes from famous cultural figures and their famous works:

"Akhmatova said about Gumilev that he was a prophet, a visionary. And, of course, the question arises what is going on in this poem. How does the tram, which by that time was already a common urban sign (we know Roman Tymenchik's work on the tram in poetry: the tram soon occupies a large place in the poetic urban landscape), become a medium, a guide to other worlds?" ("Between the lines", 02/05/2024). In this example, the author of the podcast Lev Oborin recreates several images of the past at once: first he refers to the statement of the famous poet and ex-wife of Nikolai Gumilev Anna Akhmatova from "Notes of Anna Akhmatova about Nikolai Gumilev", and then refers to the article by R.D. Tymenchik "To the symbolism of the tram in Russian poetry".

The image of the future is realized through announcements of upcoming releases of the audio podcast. It is most actively manifested within the framework of the "100 minutes" project: "Tomorrow we will continue recording the podcast "100 minutes" about laziness" ("100 minutes", 11/15/2022), "Neuropsychologist Irina Khvingia was a guest. Tomorrow we will continue" ("100 minutes", 12/21/2023), "We will return more than once, we will meet all these days, continue the topic of oddities in architecture" ("100 minutes", 04/23/2024).

The linguistic embodiment of the genre is directly manifested in the communicative behavior of the authors of audio podcasts and invited guests. The speech of the presenters and experts explicates expressive means (epithets, metaphors, irony, comparisons), intertextual elements (direct quoting, creation of an associative connection, direct use of precedent texts) and phatic elements (jokes, lyrical digressions).

We emphasize that an informative conversation is not identical to the genre of an academic lecture: the communicative behavior of participants in a speech act differs from the "teacher –student" model, respectively, the interlocutors have equal status, their speech does not consist only of scientific terms, mentions of the names of scientists and famous writers and poets, references to inventions and the works of researchers.

Informative conversation is a secondary speech genre. Its structure includes primary speech genres:

• informative (short comment, explanation);
• etiquette (greeting, farewell, gratitude);
• evaluative (praise, ironic joke, compliment, imaginary indignation).

The genre of short commentary is one of the most frequent, due to the format of the audio podcast and the goals set by the authors.

"How does this genre [of the passage] relate to the genre of elegy? After all, solitude is a typical and lyrical motif, and observing nature, the inexpressible in this solitude, is obviously the motive that follows from it" ("Between the Lines", 03/05/2024). In this example, Lev Oborin asks an expert a question and immediately comments on it, explaining to his interlocutor and the audience exactly what is being discussed and how, according to the author of the podcast, the genre of elegy manifests itself in Vasily Zhukovsky's poem "The Inexpressible".

It should be noted that in educational audio podcasts there is a genre of comic commentary, in which the author highlights the main thing in the expert's speech, as if "playing" with listeners:

"That is, Marina, there was, relatively speaking, a semblance of a deity walking around the house, right? An inviolable Vestal, let's say, in the Roman manner. And suddenly a wriggling snake came running, right? And so, he stole the object of worship from the whole honest company and simply took possession of it like an animal" ("Literary squabbles", 01/13/2022). In this example, Sergey Stillavin ironically plays off the established love triangle, the characters of which are Alexander Blok, Lyubov Mendeleeva and Andrei Bely. I must say that before that, the invited expert explained in detail exactly what was happening between the participants of this very triangle, citing memories, quotes from contemporaries and the heroes themselves, and only after an excursion into history, the podcast host allowed himself a humorous comment, with which he made a peculiar conclusion. I must say that thanks to this result, the audience will form such images of heroes: Alexander Blok is a representative of the "honest company", Lyubov Mendeleev is an "object of worship", and Andrei Bely is a "wriggling snake".

The obligatory genre of the audio podcast is the genre of explanation, in which the authors complement the speech of the expert, make the main idea, focusing on it: "Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva is for them the object of a beautiful lady. And, of course, she suffered from all this, from this circle of symbolists. She will braid, for example, a ribbon in her hair. "Oh, what does it mean today?" and they discussed it all day. She will wave her hand – "Oh, how beautifully the lady waved her hand, and what does that mean?". And the beautiful lady suffered because she was not interested in all this" ("Literary squabbles", 01/13/2022).

The genre of explanation is also reflected in the speech of experts – the voiced thesis is supported by facts: "The fact is that Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky is a marginal person in the sense of class origin. The Russian Empire is a class state, you are born with certain rights that depend on whether you are a peasant or a nobleman. But in the case of Zhukovsky, he is so borderline, because in general it was not Zhukovsky who should have borne the surname, but Bunin – he was the son of the Tula landowner Afanasy Bunin. And, by the way, a lyrical digression: Ivan Bunin was later proud that Zhukovsky was his ancestor. But the whole point was that Zhukovsky was not born from the legitimate wife of Afanasy Bunin, but from a captive Turkish woman who actually lived as Bunin's mistress, so it's a rather complicated story: can he be recognized as a nobleman or not" ("Diary of his wife", 02/07/2023).

The etiquette primary speech genres of educational audio podcasts, first of all, are greeting and farewell, which mark the beginning and end of the release.

In the greeting, the authors report on the topic of the podcast, introduce the guest and directly enter into communication with him using the speech marker "hello/welcome":

"100 Minutes is about the authors of one hit or one masterpiece. An expert, music critic, and journalist Ilya Legostaev was invited to the broadcast. Ilya, welcome!" ("100 minutes", 05/14/2024).

"Let's talk about literature and specifically about the image of childhood in Russian literature. Lyubov Petrovna Gogina, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Journalism at the Institute of Civil Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences, will help us. Lyubov Petrovna, hello!"("Conversations about literature", 06/01/2022).

The genre of farewell is closely related to the genre of gratitude: at the end of the release, the podcast authors not only announce the end of the program, but also thank experts and listeners:

"Irina Khvingia, thank you very much for such possible help, contribution to our podcast "100 minutes" about imagination. Neuropsychologist Irina Khvingia was a guest. We'll continue tomorrow. See you soon. Thank you for being with us, dear listeners" ("100 minutes", 12/21/2023).

"We talked today about Boris Poplavsky, about his poem "Flags". Once again, I suggest everyone listen to the album. And this was the podcast “Between the Lines". My name is Lev Oborin, Roma Liberov was with us. Thanks! And until the next issues!"("Between the lines", 17.01.2023).

Evaluative speech genres of educational audio podcasts are represented in a speech act, the addressee of which is both an expert and a co-host.

The genre of compliment is usually objectified in communication with an expert: "Egor, thank you very much, as always, for your fascinating story" ("Diary of his wife", 10.01.2023). However, the implementation of the self-praise genre is often observed: "We had a very hardworking half hour in these wonderful "100 minutes" about laziness" ("100 minutes", 02/17/2024).

In addition, the genre of ironic jokes is represented in educational audio podcasts:

"Comrades, well, here we are, of course, it seems to you that books are standing exactly on the shelf, right? Here you are, you see, Karl Marx, Engels. Lenin is next to some, for example, Tolstoy Leo. Some people still remember Goncharov, although few do. Griboyedov's. And they stand well with each other, it's wonderful, and one gets the impression that, well, they are a friendly pantheon of our domestic researchers, well, except for Marx and Engels, of course, writers who stand united for, so to speak, for our Homeland, let's say so. But in fact there were squabbles and personal inconsistencies" ("Literary squabbles", 05/24/2022). In this example, the podcast host explains in the liner notes what the episode is about and what will be discussed in this audio podcast, but does it in an ironic manner, with a slight sneer.

The genre of imaginary indignation is not obligatory for educational audio podcasts and is very rare, since communication has a positive tone. However, sometimes the author is forced to resort to this genre in order to adjust the course of the conversation:

– Let's give Ilya a chance to speak out.

– Come on! But I asked a question about the wipers.

– Well, let's talk about the wipers for another twenty minutes, and then we'll finish.

– Well, I was just surprised how you can make your wife get out of the car in the rain and clean the glass!

– A good wife, so she was good, did not interrupt her husband and guest" ("100 minutes", 11/15/2022).

Conclusions

Summing up the undertaken research, we note that we qualify the audio podcast as an independent media format distributed in the Internet environment and constantly available to the addressee, in which polycode media texts are explicated, including auditory means of expression (speech, musical accompaniment, intershums, etc.), having thematic, speech genre and pragmastilistic specifics, manifesting the installation of dialogical interaction producer and recipient.

The speech genre specificity of educational audio podcasts is determined by the format of the media product under study, the goals and communicative intentions of the addressee, and the expectations of the target audience.

The identified and described primary speech genres, explicated in the secondary speech genre of informative conversation, allow the authors of educational audio podcasts to expand the cognitive base of the addressee, maintain the audience's interest in their media product, and discuss cultural phenomena and complex philosophical issues in detail and fascinatingly.