A Question About Podcasts
February 8th, 2010 by Editors
Over the weekend someone asked a question on the Hugo Recommend LiveJournal community about whether podcast fanzines and semiprozines were eligible for the Hugos. The short answer is that we don’t know. Here’s Kevin’s longer answer:
Nobody knows for sure, because nothing has ever received sufficient nominations to make the ballot; therefore, no administrator has ever had to make a ruling on the subject. Also, this is the first year that the rule has had wording inserted (“or the equivalent in other media”) that suggests that something that published in non-print media might be eligible. (Remember that “published” doesn’t just mean “imprinted with ink on pieces of paper” despite those people who wish it did claiming that’s the “plain meaning” of it.)
This year’s lead Hugo Award administrator, Vincent Docherty, discussed the difficulty of ruling preemptively on works in a thoughtful article on the File 770 web site.
The short version: unless there are enough nominations cast for the works in question, nobody will ever know, because administrators almost never rule on a work unless the voters try to give it enough nominations to make the ballot. This is similar to how courts won’t issue rulings without an actual case before them — no hypothetical rulings allowed.
Note: Kevin has taken the opportunity to correct typographical and grammatical errors in the original post.
Learn more about the Hugo Awards here.
