C|Net reports on a survey from Podtrac that shows 78% of those who have ever listened to a podcast are men. That’s consistent with the idea that men are earlier adopters of technology, according to Mark McCrery, CEO of Podtrac, a company that connects podcasters and advertisers: “With podcasting just over a year old, the current maleness of the podcast audience at the aggregate level is consistent with gender usage trends of the early Web.”

But the shift toward a more balanced mix of listeners is happening faster with podcasting than it has with earlier technologies, the study revealed. Fifty-one percent of those who said they had listened to a podcast in the prior week were women. Other study findings:

• A third of survey respondents knew the term “podcasting”
• A third of those who knew what podcasting is have listened to a podcast
• 40% of those who have ever listened had done so in the week preceding the survey