Pod people.

Podcasters around the world have planned an assault for March 22. On that day, they plan to simultaneously buy the same song online, thus propelling it up the iTunes chart and demonstrating "the power of social networking and new media," according to organizers.

The campaign, called Bumrush the Charts, represents a viral marketing experiment and a poke at established media conglomerates.

"Major labels use their resources to mass-market their product in a unified effort," said podcaster Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff. "We're going to show that our community can do the same."

Podcasting allows users to load audio files from the Internet onto their iPods for a fee. This isn't the first time a small group has tried to use a sales chart to gain legitimacy. In the old media sector, high-profile corporate executives occasionally encouraged employees and clients to buy books in an effort to make the New York Times best-seller list. Some desperate authors have placed bulk orders of their book with the same motive.

At least on the credibility score, established media still have the edge. The Times and similar list-gatherers have complex systems in place to avoid the manipulation of sales numbers.

In contrast, the online lists support the direct sales of music (in the case of Apple Inc.'s iTunes site) or books (in the case of Amazon.com Inc.). As for the manipulation issue, "I do not know of an instance where this has happened," said Sean Sundwall, a spokesman for Amazon. He added that the company does not comment about systems in order to prevent manipulation.

Apple representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The song chosen by the podcaster posse is "Mine Again" by Black Lab, a band that champions podcasting as a distribution model.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project already estimates that 17 million people currently download podcasts, and the Los Angeles Business Journal publishes the top iTunes downloads every week. For marketers, how much more recognition does a medium need?