Real-time transcription

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Real-time transcription is the general term for transcription by court reporters using real-time text technologies to deliver computer text screens within a few seconds of the words being spoken. Specialist software allows participants in court hearings or depositions to make notes in the text and highlight portions for future reference.

Contents

Real-time transcription is also used in the broadcasting environment where it is more commonly termed "captioning."

Career opportunities

Real-time reporting is used in a variety of industries, including entertainment, television, the Internet, and law.

Specific careers include the following:

History

Before the advent of the stenotype machine, court reporters wrote official trial transcripts by hand using a shorthand system of stenoforms that could later be translated into readable English. It often took eight years of training to learn this manual form of writing at the necessary speed. Walter Heironimus was among the first stenographers to make use of the stenotype machine during his work in the U.S. District Court system in New Jersey in 1935. [2]

A "transcript crisis" arose during the later half of the twentieth century due to the increasing volume of lawsuits. There were not enough number of court reporters to match the increasing number of trials. Not only were court reporters unavailable to attend many court proceedings, court transcripts were constantly late and the qualities varied. Some believed it was due to the non-interchangeability between court reporters, and others believed it was simply due to a labor shortage. In the meantime, magnetic audiotape recording, or known as electronic recording (ER) began to threaten all reporters' job since it could record long-hour courtroom trials and replace a court reporter's position in the courtroom. As a result, machine translation (MT) intended to serve as a solution for preventing ER from potentially replacing reporters' jobs. However, MT relied heavily on human labors operating behind the system and many started to question if it should be the right way to end the "transcript crisis." Later in 1964, set up by CIA, the Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee (ALPAC) was set to review whether MT was capable of solving this crisis. They concluded that MT had failed to do so. Then Patrick O'Neill, a skilled and experienced court reporter, stayed to work on the stenotype-translation project with CIA and developed the prototype CAT system. After adopting the CAT system in court-reporting community, CAT was brought into the television broadcasting system, aiming to provide captions for the deaf or hard-of-hearing communities. In 1983, Linda Miller developed a further use for the CAT system. She successfully translated a lecture live on the television screen and provided a transcript for students. This technique is known as Computer-Aided Real-time Translation, or CART. [2]

Court reporter

It is the court reporter's job to note down the exact words spoken by every participants during a court or deposition proceeding. Then court reporters will provide verbatim transcripts. The reason to have an official court transcript is that the real-time transcriptions allows attorneys and judges to have immediate access to the transcript. It also helps when there's a need to look up for information from the proceeding. Additionally, the deaf and the hard-of-hearing communities can also participate in the judicial process with the help of real-time transcriptions provided by court reporters. [3]

Education and training

The required degree level for a court reporter to have is an Associate's degree or postsecondary certificate. [4]

In order to become a court reporter, more than 150 reporter training programs are provided at proprietary schools, community colleges, and four-year universities. After graduation, court reporters can choose to further pursue certifications to achieve a higher level of expertise and increase their marketability during a job search. [3] In most states, Certificates of Proficiency from the NCRA or from state agencies are now required certificates for court reporters to have in order to qualify for appointments. [5] The NCRA aims to set the national standard for the certification of court reporters, and since 1937 it has offered its certification program which is now accepted by 22 states instead of state licenses. [6]

Court reporter training programs include but not limited to: [7]

Other than official court reporters, who are assigned to and work for a particular court, other types of court reporters include free-lance reporter, who either works for a court reporting firm or self-employed. They are different from official court reporters in that they have the chances to work on a wider range of assignments and work on basis of hourly wage. Hearing reporters work at governmental agency hearings. Legislative reporters work in law-making bodies. [5] The demand for reporters is not limited in just the court settings. Reporters are also needed in conferences, meetings, conventions, investigations, [8] and a variety of industries with needs for employers with real-time data entry skills.

Non-English transcription

Transcription services are universally necessary, so it is not limited to the English language. A stenographer's ability to transcribe languages beyond only English is especially valuable as society as a whole becomes increasingly multilingual. Education in non-English transcription demands a comprehensive understanding of the given language. Phonetic differences between English and other languages are a particular challenge in carrying English transcription skills over into other languages. Stenography represents various sounds of a language in a formal system of shorthand, so differences within the sets of sounds that emerge in other languages require an alternative system of shorthand transcription. For example, the presence of many diphthongs and triphthongs in Spanish requires certain sounds to be distinguished that would not be present in transcribing English into shorthand. [9]

Controversies

The usage of transcription in the context of linguistic discussions has been controversial. Typically, two kinds of linguistic records are considered to be scientifically relevant. First, linguistic records of general acoustic features, and secondly, records that only focuses on the distinctive phonemes of a language. While transcriptions are not entirely illegitimate, transcriptions without enough detailed commentary regarding any linguistic features, or transcriptions of poor quality resources, has a great chance of the content being misinterpreted. [10] Besides misinterpretation, transcribers could also bring in cultural biases and ignorance that reflect onto their transcription. [11] These instances may cause a disruption of reliability in the final real-time transcription, which could influence how the written utterance is seen as an evidence for a court-case.

Quality issues

Problems in the final resulting transcription can be cause by either the quality of the transcriber or the original source that is being transcribed. Transcribers can come from different levels of skill and training background. This makes the final transcription prone to poor quality, or if the transcription is being done by multiple people, lack of consistency in the content.

If the source of the transcription is a recording, the problem may root back to the quality of the recording device (mechanical failure, battery loss, etc.) or the clarity of the recording itself (background noise, poor placement of the recorder, etc.). [12]

Dialects

The displaying of a dialect in transcription highlights a complication within transcription. The fundamental problem with this situation is that the transcribed product is not simply a spoken language in its written form, but a language that has been transcribed by someone other than the speaker, no matter the level of understanding the transcriber has for the spoken language. It is important to note that any transcription is an interpretation of the speech no matter how detailed it is, and will be selective in what it can include, leaves out and ultimately convey to the reader. [13] A way to supplement a transcription of dialectic speech is to provide phonetic information. However, without any knowledge on phonetic notation or a chart that serves as a key to the symbols used, the information can become irrelevant for use as a transcription. Dialects will be noted when it is well recognized, such as socially stereotyped dialects like doin' for doing.

Besides phonetic differences that may lead to misinterpretation, transcribers also have to consider the nuanced social and emotional meanings that are specific to the speaker at the time and or the culture surrounding the dialect.

The words in parentheses are considered misheard, but that can also be how the syntax works in the dialect. This example from J. Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage (1984) shows the dilemma of doubt in accuracy of interpreting a dialect in the final transcript. [14] Court reporters also have the tendency to correct the speaker's grammar, which can also be the case if the speaker is speaking in a colloquial dialect. This can cause more doubt in the accuracy of the transcription, especially if the reporter is translating the dialect into the wrong equivalent of standard language. [12]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Court reporter</span> Person who records live court testimony

A court reporter, court stenographer, or shorthand reporter is a person whose occupation is to capture the live testimony in proceedings using a stenographic machine or a stenomask, thereby transforming the proceedings into an official certified transcript by nature of their training, certification, and usually licensure. This can include courtroom hearings and trials, depositions and discoveries, sworn statements, and more.

Communication access realtime translation (CART), also called open captioning or realtime stenography or simply realtime captioning, is the general name of the system that stenographers and others use to convert speech to text. A trained operator writes the exact words spoken using a special phonetic keyboard, or stenography methods, relaying a reliable and accurate translation that is broadcast to the recipient on a screen, laptop, or other device. CART professionals have qualifications for added expertise (speed and accuracy) as compared to court reporters and other stenographers.

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Subtitles are text representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, captions are subtitles that include written descriptions of other elements of the audio like music or sound effects. Captions are thus especially helpful to people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Subtitles may also add information that is not present in the audio. Localizing subtitles provide cultural context to viewers. For example, a subtitle could be used to explain to an audience unfamiliar with sake that it is a type of Japanese wine. Lastly, subtitles are sometimes used for humor, as in Annie Hall, where subtitles show the characters' inner thoughts, which contradict what they were saying in the audio.

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The National Court Reporters Association, or NCRA, is a US organization for the advancement of the profession of the court reporter, closed captioner, and realtime writer. The association holds annual conventions, seminars and forums, speed and real-time contests, and teachers' workshops to assist court reporters.

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A transcription service is a business service that converts speech into a written or electronic text document. Transcription services are often provided for business, legal, or medical purposes. The most common type of transcription is from a spoken-language source into text. Common examples are the proceedings of a court hearing such as a criminal trial or a physician's recorded voice notes. Some transcription businesses can send staff to events, speeches, or seminars, who then convert the spoken content into text. Some companies also accept recorded speech, either on cassette, CD, VHS, or as sound files. For a transcription service, various individuals and organizations have different rates and methods of pricing. Transcription companies primarily serve private law firms, local, state, and federal government agencies and courts, trade associations, meeting planners, and nonprofits.

A scopist edits the transcripts of official proceedings, created by court reporters. Court reporters attend official proceedings such as court hearings and transcribe the spoken word to written text. Court reporters take down official proceedings using voice writing or stenography. Scopists receive the rough copies of these transcripts after the proceedings, check the transcript for missing words or mistakes, edit grammar and punctuation, ensure that proper names and technical or scientific terms are spelled correctly, and format the transcript properly before delivering the transcript back to the court reporter. Unlike most careers in the legal field, scopists can be outsourced as they are not directly involved in the legal process.

Voice writing is a method used for court reporting, medical transcription, CART, and closed captioning. Using the voice writing method, a court reporter speaks directly into a stenomask or speech silencer - a hand-held mask containing one or two microphones and voice-dampening materials. As the reporter repeats the testimony into the recorder, the mask prevents the reporter from being heard during testimony.

References

  1. ↑ "Real-time Transcription". Transcription Jobs HQ. 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
  2. 1 2 Downey, Greg (2006). "Constructing "Computer-Compatible" Stenographers: The Transition to Real-Time Transcription in Courtroom Reporting". Technology and Culture. 47 (1): 1–26. doi:10.1353/tech.2006.0068. ISSN   0040-165X. JSTOR   40061005.
  3. 1 2 "What is Court Reporting | NCRA". www.ncra.org. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
  4. ↑ "Court Reporter: How Do I Become a Court Reporter?". Study.com. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
  5. 1 2 3 Sappington, Betty Gae Hughes (1983). "Study of Court Reporter Training Programs in Texas and Oklahoma" (PDF). Oklahoma State University.
  6. ↑ "Certification". NCRA. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  7. ↑ Bolat, Dorris, M. "Transcription services" . Retrieved 30 December 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ Oscar Rose Junior College. "Court Reporting Questions and Answers."
  9. ↑ Bove, A. J. (1920). "Spanish Stenography". Hispania. 3 (5): 255–257. doi:10.2307/330898. JSTOR   330898.
  10. ↑ Heffner, R.-M. S. (1934). "Concerning Transcription". Language. 10 (3): 286–290. doi:10.2307/409478. JSTOR   409478.
  11. ↑ Ochs, Elinor (1979). Developmental Pragmatics. New York: Academic Press. p. 44. ISBN   0125245505.
  12. 1 2 Hennink, Monique; Weber, Mary Beth (2013). "Quality Issues of Court Reporters and Transcriptionists for Qualitative Research". Qualitative Health Research. 23 (5): 700–710. doi:10.1177/1049732313481502. ISSN   1049-7323. PMC   4465445 . PMID   23512435.
  13. ↑ Macaulay, Ronald K. S. (1991). ""Coz It Izny Spelt When They Say It": Displaying Dialect in Writing". American Speech. 66 (3): 282. doi:10.2307/455800. JSTOR   455800.
  14. ↑ Macaulay, Ronald K. S. (1991). ""Coz It Izny Spelt When They Say It": Displaying Dialect in Writing". American Speech. 66 (3): 284. doi:10.2307/455800. ISSN   0003-1283. JSTOR   455800.
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