How would you feel if local newscasts suddenly cut out the sound during weather reports, live shots and ad-libs?
For hearing-impaired viewers who watch closed-captioned newscasts, that has been a way of life.But now there is stenocaptioning, or "real time" captioning - which provides complete captions on the TV screen within five seconds of aired dialogue.
A stenocaptioner listens to the news program and types every word used by each anchor, reporter and interview subject on a special shorthand computer keyboard, much like a court reporter. The stenocaptioner can type as many as 225 words per minute.
Stenocaptioning is the method used for the "Today" show and the "The Oprah Winfrey Show," as well as nightly network newscasts.
Salt Lake network affiliates have flirted with this new development in aiding the hearing impaired, but so far only KUTV Ch. 2, the CBS affiliate, is actually putting it to use.
"We've been doing it for about three weeks," said KUTV news director Con Psarras. "We have it for our 10 p.m. newscast seven days a week and use it on our 6 p.m. newscasts Monday through Friday. It works especially well when we switch to breaking newscasts. But we hope to eventually add it to all of our shows."
KUTV's use of this new type of captioning was prompted by repeated requests from viewers who are hearing impaired. "We listened to this important segment of our viewing audience," Psarras said, "but we also heard from teachers who said it's a wonderful way to teach. It might also help foreign-speaking visitors learn English."
The cost is a drawback, however. "It's not cheap," Psarras said. "It costs about $70,000 a year to utilize it. Also, the transcribers are not in Utah. They're all over the country. The service we use is based in Denver, not Salt Lake."
Transcribers, or stenocaptioners, spend several months in training after being hired. After preparing for each daily broadcast, a stenocaptioner in Denver transcribes a live Salt Lake newscast while listening to it by phone.
The more standard electronic newsroom captioning is used by Ch.'s 4, 5 and 13. This method requires anchors and reporters to type the scripts for their news stories into computers before each newscast.
Under this method, stories not typed into the computer before airtime cannot be captioned - including live reports, some interviews, weather reports and ad-libbing.
The advantage of electronic news captioning is, of course, that it's cheaper. There is no need for specially trained personnel, and the staffers who put stories into the computer are usually in the newsroom, unless he or she is a correspondent.
"There is a possibility for us to start using it in the future," said Ray Carter, vice president of news at KSL Ch. 5., the local NBC affiliate. Carter noted that KSL was the first local affiliate to begin using the standard closed-caption service when it became available a few years back. The high price tag is the main reason Ch. 5 hasn't jumped into stenocaptioning.
KSL has discussed using steno-captioning, Carter said. "We are looking at how realistic the captioning is. But it is definitely something we see ourselves doing in the upcoming years."
Similarly, KSTU Ch. 13 (the Fox affiliate) and KTVX Ch. 4 (ABC) are looking at the feasibility of bringing stenocaptioning to their news programs. "We are definitely looking into it," said Steve Carlston, KSTU's vice president and general manager. "We are working with several support groups for the hearing impaired and planning to at least have our 9 p.m. newscast stenocaptioned."
"Stenocaptioning is something we'd like to do, especially in our news shows," said Peter Mathes, Ch. 4 (KTVX) vice president and general manager. "If we have a priority, it's to get it for our 10 p.m. news broadcast first, but that's still being looked into."