Closed Captioning: Subtitling, Stenography, and the Digital Convergence of Text with Television

by Gregory J. Downey

Overview

This engaging study traces the development of closed captioning—a field that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s from decades-long developments in cinematic subtitling, courtroom stenography, and education for the deaf. Gregory J. Downey discusses how digital computers, coupled with human mental and physical skills, made live television captioning possible. Downey's survey includess the hidden information workers who mediate between live audiovisual action and the production of visual track and written records. His work examines communication technology, human geography, and the place of labor in a technologically complex and spatially fragmented world.

Illustrating the ways in which technological development grows out of government regulation, education innovation, professional profit-seeking, and social activism, this interdisciplinary study combines insights from several fields, among them the history of technology, human geography, mass communication, and information studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801893438
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	02/25/2008
Series:	Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gregory J. Downey is an associate professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication and the School of Library & Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of Telegraph Messenger Boys: Labor, Technology, and Geography, 1850–1950.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Invisible Speech-to-Text Systems
Part One: Turning Speech into Text in Three Different Contexts
1. Subtitling Film for the Cinema Audience
2. Captioning Television for the Deaf Population
3. Stenographic Reporting for the Court System
Part Two: Convergence in the Speech-to-Text Industry
4. Realtime Captioning for News, Education, and the Court
5. Public Interest, Market Failure, and Captioning Regulation
6. Privatized Geographies of Captioning and Court Reporting
Conclusion: The Value of Turning Speech into Text
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Ron Kline

An impressive and ambitious account of the history of the technology, geography, labor, and politics of three speech-to-text systems—subtitling, closed captioning for television, and court reporting. It is original, well written and researched, and an important book.

From the Publisher

An impressive and ambitious account of the history of the technology, geography, labor, and politics of three speech-to-text systems—subtitling, closed captioning for television, and court reporting. It is original, well written and researched, and an important book.
—Ron Kline, Cornell University

Editorial Reviews

Downey’s book provides a through explanation of how the technology developed, and after reading Closed Captioning, you will never again take the technology for granted and you will clearly understand its role as a communication medium.
—Susan B. Barnes, Technology and Culture

Downey's historical approach sheds light on the origins of innovations born of practical necessity that are driving current media trends.
—Information Society

From the Publisher

Downey’s book provides a through explanation of how the technology developed, and after reading Closed Captioning, you will never again take the technology for granted and you will clearly understand its role as a communication medium.

Technology and Culture - Susan B. Barnes

Downey's historical approach sheds light on the origins of innovations born of practical necessity that are driving current media trends.

Information Society