The Good, the Bad, and the Late Breaking: Preparing to Caption the News

By Jennifer L.C. Pridmore

Ask news captioners what they like best about their jobs, and they invariably cite two aspects. First, they like the news itself. Second, they take pride in providing an important service to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. "What I like most," says Sheri Smargon, RMR, MA, who has captioned for her entire reporting career, "is that I feel like I'm 'in the know.'" Terry S. McGinty, CSR, RDR, CRR, agrees. "I like to stay abreast of current events, and I enjoy watching political wrangling. … I almost always find [captioning] engaging." Due to the variety of news captioned, ranging from sports and entertainment to business and international news, news captioners do tend to be very well informed about all of these topics, even if the topic is not one they find particularly interesting in and of itself.

On the other hand, captioning the news also has several drawbacks. To begin with, McGinty points out that captioning in general has a tremendous "isolation aspect." "You don't get to meet your audience very often and hear feedback." And then there are the hours: getting up at 4 a.m. as Jim Hall, a supervisor at the National Captioning Institute, does on a regular basis in order to cover the morning news. But the biggest drawback is the same thing captioners find to be one of the biggest benefits: the news itself. "The news never stops," says Smargon. "You can hear the most horrible stories four, five, six times a day. … It does have its way with you, emotionally."

Which is why it is important to remind yourself of the service that is being provided for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. "Our service is most needed by deaf viewers" during those times of crisis, reminds Hall, who finds great satisfaction in providing that service - "something that I found very lacking in my former life as a freelance court reporter." Robyn Mengwasser, RPR, CRR, adds that it is essential for captioners to appreciate "the value of providing information to everyone. … I don't know who is using my captions, how many, what information they received or decisions they made, results or actions taken," but what matters is that she is providing a means for the people using her captions to make those decisions and take action.

Accurate and Helpful

For captions to be truly helpful, however, they need to be accurate, and that means preparation. First, last and in-between, the captioner needs to build his or her dictionary "to include geographical, political, entertainment, scientific, fashion, sports, [and] culinary terms - and generic first and last names," states Hall. The best way to do this is to keep as abreast of current news as possible by reading the paper, surfing the Internet, watching both local and national news, and so on. Gale Muehlbauer, CSR, CRR, also recommends taking a subscription to a comprehensive news magazine such as Time; for one thing, "their grammar and spelling are always correct," which, cautions Hall, cannot always be said about the Internet, even though it is the best source for up-to-the-minute news. Other areas not to overlook are sports and entertainment Web sites and magazines and, "I hate to admit it, [but] even such sources as People magazine can be helpful," says Hall.

In addition to acquiring and maintaining a good general knowledge of national and international news, captioning local news programs demands quite a bit of specialized knowledge. Hall tells his captioners to "become as familiar as possible with both the local station and the city where it's located - the roads, politics, schools, sports teams, local businesses and other institutions, hospitals, civic groups - in short, anything that might make the news." Typical names/terms that should be entered into a captioner's dictionary for covering local newscasts include not only the obvious names (i.e., news anchors and reporters), but also "local cities, counties, politicians, roads and bridges, tunnels, sports teams and their coaches, prominent players, stadiums, nicknames of teams, arts and entertainment venues and activities happening on a daily basis," says Muehlbauer. For this sort of information, check not only the network's Web site, but also a local newspaper or two.

The most precise knowledge, however, helps not at all if the captioner does not have the correct equipment at hand. Muehlbauer lists her essential equipment as "three computers, three steno machines, audio equipment including a Gentner to capture an audio line for those shows I cannot see on television, a DSS satellite dish with sports and entertainment packages, three modems and five telephone lines at my disposal." Even if your list is not quite that extensive, Doreen M. Radin, RMR, CRR, owner of Caption Advantage in Syracuse, N.Y., recommends "the proper equipment, times two," in addition to an automatic generator in case of power failures and "immediate Internet access" on a separate computer. And don't forget, warns Hall, that "a captioner needs to be thoroughly familiar with his or her equipment, both hardware and software, and be able to troubleshoot when things go awry." He promises that this will happen at some point, even to the most experienced captioner.

Preparation does not cease at the beginning of a newscast, either. Kathy DiLorenzo, RDR,CRR, director of realtime captioning resources at VITAC, believes that "the most important part of 'refinement' training is the post-mortem following a broadcast." She maintains that truly excellent captioners become so by "reviewing their on-air files word for word and evaluating their errors for the exact reason each and every one occurred, and developing a solid methodology to prevent the error from happening again." This hones the captioner's skills, tightens the writing and prevents the captioner from wasting valuable time by continuously working around writing problems rather than solving them.

Perhaps the best piece of advice concerning preparation, however, is to keep in mind that "you are never truly prepared, and if you are, that's when all the rules change," as Mengwasser points out. The key is to have solid resources, lots of practice and a good, comprehensive dictionary. "And a network of captioners and wonderful friends with expertise on a given city or topic," to turn to for help.

Daily Intensity

News captioning can be hard; very hard. "The daily intensity associated [with] listening to someone's every word can be overwhelming," says Smargon. Obviously, this is even truer when the words contain horrible news - or when the news is late breaking and urgent and everyone is scrambling to catch up. One way of dealing with the pressure is to maintain an appropriate mindset. DiLorenzo emphasizes "100 percent focus, thinking about nothing but the broadcast, word for word," and writing those words. Such concentration takes extreme mental discipline, but is especially necessary when the captioner's emotions are running high.

The main counter for pressure, however, is good preparation. "I prepare, I think positively, and I don't allow myself to think that I might fail or not do well," says McGinty. DiLorenzo agrees: "There is no worse feeling than going to air without being prepared, and 'prepared' means extensive research, attention to the details and respect for the viewers." And, she adds, "a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes of warm-up before air!" However, "rule number one" for preparation, according to Radin, is this: "Don't take an assignment unless you're capable and qualified."

While solid preparation does tend to prevent much of the performance-related pressure involved in news captioning, it cannot prevent every single mistake. "This is a hard one for me," admits Mengwasser, "but allow yourself mistakes." They do happen, everyone makes them, and they can be learned from. "The thing about captioning is [that] you can't fix the mistakes you've already made, but you can keep them from happening again, if you're careful," says Hall. So try and view a mistake for what it is: simply one mistake, something to be learned from, and don't "let one bad segment affect the next segment." This is where teamwork and friendships become important to your job. "Talking it through with trusted colleagues, sharing experiences and a few laughs is usually enough to put you in perspective and give you that extra lift to tackle the job," comforts Radin.

Last, but not least, "You need to accept your own limitations, both physically and emotionally," advises Muehlbauer. Refusing a job that is too stressful, trading on and off with a co-worker, and reviewing problems and solutions with a colleague are all part of maintaining a positive mindset for your job. "Take breaks when you can," says Muehlbauer. "You are performing a very difficult and stressful job, and you need to recognize [that] and take steps to care for yourself."

There's No Business Like News Captioning

News captioning takes the captioner on a journey from the ridiculous (in hindsight) to the sublime to the horrifying and, often, back to the sublime. McGinty cites captioning tornado warnings while sitting in her home office on the second floor, surrounded by windows. She finally grabbed her laptop and steno machine and ran for it, completing coverage in a closet while "sitting spread-eagled on the floor, steno machine between my legs and a [daughter] on each leg." She had to turn the volume on the television in the next room to its highest level so she could hear what she was captioning. Muehlbauer counts captioning a story about a local boy receiving a scholarship to Berkeley as one of her highlights. The boy was deaf, and when Muehlbauer heard the name, she realized he was the same boy for whom she had provided CART services (his first) when he was 13. She captioned the entire story while crying.

As for the horrifying, nothing can top September 11, 2001. Radin was captioning when the towers collapsed and could not tear herself away. "I paced the floor when I wasn't captioning, feeling certain that I should be on the air somewhere providing captioning for some broadcast. When I was captioning, I felt that I was doing my part to help." Captioning during the events of September 11th and the days which followed gave Muehlbauer "a greater sense of self-esteem than anything else I've done in my life." And that is exactly what enables news captioners to continue through the pressures of the job: the knowledge that they are providing a needed service for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community that only they can provide.

About the Author
Jenni Pridmore is a freelance writer from Kingston, Ontario, Canada.