
Closed Captioning
Subtitling, Stenography, and the Digital Convergence of Text with Television
Gregory J. Downey(Author)
Johns Hopkins University Press
Published on 21. April 2008
Book
Hardback
400 pages
978-0-8018-8710-9 (ISBN)
Description
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.
Reviews / Votes
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 2009 Downey's historical approach sheds light on the origins of innovations born of practical necessity that are driving current media trends. Information Society 2010More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore, MD
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
22 s/w Zeichnungen
22 Line drawings, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
676 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8018-8710-9 (9780801887109)
DOI
10.1353/book.3337
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Gregory J. Downey
Closed Captioning
Subtitling, Stenography, and the Digital Convergence of Text with Television
E-Book
04/2008
Johns Hopkins University Press
€42.99
Available for download
Person
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.
Content
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
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