{"id":27820,"date":"2014-06-25T03:31:47","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T08:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=27820"},"modified":"2014-06-25T03:31:47","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T08:31:47","slug":"the-sorry-state-of-closed-captioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2014\/06\/25\/the-sorry-state-of-closed-captioning\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sorry State of Closed Captioning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sorry State of Closed Captioning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Streaming video now must provide subtitles for the hearing impaired. There’s no guarantee of accuracy, though. One solution: crowdsourcing.<\/p>\n

TAMMY H. NAM<\/p>\n

JUNE 24 2014<\/p>\n

Imagine sitting down to watch an episode of Game of Thrones\u2014and hardly being able to understand anything. That\u2019s the case for non-native English speakers or any of the 36 million deaf or hard-of-hearing Americans. HBO doesn\u2019t expect its viewers to have a knowledge of High Valyrian; that\u2019s why it takes care to offer subtitles to viewers understand exactly how Daenerys intends to free the slaves of Essos.<\/p>\n

If only most online streaming companies took as much care in everyday captioning.<\/p>\n

Nostalgia for Network TV<\/p>\n

Machine translation is responsible for much of today\u2019s closed-captioning and subtitling of broadcast and online streaming video. It can\u2019t register sarcasm, context, or word emphasis. It can\u2019t capture the cacophonous sounds of multiple voices speaking at once, essential for<\/span> understand the voice of an angry crowd of protestors<\/span> or a cheering crowd. It just types what it registers. Imagine watching classic baseball comedy Major League and only hearing the sound of one fan shouting from the stands. Or only hearing every other line of lightning-fast dialogue when watching reruns of the now-classic sitcom 30 Rock.<\/p>\n

As of April 30, streaming video companies are now required to provide closed captioning. On all programming. There\u2019s no doubt that we\u2019re in a better place than we were even five years ago, when streaming video companies weren\u2019t required to closed-caption any of its content. But, there still is a long way to go in improving the accuracy of subtitles<\/span>. Netflix and Amazon Prime users have bemoaned the quality of the streaming companies\u2019 closed captions, citing nonsense words, transcription errors, and endless \u201cfails.\u201d These companies blame the studios for not wanting to pay for accurate translations but excuses aren\u2019t flying with paying streaming video subscribers.<\/p>\n

Marlee Matlin, the Oscar-winning actress and longtime advocate for better closed captions for the deaf and hard of hearing, recently mentioned in an interview that she knows that she\u2019s missing out on most of the action when she\u2019s watching streaming video. \u201cI rely on closed captioning to tell me the entire story,\u201d she says. \u201cI constantly spot mistakes in the closed-captions. Words are missing or something just doesn\u2019t make sense. My kids spot it too, they\u2019re aware of sloppy captions and the pieces of information that I\u2019m not being given.\u201d<\/p>\n

Context and Knowledge of Cultural Nuance Matters<\/p>\n

Machines also fall short when it comes to translating one language into another. It isn\u2019t sufficient to merely exchange words in one language for its equivalent. When it comes to translating emotional writing and an actor\u2019s subtle delivery of a piece of dialogue, there\u2019s no substitute for the human touch. Let\u2019s take it a step further. Imagine being a Japanese person watching the 1995 film Trainspotting and having to rely on a word-for-word translation of heavy Scottish dialect and slang. To say that much<\/span> would get lost in translation is an understatement.<\/p>\n

Good translators will have lived in the countries where the respective languages are spoken, and will be aware of cultural and linguistic nuances. They’ll keep up to date with current affairs and the introduction of new words and phrases. Most importantly, they will have an intuitive sense for<\/span> the languages. A good translator will understand how important these details are, because she wants others to be as excited and horrified about everything that\u2019s unfolding on the screen as she is.<\/p>\n

The Heart of Language and Understanding<\/p>\n

Humans can ensure quality and quantity when it comes to giving beloved films and TV shows proper translations. Machines can\u2019t be fans in the same way that people can. They don\u2019t go back and add more details just to enrich the experience, or think carefully about whether an audience will understand why a certain word sounds silly in one language but is a deep and unforgivable insult in another.<\/p>\n

Crowdsourced<\/span> subtitling platforms like Viki, a TV site powered by a community of fans who translate shows into multiple languages, allow you to add closed captions to YouTube videos without limits on the number of languages a show or film can be translated into and how quickly and accurately the content can be made available to viewers all over the world.<\/p>\n

The demand for better closed captioning is yielding positive results. Congress recently passed a law requiring broadcasters to caption Internet-distributed video files if the content was broadcast on TV with captions. Netflix is working to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act to make sure that all its streamed content has subtitles. Amazon Prime is also putting efforts behind making sure all of its Instant Video is closed-caption ready. YouTube has also improved its closed captioning and crowdsourcing and capabilities. On the human translation front, other companies, such as the new transcribe-and-translate platform Amara, are seeing the value of using people to provide better options than machines.<\/p>\n

Up in the air, there are changes coming as well. Last week, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) demanded that US airlines add closed captioning to in-flight movies for the benefit of hearing-impaired airline passengers. Closed captioning for all is a fantastic goal, but until there\u2019s accurate closed captioning for all, there’s still work to be done.<\/p>\n

SOURCE:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/entertainment\/archive\/2014\/06\/why-tv-captions-are-so-terrible\/373283\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sorry State of Closed Captioning Streaming video now must provide subtitles for the hearing impaired. There’s no guarantee of accuracy, though. One solution: crowdsourcing. TAMMY H. NAM JUNE 24 2014 Imagine sitting down to watch an episode of Game…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[114,4605,3472,4621,65,1188,16262,24,62,21909,1412,21907,2750,21908,1189,429,1228,21911,1335,330,21912,39,21910],"class_list":["post-27820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-ada","tag-amazon","tag-americans-with-disabilities-act","tag-article","tag-captioning","tag-closed-captioning","tag-crowdsourcing","tag-deaf","tag-english","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-hard-of-hearing","tag-hbo","tag-hearing-impaired","tag-high-valyrian","tag-internet","tag-marlee-matlin","tag-netflix","tag-sen-tom-harkin","tag-streaming-video","tag-subtitle","tag-us-airlines","tag-video","tag-viki"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-7eI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26189,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2014\/02\/07\/how-netflix-alienated-and-insulted-its-deaf-subscribers\/","url_meta":{"origin":27820,"position":0},"title":"How Netflix alienated and insulted its deaf subscribers","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"February 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"How Netflix alienated and insulted its deaf subscribers The streaming video giant still can't manage to competently produce closed captions By Jon Christian January 30, 2014 In less than a decade, Netflix has assembled an unprecedented library of streaming film and television and organized it with a sophisticated recommendation algorithm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14884,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2011\/06\/29\/deaf-activists-launch-campaign-against-netflix\/","url_meta":{"origin":27820,"position":1},"title":"Deaf activists launch campaign against Netflix","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"June 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Deaf activists launch campaign against Netflix by: SUSAN WEBB June 28 2011 Deaf and hard of hearing activists have launched a social media \"bombing\" campaign, an online petition and a federal lawsuit to get Netflix to provide better access to subtitles for its online streaming movies. 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By Jordyn Taylor April 28, 2014 For some of us, it\u2019s all too easy to get lost in a seven-hour\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20274,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2012\/10\/10\/netflix-and-the-nad-reach-historic-agreement-to-provide-100-cc-in-on-demand\/","url_meta":{"origin":27820,"position":4},"title":"Netflix and the NAD Reach Historic Agreement to Provide 100% CC in On-Demand","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"October 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Netflix and the National Association of the Deaf Reach Historic Agreement to Provide 100% Closed Captions in On-Demand Streaming Content Within Two Years http:\/\/bit.ly\/Ook4sl (October 10, 2012) Netflix Inc. and the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), a non-profit organization, have submitted a joint Consent Decree to a federal court\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1811,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2007\/06\/18\/digital-revolution-excludes-closed-captioning\/","url_meta":{"origin":27820,"position":5},"title":"Digital Revolution Excludes Closed Captioning","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"June 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"June 17, 2007 Digital Revolution Excludes Closed Captioning The Digital Revolution Has Made TV More Ubiquitous Than Ever -- Except for Viewers Who Need Captioning By James Hibberd Colleen Farrell is a 21-year-old college senior who's been shut out of television's digital revolution. 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