Quality of closed captioning?

I am a student in the Master of Arts program for Contemporary Communications at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. My thesis is based on the technology used in television for the deaf population.

Please feel free to vlog your thoughts. Here are some ideas:

- weaknesses/strengths of closed captioning
- misinterpretation of a program because of the lack of proper translation
- suggestions for better interpretation of programming
- positive/negative experience with closed captioning

Or, just feel free to praise or rant! Just express yourself!

Visit me at: www.youtube.com/jscndthesis

Category:

Education

Tags:

• deaf
• closed captioning

[jscndthesis]

Exactly! I feel the same way about many shows. Thanks for your thoughts!

[DeafCub2000]

Hello, there. Yes some of closed caption in the TV are good but sometime missed word or mess the word when I watch and read the closed captions. Some of show on TV don't have closed caption.

[CathieDS]

I'm hearing, an ASL interpreter, and I've often been frustrated by the quality of captioning - especially the news! Some programs are well done, while others are awful - missing entire thoughts, and picking up later - making the captioning totally useless and incomprehensible to the reader. With such poor captioning, it's no wonder so many people with hearing loss have so much difficulty learning the English language.

[Hayeshacker2]

Whenever I view closed captioning, it's all in upper case, in front of the game's current score and sometimes leaves out a sentence here and there to compensate for the speed the announcer is speaking. Seriously, major improvement is required.

[sellabangelist]

Very interesting discussion. I am a musician, so I end up watching TV in bars quite a bit. Closed captioning is the only way to "hear" a TV in a noisy bar. So as I sit there watching a live newscast or live sports commentary, I'm thinking... What's with all the jumbles of letters? I understand it's live, and someone has to type it in real time, but still. There should be something better. And for a pre-recorded show, I really don't see any excuse.

[aquaanimus]

I have a hearing loss, and I always use my close captions. Usually I deal fine with them, but I am so tired of American Idol being behind a few seconds. GRRR

[Msmaria1227]

I'm a hearing person and I also do not like the quality of the CC here. It is not always accurate and it doesn't show the expressiveness like ASL. With today's technology I think we can improve CC for everyone.

[KiahBoo16]

I'm a hearing person who also watches closed captioning just in case I miss something that was said. I definitely agree that the quality sucks! I've found that watching those dating shows like "Blind Date" and "The Fifth Wheel" have been extra frustrating because these shows have caption bubbles and animation regarding the daters and the Closed Captioning almost always covers them up. The animation is what makes the show funny so it's very disappointing when that happens.