Correspondence between the revolution and the rest of us
Dear people who make podcasts:
Always include a text transcript.
Sincerely yours,
Keisha
Dear Keisha:
Do you realize how much extra work that is?
Best,
People who make podcasts
Dear people who make podcasts:
Yes, as it happens I do: up to 6 hours transcription per 1 hour of audio.
Regards,
Keisha
Dear Keisha:
We don’t have that kind of time.
Apologetically,
People who make podcasts
Dear people who make podcasts:
There are solutions, including hiring folks, but in the meantime, a ton of people can’t access your work.
And before we get to solutions, we have to agree that this is a problem.
—K
Dear Keisha:
We’re torn. Some of us aren’t going to change anything about how we produce things.
But some of us care a lot. What can we do?
—People who make podcasts
Dear people who make podcasts:
I appreciate those of you who care.
Hire someone invested in you and your work to transcribe it before you publish.
If you can’t hire for money, skills-barter.
If you can’t do either, invite your supporters and community to sponsor the job. It’s that important, and once it’s done, you’ll wonder why you didn’t always do it.
—K
P.S. There are tech solutions that’ll get you 70% of the way there. Just plan for text as part of your package: it’s not complete as content if only some of the revolutionaries can appreciate it.
P.P.S. A suggestion that’ll help one-person casters: try outlining or writing your speech in advance. It’s easier to structure content, edit, and post when you do that!
Transcripts “free” your content so it’s visible to both text readers and search engine web crawlers. If you want to be read and you want to be found, you need transcripts.
Dear Keisha:
Our friends who make podcasts showed us your note. Does this apply to us too?
Sincerely,
People who make videos
Dear people who make videos:
Yes! Yes it does!
If you’re speaking anything but English with a certain accent and if your recording is anything but stellar, YouTube’s auto-captions are going to be weak. Vimeo content publishers have a much better embedded tool and inexplicably do not use it.
Please help!
In solidarity,
Keisha
Resources
One of my highest-traffic posts is the full transcript to Toni Morrison’s 1975 lecture at Portland State University. The university unearthed the audio recording some time in 2014, and partial quotes made it onto Twitter and Tumblr that summer, but there wasn’t a transcript anywhere and I didn’t feel at ease sharing the material if people in my network couldn’t also experience it.
So I devoted a day to transcribing it all. It’s one of my favorite pieces of content on this website, and full-time researchers have been able to use it in campus workshops and in op-eds for international publications.
It was a hard-work-pleasure to transcribe Morrison: her work is always both lyrical and precise.
And I shouldn’t have had to do it.
For podcasts: Podcasters handle transcription in different ways. Peterson Toscano’s Climate Stew includes pre-scripted segments and audio interviews, so Peterson blends scripts and transcriptions beneath show audio on the Climate Stew website. All episode collateral is on one page. Herb Montgomery’s weekly podcast hits the internet in two separate products because he writes an article, has it edited, and then records the audio. Mia McKenzie, host of the Black Girl Dangerous Podcast, posts conversation online and a plaintext transcript a few days later. Some content developers transcribe their own work, and others outsource the job.
Bottom line? There are options.
For video: Check out Vimeo to incorporate captions created with Amara, a not-for-profit video editing and translation tool. Amara is one of a few tools that grassroots orgs have recommended to me: while it’s designed for all-on-site transcription and translation, you can also upload .txt file scripts or partial transcriptions and finish them there. Other formats than .txt are also available, and it supports multiple language translation.
Never underestimate the value you can add to a piece of content with the editing, transcription, or captioning contributions of someone who cares about you, your work, and your audience. Editing, transcription, and captioning are part of the creation and publication process, and everything flows better when we treat them as such.