OscarsAudioGuy's Twitter prank during the 2012 Academy Awards broadcast just might have helped boost interetst in closed captioning careers.

“Thank God we have closed captioning,” began the impromptu Twitter prank that appeared barely an hour into Sunday night’s Academy Awards broadcast and since has become this week’s social media rant du jour. Miffed by the broadcast’s obvious audio glitches, Barrett Tryon, a television news production professional in Colorado Sprigs, Colorado secured the Twitter name OscarsAudioGuy and launched a series of satirical jabs that many deemed at least as funny as Oscars host Bill Crystal’s jokes.

OscarsAudioGuy quickly racked up a base of several hundred followers, many of whom apparently assumed that Tryon was an Academy employee who might actually be working in the broadcast audio booth that night. Some followers apparently were TV audio pros themselves and tweeted back with tech advice. Unfortunately, the squeaks and squeals only got worse as the night wore on. But OscarsAudioGuy’s jokes got better.

“We used tin cans this year to offset Billy Crystal in HD,” he wrote. “Anyone have some more string we can borrow for mic cord?”

And later, “Not sure what all the fuss was about when #TheArtist was the clear winner,” he wrote about the first silent film to win an Academy Award since 1928. “Rumor has it there was an audio issue.”

No one knows whether Oscars officials were amused about the prank. The account got shut down Monday morning, but an email to Tryon from Twitters tech crew said the account had been mistaken for an autobot account and was reinstated.

In any case, OscarsAudioGuy’s prank has put the post-Oscars spotlight on closed captioning careers. After all, it’s a prime chance for TV and film lovers to earn a lucrative living and provide a great help to the hearing-impaired while also doing something they enjoy – seeing great films and TV shows.

Closed captioning is done in one of two ways, online or off-line. Online captioning refers to instant, real-time transcription of spoken words, sounds and effects throughout a live broadcast. Off-line captioning is the transcription of pre-recorded programs and allows for playback and pacing. Both provide opportunities for enviable incomes, though highly skilled online closed captioning specialists can land big gigs like awards shows and earn significantly more money.

Landing the best opportunities for work as a closed captioning specialist typically requires training at a school accredited by the National Court Reporters Association and earning NCRA certification upon graduation. Next, one should apply for the NCRA’s Certified Broadcast Captioner (CBC) certification, which sets additional requirement and higher standards to distinguish top contenders in the closed-captioning field.

To begin your closed captioning career, Florida’s Stenotype Institute should be your next call. It’s recognized as one of the nation’s top court reporting schools and provides additional training for future closed captioning specialists. The school has two campuses in Jacksonville and Orlando, as well as an online program. Visit the Stenotype Institute’s Admissions page online or call 1-888-55-STENO (888-557-8366) to find out more.

Court reporting - it's a guy's gig, too says the Stentotype Institute, one of the nation's top schools for court reporting careers.

There’s a bit of a misconception out there that court reporting is a chick’s gig. Not so. Lots of men find court reporting a rewarding and lucrative career. In fact, if you take a look back in history, you’ll learn that court reporting began as a male-dominated field.

In her book, Transcribing Class and Gender: Masculinity and Femininity in Nineteenth-Century Courts and Offices, author and Professor of History at California State University, Los Angeles, Carole Srole
examines the historical roots of clerical work and the role that gender and class played over the past century in determining one’s professional status. Included is a look at the way technology and gender roles shaped the development of the court reporting field.

During the late 19th century, shorthand transcription was the primary method of documenting legal proceedings and business communications. And most shorthand professionals were men. But technology soon helped open the industry doors to women, too. Differing accounts place the first steno machines being invented in 1830 and in 1863. Typewriters were invented in 1868. Both of these developments would help women begin to claim their place in the clerical fields.

Author Carole Srole explores the gender and class battles in the development of the court reporting field in her book, "Transcribing Class and Gender."

As more women landed court reporting and business stenography jobs, their male counterparts reacted by emphasizing their professionalism, portraying themselves as language experts far more advanced than the female and working-class stenographers and typists, who seemed to be growing in number by leaps and bounds. Women soon would take a page from that playbook, fashioning new, gendered professional images to combat the “vain typewriter girl” stereotype of a woman who cared much more for her looks than for her job and likely was simply seeking an introduction to a suitable suitor who would marry her and, thus, end her need to hold down a job at all.

My, how times have changed – thank goodness!

“Drawing upon census data, trade periodicals devoted to stenography and court reporting, the writings of educational reformers, and fiction, Srole allows us to better understand the roles that gender and work played in the formation of middle-class identity,” says Thomas Augst of New York University. “Clearly written and thoroughly researched, her book reminds us of the contradictions that both men and women faced as they navigated changes in the labor market and sought to realize a modern professional identity.”

If you’re interested in a court reporting career, Florida’s Stenotype Institute should be your next stop. Via campuses in Jacksonville and Orlando, plus and online program, we serve students – both female and male – from cities throughout Florida and South Georgia including Naples, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Cocoa Beach, Gainesville, Ocala, Lake City, Ft. Walton Beach, Panama City, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, in Florida, plus Albany, Brunswick and Savannah in Georgia. Call 888-55-STENO (888-557-8366) or stop by our Jacksonville or Orlando campus and talk with an enrollment specialist today.

Closed captioning career opportunities are expected to grow as the FCC implements new laws to ensure the captioning of new television programming, older TV programming now appearing on the Internet, and on web-originated video.

New FCC laws governing Internet-delivered, archived television shows means lots of potential opportunity in the field of closed captioning. Florida, as one of the top states for television production, will see much of that action over the next few years.

Closed captioning is the transcription and text display of spoken words and non-speech elements on a television, film or video screen as scenes play out. It’s designed to help deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers easily follow along with the action and script of a television show, film, newscast, political speech or debate, etc. But it wasn’t until 2006 that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required all non-exempt English-language new TV content to be captioned.

Now, the FCC is working to ensure that closed captioning is available for TV programming viewed online and for web-originated video. Specific proposed rules and deadlines are being challenged. The Motion Picture Association of America argues that the FCC’s expectations are next to impossible to fulfill and have countered with their own proposal that extends deadlines and limits the programs required to be closed captioned.

In any case, the end result is the same for students interested in careers as closed captioning specialists. Florida’s Stenotype Institute offers closed captioning career training along with its nationally renowned court reporting training. The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics projects employment of court reporters and closed captioning specialists to grow by 18 percent between 2008 and 2018. With establishment of the new laws, students who specialize in CART, broadcast captioning and webcasting services are expected to land the best job opportunities, experts say.

If you’re interested in a career in closed captioning, Florida’s Stenotype Institute should be your next stop. Students from throughout Florida and South Georgia can choose between campuses in Jacksonville and Orlando or qualify for the online study program (Note that additional training may be required). To get started, call 888-55-STENO (888-557-8366) and talk with an enrollment specialist today.

Technology will change the way court reporting, stenogrpahy and real-time transcriptionfor online meetings, depositions, conferences, etc is done, but won't replace them anytime soon.

Anytime new business technologies come about or old technologies are improved, people start worrying about the longevity of their jobs. Well, robotic surgery is being used today, but not without a real life, human surgeon and actual nurses on hand. You simply can’t eliminate the human element from certain lines of work. One of those industries is court reporting.

Schools in Florida and across the nation are enrolling new stenography students and consistently seeing graduates easily find work despite fears that sound and video recording equipment is stealthily creeping up on industry jobs. Over the past few years, the faltering economy has prompted courts in many towns to install video and audio recording systems with the goal of saving money spent on hiring court reporters – only to find themselves in a legal bind later. Lost, damaged or inaudible recordings have forced repeats of hearings and led to criminal charges being dismissed on appeal in recent cases. Getting poor quality recordings transcribed to paper have proven time consuming and costly. And although sound-to-text conversion software is available, it isn’t yet advanced enough to ensure accurate voice recognition.

Tech failures aren’t the only factors keeping stenographers and court reporters busy through the would-be tech takeover. Another is the growing demand or real-time, voice-to-text transcription. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 mandates a huge increase in the amount of television programming that must be captioned over the next few years. And, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, deaf and hard-of-hearing students in America’s colleges and universities have the right to request accommodation of real-time translation of classes and presentations to help them in their studies. These requests are accommodated via CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) services, which use the same technologies and techniques as court reporters.

While technology won’t take away court reporting jobs anytime soon, it will change the way court reporters and other stenographers work. As online video technology improves, people increasingly are holding business meetings, legal depositions, classes, courses and conferences online. This will boost demand for instantaneous, searchable text transcriptions of these events.

After graduating from the Stenotype Institute, one of the nation’s top court reporting schools, Florida graduates have enjoyed a consistent 95 percent job placement over the past decade. If you’re looking for a lucrative, meaningful and secure line of work, request an info kit online or call 888-55-STENO (888-557-8366) to talk with an enrollment specialist about a stenography or court reporting career. Study at our Jacksonville or Orlando campus or online.

Court reporting is one of the top 10 high potential careers in 2012.

A top 10 list of professions with the greatest career potential was recently released by Come Recommended, a content agency specializing in careers, recruiting, and human resources. It’s no surprise to Florida’s court reporting schools that court reporters made the list.

The report notes a 78 percent increase in the need to fill court reporting positions nationwide since 2010. Court reporters specialize in creating verbatim transcripts of legal proceedings and depositions. But their skills also are put to use daily in transcribing speeches, meetings and conversations. Court reporters who gain additional skills in closed captioning find work in film and television as well.

The findings echo those of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which predicts an 18-percent growth in the court reporting profession between 2008 and 2018. And they reflect the Stenotype Institute’s track record of placing 95 percent of graduates in court reporting jobs over the past decade.

One attraction to the profession is the high income potential for court reporters, Florida-based students say. The annual media salary for court reporters nationwide is $47,000, but that figure can easily double depending on the market in which you work and on the setting. For example, federal courts typically pay higher than do county or civil courts. And highly-skilled freelancers can demand enviable rates for covering high-profile court cases.

Other jobs making the list include education administrators; special education teachers; medical and public health social workers; marriage and family therapists; urban planners; clergy; firefighters and mediators.

Want to stake your claim to one of the nation’s most promising career opportunities? Call the Stenotype Institute today at 888-55-STENO (888-557-8366). Recognized as one of the nation’s top court reporting schools, we have campuses in Jacksonville and Orlando serving students from throughout Florida and South Georgia. Our students come from Naples, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Cocoa Beach, Gainesville, Ocala, Lake City, Ft. Walton Beach, Panama City, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, in Florida, plus Albany, Brunswick and Savannah in Georgia.

Are these guys and their song, "The Stenographer" the answer to your Valentine's Day gift for the court reporter dilemma? Perhaps not. (Photo: Relient K)

Searching for a unique Valentine’s Day gift for the stenographer you love? Florida students of the Stenotype Institute, one of the nation’s top court reporting schools, did a quick online search for the most unique gift ideas. And their findings were a bit strange.

The first search turned up a love song by an Ohio-based group called Relient K. Alas, the lyrics belie not so much a love song as a love-gone-wrong song. Titled The Stenographer, the song suggests that the singer’s significant other, who works as a stenographer, is a bit hesitant to trust. And perhaps a bit too moved by the criminal cases she’s undoubtedly reported:

I got in a fight with the stenographer
Afterwards she read me like a book.
I had tried to get along with her

But my temperament was quickly overlooked

On the weekends we can
Sneak into this courtroom
And you’ll offer me some sort of bargain plea.

Yeah, Smith and Weston Jr. was a son of a gun

He pressed his nose up to my head.
Yeah, I was sweatin’ bullets but I dodged the one
That was not as much sweat as was lead.

Oh, I still love you!
Oh, I still love you
Although I know that you want me dead.
And when I turn my other cheek
I will beg and I’ll plead
That this time you might just kiss it instead.

‘Cause this is my story

And like the glue on the binding,
I’m sticking to it.
If you wanna implore me
To change my tune,
Well I just won’t do it.

Cause this is my story
And like the glue on the binding,
I’m sticking to it.
If you wanna implore me
To change my tune,
Well I just won’t do it.

Perhaps this is not the song with which to serenade a stenographer beneath the moonlit sky on Valentine’s night.

Our next search looked positive at first glance. A vintage Valentine card pictured a stenographer at her station backed by a big red heart. Only she wasn’t paying attention to her steno machine. Instead, she was gazing into a mirror and doodling with her hair. A closer look revealed that the card was actually a vintage “vinegar valentine.” These caricature-fronted greeting first appeared during the Victorian era and lobbed insults rather than compliments. They often (understandably) were sent anonymously and postmasters sometimes confiscated them as items unfit to be mailed.

Try again.

Though we haven’t read the full book yet, we might have found a suitable Valentine’s Day gift for a stenographer on our third search. This time, the search engines turned up The Stenographer’s Breakfast, a book of poetry written from the viewpoint of a working stenographer, is a Barnard New Women Poets Award winner by renowned poet Frances McCue. Really – what makes a beloved swoon like poetry? And it’s readily available from online book purveyors like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Powell’s Books.

So, are you a Florida stenographer? Let us know what you’d like for Valentine’s Day. And if you’re considering a career in stenography as a court reporter or closed captioning specialist, give yourself the best Valentine’s Day gift by calling 888-55-STENO (888-557-8366) and talking to an enrollment specialist. What could be a better gift to yourself than taking the first step to a lucrative and rewarding new career?

Preparation of transcripts is a time-consuming task for court reporters and often is billed separately from recording.

Early in their court reporting careers, Florida graduates often are concerned about the ethics of what many people claim is “double dipping.” This refers to the practice of charging separately for recording and dictating state and civil court sessions, hearings and depositions. But longtime professionals contend that each is legitimately a separate, billable task.

The issue of double dipping happens with both regularly employed court reporters and freelance court reporters. Many who work for the court system by day put in extra hours at night to prepare transcripts of the audio they recorded earlier. While states differ in payment practices, most states have laws that dictate a day-rate for recording court sessions and an additional per-page rate for preparation of transcripts.

The question of double dipping recently was highlighted in the case of a Ken Howell, a longtime court reporter in South Dakota hired to serve as a court reporter in the state Supreme Court appeal of a man sentenced to death twice for a 2000 murder. County commissioners got a case of sticker shock when Howell submitted his bill: $16,435. While that sounds like a whopping pay check for one gig, consider that Howell worked days, nights and weekends for nearly five months, recording and preparing the equivalent of 4,324 pages of trial transcriptions.

The county initially refused Howell’s bill, but two weeks later begrudgingly relented after learning about the court reporting and transcription process from the judge in the case and the Deputy States Attorney. They also heard from fellow court reporters who explained not only the process and the time involved, but the ongoing financial commitments of both regularly employed and freelance court reporters.

Those in successful court reporting careers know that most reporters must furnish their own stenograph machines, which can cost $5,000 or more; laptop computers for transcription; software that can cost upwards of $4,000 plus periodic software upgrades; printers and toner; and supplies for delivering final transcripts such as paper, binders, a binding machine and clear plastic covers.

As you can see, investments and ongoing costs for court reporting careers can add up. But the income potential is definitely is worth it. The annual median salary for court reporters is $47,700, or more than $62,000 if you have above-average speed and skill. Those figures can go much higher in certain markets. Plus, Florida ranks third among the states with the largest numbers of court reporters and court reporting jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

If meaningful work with high income potential appeals to you, consider a court reporting career. Florida’s Stenotype institute caters to students from cities throughout Florida and South Georgia including Naples, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Cocoa Beach, Gainesville, Ocala, Lake City, Ft. Walton Beach, Panama City, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, in Florida, plus Albany, Brunswick and Savannah in Georgia. Check out campuses in Jacksonville and Orlando, or find out if you qualify for the Stenotype Institute’s online program. Call 888-55-STENO (888-557-8366) and talk with an enrollment specialist today.

Learning medical terminology is a must for success in court reporting schools and careers.

Learning common medical terms is a must for students at the Stenotype Institute, one of the nation’s top court reporting schools. Florida students have shared with us the tips that bet help them ace the Medical Terminology course.

Remember this line shouted from the middle school hallways: “Hey – Your epidermis is showing!” A moment’s mortification hit before you remembered the term from health class. Epidermis simply refers to the top layer of skin – no need to be embarrassed. But you can be you’ll be more than a little red-faced if you miss important medical terms while working as a court reporter on an important legal case.

The first tip shared by students is to focus on learning the Latin and Greek syllables that basic medical terms comprise. Mastering the meanings of these syllables will help you determine and memorize what the most commonly used terms mean. For instance, “epi” is derived from a Greek word meaning “upon” or “over.” Dermis” means “skin.” Thus, you have the meaning for epidermis – the top layer of skin. “Hyper” means “elevated.” “Glyc” refers to sugar and “emia” refers to blood. So, hyperglycemia naturally means “high blood sugar.”

Many students find that making flash cards with the Latin and Greek syllables and randomly combining them helps them practice determining the meanings of medical terms they’ve never heard – a much more effective practice than simply trying to memorize terms. Another top tip is to search for online audio drills designed to help court reporting students practice real-time dictation. And you may enjoy watching medical TV shows and documentaries to help familiarize yourself with medical terms and the way they are used in discussions.

Instructors at the Stenotype Institute have designed course study that helps students effectively master the medical terms they’ll likely hear in court cases that deal with medical negligence, medical malpractice and disabilities. To make sure you receive the training that will boost your career opportunities, choose one of the Stenotype Institute’s campuses in Jacksonville or Orlando, or find out if you’re eligible for the online program. We are the oldest of Florida’s court reporting schools and boast a job placement rate of 95 percent over the past 10 years. Call 888-55-STENO (888-557-8366) today.