Somewhat Silent

In the Context

by Sara @ 12:26 pm. Filed under Accessibility, Experiences

the captioner said “Dwight Gooden died in jail”, but what was really said was “Dwight Gooden was denied bail”.

It took me a few minutes to realize that Gooden wasn’t dead, just stuck in jail. It’s all in the context. It’s like that children’s game of telephone, a string of hear-and-repeat, where if the hearing’s off, the repetition’s off, and the listener’s left with inaccurate information.

I hate that I’m on the losing-end of the game, relying on a technology that is so often failure-prone, but with no other choice.

[link]

8 Responses to “In the Context”

hohprof (User Verified) :
August 27th, 2005 at 2:40 pm
Yes - a notorious recent instance of dud captioning over here was the one on the BBC 24-hour news channel about “terraces” being held responsible for the bombs in London. For about an hour “terraces” were constantly blamed for all sorts of things that inanimate objects don’t generally do. Now, as you say it, it’s all down to context and in that one it was easy to see what they really meant. But there are times…
Sara (User Verified) :
August 27th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
terraces? Yeesh.

I was horridly confused when the “bacon substantial” was shot in Long Island. The captioner kept talking about the bacon substantial, critical condition. blah blah. And it wasn’t until one of those newsy-overlays came up on the screen talking about the “Bay Area Constable” that I understood what had happened.

Over and over again. Bacon substantial. Bacon substantial. Didn’t it ever enter that person’s head that perhaps they were misunderstanding? :p

Your story about the evil terraces is even more ridiculous, though. :p Sheez.
hohprof (User Verified) :
August 27th, 2005 at 2:54 pm
Bacon substantial ? Heh - we have a saying over here about “making a pig’s breakfast” of something : )
hohprof (User Verified) :
August 27th, 2005 at 3:05 pm
Oh and another less serious one from the Simpson’s:

Caption: Burns: “You’re fired!”

when he actually said… “You’re hired!”

Hell, TV can be confusing sometimes : )
hohprof (User Verified) :
August 27th, 2005 at 3:07 pm
(And now my typing’s gone illiterate - make that The Simpsons.)
hohprof (User Verified) :
August 27th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
And while we’re about it, try to work out what this one was supposed to say:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v605/makropulos/?action=view&current=subtitlecap.jpg
hohprof (User Verified) :
August 27th, 2005 at 4:07 pm
Too-many-replies-Error…sorry…Th but I can’t resist one more about 20 minutes ago on BBC2:

“Next Saturday’s concert will feature music by Best honey”.

That’s Ludwig van Best honey, apparently.
Sanctum1972 (User Verified) :
August 28th, 2005 at 12:28 am
I believe it has to do with the caption station hiring Hindi/Indian workers translating for us. Must be their new technological career move to attract Indian workers as a cheap hire.
hmmmmmmmmm.

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