Podcasts had been initially used to permit folks to distribute their very own content material or radio model reveals to a wider viewers. The readability of a podcast digital recording has been ultimate for a wide range of media, equivalent to faculty classes, tourism audio guides, oral historical past interviews, radio programmes, magazines, political broadcasts, sermons, TV commentary, newspapers and even well being guides.
So why do you want a podcast transcription when you have the audio? The content material of audio recordings on the Web just isn’t readily searchable and, subsequently, listed and labeled by the various search engines. This renders your podcast nearly invisible until you spend time promoting it or loading the present notes with related key phrases. More and more, podcasters are offering a transcript of both excerpts to be included within the present notes, or a full transcript of the podcast, which might be uploaded to the Web alongside the audio recording. The transcript will then present up within the search engine outcomes like some other doc or web site.
It could possibly be argued {that a} podcast is already in an accessible format and why add to the reams of written materials already on the Web? Some folks say it defeats the item of listening to a podcast and takes away the impression of the environment and elegance of the voices. That is true, up to a degree – until you occur to be deaf, or with even barely impaired listening to. In the identical method that an entire sound file recordings business has been created for these with sight issues, (speaking books being the obvious instance), transcripts or closed captions / subtitles could make podcasts accessible to a extra deprived viewers. If you cannot hear clearly, then your solely choice is to learn – and podcasters ought to take heed to this. That is notably pertinent now, because the Incapacity Discrimination Act 1995 and the Communications Act 2003 encourage the availability of full accessible content material for all broadcasts. The sound information may help the visually impaired whereas subtitles or a full transcript might be very helpful for the listening to impaired. Clearly, there are some podcasts equivalent to live shows or music reveals the place transcription makes little sense. However there’s an entire array of programmes which might be inaccessible to lots of people with out this extra written useful resource.
Podcast transcripts might be tweaked to make sure the various search engines can discover you by including related hyperlinks, or you may present an index of key phrases. This makes the transcript searchable – not solely by the various search engines however by anyone wishing to discover a specific part in a rush. You may even break the transcript up into sections if the podcast covers totally different topics. Every part might be positioned on a separate net web page with its personal meta tags and key phrases, plus a hyperlink to the podcast recording itself.
One other level to contemplate is that some folks favor to learn content material as a result of it is faster than listening to an audio file. There could also be some podcasts the place your viewers might solely need to hearken to a small part of your complete programme. With no transcript with time markers inserted in it, they must hearken to the entire recording or spool backwards and forwards to be able to attempt to discover the related bit. With a time-stamped transcript, they’ll go particularly to the purpose they need to hearken to, or they’ll learn the transcript for that part. This does not imply you are going to lose ‘listeners’ by doing that. By offering all of the choices to your viewers, they will keep in mind which podcasts are extra consumer pleasant than others best transcription services.
Studying a transcript will also be useful if the voices on the podcast are exhausting to grasp, equivalent to when somebody speaks at ‘machine gun velocity’. Making an attempt to pay attention to catch each nuance of what they’re saying might be very carrying! Having a back-up transcript might be useful in such circumstances for many who w威而鋼
ould like to learn fairly than pay attention, and to maybe make clear any bits they did not hear clearly the primary time spherical.
What’s necessary is that podcasters ought to present their viewers with a selection. Typically folks will favor to hearken to your complete programme and typically they will select to learn a transcript; and that selection might be ruled as a lot by the point accessible to them as by their private preferences. A high quality podcast supported by a transcript will all the time generate extra curiosity and an even bigger viewers than an audio podcast by itself.
So, having determined that transcribing your podcasts is a good suggestion, what else do you should contemplate? You could determine what sort of transcript can be appropriate. Within the transcription business, there are usually three kinds accessible: Full Verbatim, Clever Verbatim and Edited Transcript. The most well-liked selection for podcasts is Clever Verbatim. This ensures a full, correct transcript however omits all of the ‘ums’, ‘ahs’, repetitions and verbal habits folks develop, equivalent to extreme use of ‘you realize’ and ‘sort of’. These meaningless fillers add nothing to the context of the transcript and take longer to transcribe. It is sensible to chop all that out, however depart the remainder precisely as spoken, to retain the general model of the particular person talking. This additionally makes for a a lot simpler transcript to learn, and considerably cuts down on transcription time and prices. For podcast interviews, there could also be a contented medium whereby the questions might be ‘tidied’ up and the interviewee’s responses left in full.
Full Verbatim is a transcript of completely the whole lot stated, together with each repetition, verbal quirk or situations the place folks drift off in mid remark with no logical finish to a sentence. It endeavours to seize the conversational ‘model’ of the particular person, plus any dialect patterns and feelings the place relevant. This clearly will increase the time it takes to transcribe a podcast and it could actually additionally make for a really tedious ‘learn’! Most of us do not speak in fully coherent sentences, so this tends to be the least widespread of the transcript model choices. An excellent midway home is an Edited Transcript which could be very helpful for podcasts, notably for guides and classes the place the content material is crucial however maybe the model or verbal quirks of the speaker do not should be included. Any incorrect grammar, non-standard English or errors are corrected and sentences are tidied up the place it is smart to take action.
As soon as you have selected the kind of transcript you want, it might even be helpful to contemplate transcription occasions – how lengthy it’ll really take to transcribe your podcast. The skilled business commonplace permits one hour to transcribe quarter-hour of clearly recorded speech. It subsequently takes a minimal of 4 hours to transcribe a one hour recording and typically as a lot as 6 hours relying on various components. These embrace how clear the recording is, if an exterior microphone was used, the readability and velocity of the voices and the variety of folks talking, how coherently they communicate and whether or not there are any tough accents, plus whether or not any background noise is intrusive or if there’s any business particular or technical terminology concerned. Our sister article to this discusses in additional element what components affect a transparent podcast recording, and contains some ideas that can assist you make a transparent recording.
