SPJ Journalist’s Toolbox Tools of the Month: Transcription favorites

Technology is wonderful. My journalism students prefer to conduct their interviews by emails, but the word “interview” defines a back-and-forth exchange where the reporter can respond to body language and other subtle cues that don’t make it into emailed responses. Also, it takes non-trivial effort for interview subjects to write out their answers, only a few sentences of which will actually make it into the news report.

There’s so much to cover in my intro to journalism class that I don’t know whether there’s room for an introduction to professional tools. Still, these tools do emphasize what parts of a reporter’s workflow are important enough to merit automating.

Reporters hate transcribing notes and they often ask me during newsroom training what tools work best. They want speed and accuracy with the transcriptions, and they want it free (or very cheap) —Society of Professional Journalists