Information Reporting Technology (IRT)

WHAT DO COURT REPORTERS DO?
Court reporters capture the words spoken by everyone during a court or deposition proceeding. Court reporters then prepare verbatim transcripts of proceedings. The official record or transcript helps safeguard the legal process. When litigants want to exercise their right to appeal, they will use the transcript to provide an accurate record of what transpired during their case. During the discovery phase, attorneys also use deposition transcripts to prepare for trial. By combining their skills with the latest technology, some court reporters can provide realtime access to what is being said during a trial or deposition for the benefit of all involved parties. A court reporter providing realtime allows attorneys and judges to have immediate access to the transcript, while also providing a way for deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans to participate in the judicial process.

OTHER REPORTER CAREER PATHS
More than 70 percent of the nation’s 35,000-plus court reporters work outside of the courthouse. Because court reporting involves a highly specialized skill set, reporters have a variety of career options:

Official Reporter
Official court reporters work for the judicial system to convert the spoken word into text during courtroom proceedings. The reporter also prepares official verbatim transcripts to be used by attorneys, judges, and litigants. Official court reporters are front and center at controversial or famous cases ensuring that an accurate, complete, and secure record of the proceedings is produced. Official court reporters may also provide realtime during a courtroom setting to allow participants to read on a display screen or computer monitor what is being said instantaneously.

Freelance Reporter
Freelance reporters are hired by attorneys, corporations, unions, associations and other individuals and groups who need accurate, complete and secure records of pretrial depositions, arbitrations, board of director meetings, stockholders meetings and convention business sessions.

Broadcast Captioner
Broadcast captioners, also called stenocaptioners, use court reporting skills on the stenotype machine to provide captions of live television programs for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers through realtime technology that instantly produces readable English text. Captioners provide captions for local stations, national networks, and cable channels. They caption news, sports events, emergency broadcasts, and all other types of programming.

CART Provider
A version of the captioning process called Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), also known as live-event captioning, allows court reporters to provide more personalized services for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. CART providers accompany deaf and hard-of-hearing clients as needed – for example, to college classes -- to provide an instant conversion of speech into text using the stenotype machine linked to a laptop computer.

Webcaster
Webcasters are reporters who use their training to capture financial earnings reports, sales meetings, press conferences, product introductions, and technical training seminars and instantly transmit the captions to all parties involved via the Internet. As participants speak into telephones or microphones, the words appear on everyone’s computers, accompanied by any relevant documents or graphics.

Scopist
A scopist is one who edits transcripts with computer-aided transcription software into English, correcting mistranslates/untranslates and employing proper punctuation, English, and formatting to the official court transcript and/or deposition. Scopists can work as independent contractors from their home or work for a freelance reporting firm.

Realtime Transcriptionists
Realtime transcriptionists is a growing profession nationwide as Corporate America is beginning to realize that people, trained to use the shorthand machine as an input device in lieu of the QWERTY keyboard, can produce text at lightning fast speeds, availing themselves of a multitude of job opportunities for legal, medical or corporate transcription. A new style of software program written for the latest PC Windows operating systems enables almost every steno machine, with the ability to attach to a PC, to write directly into any application running on a desktop or PC. The realtime transcriptionist can input device for text entry to input text into word processing software at speeds anywhere from 80 wpm to 150 wpm and conduct all word processing functions from the shorthand machine and produce the document in a timely fashion without ever touching the keyboard or the mouse.

Stark State College of Technology offers state-of-the-art technology, computer-aided instruction (CAI), and computer-aided transcription (CAT) training, which provide students with hands-on realtime writing experience and an extensive, conflict-free StenEd theory personal dictionary, equipping the students for realtime reporting and preparing them for today’s sophisticated reporting careers. The students write realtime to computers from the first week of class until graduation, preparing them for the sophisticated career of realtime reporting. During the educational process, students create and maintain captioning/judicial stenotype writing dictionaries, as well as the StenEd main dictionary.

VITAC Corporation, a leading captioning company nationwide, is partnering with Stark State to provide the software, educational, and technical support. Stark State is presently a training site for VITAC Corporation for transitional reporters currently in the field seeking a career change to captioning. Stark State also conducts yearly captioning seminars in conjunction with VITAC Corporation.

The information reporting technologies program offers the entire program through traditional classes and through eStarkState (online learning). eStarkState is a unique alternative to traditional on-campus courses. It affords students the opportunity to learn with flexibility of time and place while maintaining access to faculty and other College services. Stark State College offers nationally accredited online degrees, certificates and more than 130 online courses.

The goal is that graduates will demonstrate the use of good grammar, punctuation and editing skills for transcription preparation and production; conduct research and realtime writing dictionary maintenance for broadcast reporting; communicate clearly and concisely; utilize all information reporting technology; exemplify a high standard of ethics as an information reporting professional and demonstrate employability skills and characteristics as an information reporting professional.

Graduation Stenotype Speed Requirements

Judicial Reporting
Three 5-minute 2-voice testimony tests, three 5-minute jury charge tests, and three 5-minute literary tests must be passed with a minimum of 95% accuracy; and transcribe a simulated state certification test, state qualifying exam, or RPR skills test within the allotted test transcription guidelines.

Captioning
Three (3) fifteen-minute, literary broadcast material tests at 180 wpm (word count) must be passed with 96% verbatim accuracy following NCRA’s “What is an Error Guidelines,” (the instructor will grade a random five-minute selection from each fifteen minute take); and submit an unedited realtime captioned translation of three (3) 15-minute program segments on varied topics.