Media transcription

Media transcription varieties are limitless if you can employ a little imagination and enterprise.

Despite the slowdown in the IT sector several IT enabled services continue to do fairly well holding up in a market, which is still reeling in the grip of recession. Call centers, firms dealing with medical transcription and legal transcription are not only doing well but adding newer aspects like media transcription, which is slowly catching on in the country. If you have ever listened to an American radio talk show or watched a news or TV show, you would have noticed that at the end of the broadcast they announce or put a note on the screen that written transcripts of the programme are available. This is what media transcription is all about.

While a medical transcriptionist is a 'medical language specialist' who assists physicians and specialty surgeons by transcribing and proofreading the reports dictated by them, a media transcriptionist transcribes news and special reports and documentaries. Feature stories, publicity interviews, testimonials, ``as broadcast'' scripts, and interviews with project personnel for documentary purposes; they all are covered within the ambit of media transcription. Media transcription varieties are limitless if you can employ a little imagination and enterprise. Though the media transcription industry in the USA is growing at a fairly well annual rate, its work force is reducing at the rate of 8% annually, creating thus a vast opportunity for trained transcriptionists in India to fill this gap. India is preferred for outsourcing because of our large English literate population and the 12-hour time difference, which enables firms to transcribe reports and make them available as per the deadline. This has created encouraging employment opportunities for those trained in the area.

WorThe big studios (viz, NBC, Fox, CNN) in the US send the voice tapes/ files of their programmes through datacom lines to the companies in India. Very often these are programmes, that are yet to be telecast. The transcriptionists listen to them, transcribe them into text files and send them back through datacom lines. The transcripts are later hosted on Web. Unlike the West, in India the media transcription fever has not caught on as yet. There is however a huge market waiting to be tapped. One of the companies, which has tied up with NBC for media transcription, is, MTS Medi Soft Systems in Hyderabad. Though it started as a medical transcription firm, it started media transcription work last year and there has been no looking back since then. The unedited files (which could be anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes long) are transcribed and send back as per the deadline prescribed. (eg-12 hours, rush turn, phone feed etc). The pricing is per page, which is often dependent on the urgency of the deadline. A 'rush' deadline is always priced at double the normal rate.

Qualifications & skills

One needs to be a graduate with good command over the English language, comprehension skills and a capacity to listen with concentration to pick up every word. Familiarity with American culture and its social mores, its peeves and passions, are indeed helpful. Excellent typing skills are a must. Speed and accuracy are the key to becoming a successful transcriptionist. One also needs time management skills as well as communication and interpersonal skills. The candidate must have some knowledge of the transcription field, people skills, excellent verbal and writing skills, be familiar with the software and Internet usage. Graduates can start as transcriptionists and after acquiring the needed facility and familiarity with American English, can go on to become proof-readers, quality analysts and editors within a span of 2-3 years. Although no certification is required to become a successful transcriptionist, a certain amount of training in the area is essential. You can shift from medical or legal to media transcription and vice versa.If you have been doing MT for some length of time then shifting over to media transcription is relatively easy. You will just need a couple of weeks for orientation.

As work in this field is recent, the market is not very competitive as yet and there are number of opportunities open for fresh graduates.

PADMA

padma.hyd@cxknetworks.com