I have been silent til now. Call it apathy. I’m always advocating, sometimes I take a back seat to it, thinking others would notice and take the issues headon. But I don’t see anyone standing up to CNN and telling them off for not subtitling their “video” articles.
I love CNN and it’s the one of four things I first check in the mornings and before I hit the sack. (if you must know, I check facebook.com, cnn.com. gmail.com and sinfully read perezhilton.com). I see awesome, horrible, weird, urgent or boring news titles on CNN.COM. Some of them are done in text. Some done in videos.
And I get disappointed if the article turns out to be video. I don’t understand a damn thing these lips are yapping about. Today, I saw this title: Facebook Users Hit with Worm.
Uh oh. I must read! I’m a facebook user. So I check this link -
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/03/02/barnett.facebook.worm.cnn
and it leads me to cnn’s video site. Aw come onnnnnnn! I wanna read what they’re saying! I’m a facebook junkie, I need to check it 8287465128 times a day (like the rest of you). So I want to know if my baby is OK?
I’m curious. What is the FCC doing about this? Has internet laws been passed? I have no idea what’s going on with technology these days. I’m tech-illiterate. But I know that this captioned-for-net broadcasts from news MUST HAPPEN. And now.
Someone over there in the USA, the land of the free, SPEAK UP AND WHOOP CNN’S A$$! Its your fundamental right!
Ok, feeling good after speaking up my mind. Looking forward to the day I read subtitles/captions on CNN and beyond.
Tactile love,
Coco
13 comments
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March 3, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Dianrez
I’m with you. For every time I click on a CNN story and it comes up a video, it makes me want to send THEM a computer worm!
This is probably the last barrier for deaf people, uncaptioned Internet videos. It is becoming worse recently with the explosion of movies, training videos and news videos on the ‘net. The expansion is ongoing with no end in sight, and no awareness that up to ten percent of the viewing public have hearing impairments severe enough to prevent understanding them.
March 3, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Bravo
I don’t read CNN. They suck big time. Gave up on them.
You continue reading their website. You are a big sucker.
March 3, 2009 at 5:45 pm
tayler
Bravo, let’s be constructive here. Calling people big suckers doesn’t accomplish anything positive. Instead, why don’t you suggest a cable network website that captions the majority of their online videos? I didn’t see you make a suggestion, so are we to conclude there isn’t one? If there isn’t, then we need to take steps to improve accessibility. After all, Thomas Jefferson was right when he said we’re all equal. We are.
I know that NAD is working on this legislatively. I commend this and understand that they’re doing all that they can and will take time and patience.
March 3, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Rosaline
Yes, Taylor. NAD is a co-founder of the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) that is working to get the law changed to require captions for online videos produced by CNN and other similar entities (other television program producers, broadcasters, etc.). To learn more about the efforts of COAT, visit http://www.COATaccess.org.
In the meantime, when you see a video online with no captions, please contact the video producer to advocate for captions.
As for CNN, I understood AOL hosts CNN captioned videos (at AOL.com, click on “Video” then “Channel” then CNN). Problem is, I don’t see any “CC” symbols to know which video has captions. Anyone know if there is a way to know which video is captioned?
Rosaline
March 3, 2009 at 7:04 pm
tayler
Rosaline, thanks for filling us in. I’ve read about COAT. However, I beware Coco and others against leaving it up to COAT only. It’s not that COAT cannot do it, but instead we stand better chances if we organize a grassroots campaign. After all, we the people elect our representatives. I like to believe that when our representatives hear from their voters, we are louder. I know COAT agrees. So I am behind you, Coco, and hope that others will be too!
March 3, 2009 at 7:44 pm
J.J.
Don’t read CNN, but everything should be subtitled…especially on a MAJOR website….
If you take action other than COAT…I am there…
March 3, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Bravo
Tayler, I agree with you. However I already wrote a few email and made few telephone calls requesting for subtitles on videos.
They said “Will look into this.”
Same old story.
Stopped reading their websites and its subdisaries. Even SI.com.
March 3, 2009 at 8:33 pm
tayler
Bravo, sometimes boycotting or refusing to use a service can be effective. Media services does not want to lose readership. I see you’ve done your part by contacting by email. Hope others will follow in your footstep. The more that does, the better!
Not to defend CNN, but I think if resources were more readily available to them, they would jump on the opportunity to caption their videos.
March 3, 2009 at 8:44 pm
tayler
A followup thought…
That’s why COAT and our fight needs to be legislative. Since resources are often limited, federal law has to be amended and just as importantly, enforced.
March 3, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Bill
And remember, the power is in numbers. The nice thing about getting NAD involved, is that representing a group of people officially is more powerful than an individual representation.
But keep Flogging CNN – they are big enough to afford to have someone plop some captioning into their videos…
March 6, 2009 at 4:56 am
Tawny
Absolutely- guess we should keep on leaving comments about where the captions are. I have tried AOL videos but not many of their videos are captioned- there’s usually a “CC” on the lower right corner or you can test it by clicking setting on the menu bar right under the video to turn on captions.
Anyways, for a fellow Facebook fan(s), here’s the link about the virus! Hope the same one.
http://www.switched.com/2009/03/04/facebook-koobface-viruses-getting-smarter-more-dangerous/
March 18, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Macc
Video on the internet has exploded over the last 5 years or more, and my hearing friends get so much of their media online, whether it’s news, television shows, movies, or vlogs. We finally got used to a majority of television programming being captioned, and now the new wave of media is leaving us behind. Makes me so mad. I will look at COAT, but I wish there were more we could do, now.
March 31, 2009 at 11:43 pm
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