Transcription, Captioning, and Subtitling: What's the difference?

What are transcription, captioning, and subtitling and why are they important?

These three terms tend to be confusing, and are often mixed up. All of them involve changing spoken words into written words; however, it is important not to confuse them! So what is the difference between transcription, captioning, and subtitling?

Transcription refers to the conversion of spoken words into written words in the form of a text document. The two main types of transcription are verbatim and clean read transcription. Verbatim transcriptions contain information from all sounds in an audio, including sound effects and filler words like, "um." Verbatim transcription is used for scripted events such as TV shows or movies. Clean read transcription, on the other hand, does not include these sounds, only the words that are spoken. Clean read transcription is better suited for unscripted events, like conferences or interviews.

Similarly, captioning is also a form of conversion of spoken words to written words, though contrary to transcription, captions are not formatted into a text document. Rather, captions are designed to follow along with a video, allowing the viewer to read what is being said as the video progresses. They indicate everything that is happening, from who is speaking, to sound effects. Captioning is also an important factor in making videos more accessible to deaf or hard of hearing people and English language learners.

Finally, there is subtitling. Much like captions, subtitles appear on a video and follow along with the speech as the video continues. Though, unlike captions, subtitles are written in a different language than the one being spoken in the video. This allows for viewers who speak other languages to watch and understand what is happening without necessarily having any knowledge of the source language.

Transcription, captioning, and subtitling are all uniquely useful in their own way when it comes to improving language accessibility, but it is important to make sure that these terms are used correctly!