Question about the CC on Sesame Street

[D'Snowth]

I was wondering if there's any special reason as to why the closed captioning on Sesame Street isn't very accurate to what the actual lines are being said on screen, and are greatly simplified? Are the captionists just lazy or something, or what?

 

[Mistoffelees]

I have been wondering this for a long time as well. I guess they think younger children cannot read too quickly, so they put less in the closed captioning. Just a guess?

 

[BEAR]

A lot of closed captioning is like that, not just for Sesame Street.

 

[D'Snowth]

A lot of closed captioning is like that, not just for Sesame Street.

Well, I've only noticed it on Sesame Street. I have however noticed that some of them tend to mis-spell a character's name, or type in a line incorrectly.

 

[Ziffel]

I noticed that for Sesame Street before, too. Around the mid to late 90's (when they still showed occasional 70's clips) I thought it'd be fun to use close captioning on classic clips and see how they did the words. I was surprised to see how condensed it was. Like I remember for the classic NewsFlash of "The tortoise and the hare", when Kermit crosses the finish line the announcer said, "The winner of the race is .... Kermit the Frog!" Yet, for the close captioning the line used was simply, "The frog wins!" I, too, wondered if it was laziness as to why they condensed and simplified so many lines. I haven't really used close captioning on too many other things, but when I have I think they always have used almost precisely the actual lines spoken. I was wondering if it's because it's a kid's program and they figure kids aren't going to notice or object (whereas close captioning for a movie or sitcom that leaves out a ton of words might receive significant complaints).

 

[Java]

Bear's right, I've seen a lot of things be like that. Sometimes movies can be the worst.

 

[ReneeLouvier]

I heard/read somewhere that the captioning is like that because children watch it. It's called "Simplified Captioning" it just does what you've said it does, condenses it into a bit easier for children to understand.

 

[Ziffel]

Hey that makes sense, ReneeLouvier. After all, what kids can understand audibly might be a little harder when trying to read it. I hadn't thought of that.

 

[D'Snowth]

I prefer the sub-titles on DVD's anyway, they're always more accurate, and besides, they also come in different languages.

 

[Java]

I have some DVD's that are horribly unaccurate. So, sometimes I struggle with what's really said and not