Closed Captioning: Subtitling, Stenography, and the Digital Convergence of Text with Television, by Gregory J. Downey. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. 400 pp. $52.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-0801887109.

摘要

This book engages the reader on a voyage of innovation in speech-to-text environments. Gregory J. Downey describes the process of convergence as one where creative innovation, social activism, governmental intervention, and commercialization combine to affect technological change. Downey highlights three structural levels of analysis: individual, group, and organizational (governmental). The first level of speech-to-text convergence, individual, is driven by a specific need-to provide information services for the hearing-impaired segment of population. At this level convergence is instigated on the initiative of individuals who advocate for group-based needs. The second level of analysis focuses on the realization phase, when speech-to-text technologies are developed and become commercialized. Finally, the third level of analysis centers on government initiatives, when innovations are reinforced on a federal level. Through an analysis of these complementary processes, Downey reveals how text gained a foothold in media environments that historically were based exclusively on speech.