Use Tape Recorder...Yes or No

I once heard Bobby Bonds say he wouldn't do an interview with a tape recorder because "I don't trust them."

Translation: "I don't trust myself and want to be able to deny saying whatever I say."

 

I agree with SF and others on using a combination of notes and recorder.

That said, if a quote is newsy enough to be on radio and TV, my reporters' version of it in our paper and online had better be infallibly accurate.

 

"Sorry I blew deadline last night, but I had to transcribe 30 minutes of tape before I could start writing."

I use a recorder maybe 95 percent of the time ... but there are some deadline situations (ie, 9:30 tipoff) in which it is more efficient to use a pad and paper and listen for a few quick, snappy quotes to sprinkle throughout the story.

You can be fooling around with a recorder in that instance.

 

In general, I agree. However, I cover a team with a fairly prominent Spanish-speaking All-Star player who also happens to be the most media friendly. So he is quoted a lot, and needs to be quoted a lot. Our readers want to hear from him. He's probably the most popular player on the team.

But if I quoted him verbatim, every single word, the quotes would often be completely unintelligible. I clean them up as a service to our readers, and won't apologize for doing so.

 

It's doesn't take 30 minutes to transcribe.
You don't need to talk to anyone for more than two minutes for a gamer if you know what you're doing.
If you're in a press conference situation, record the whole thing and bring your laptop and type as they talk, making notes as to what time quotes you like happen so you can go back and get them verbatim.

 

Ok, let me rephrase, since in my hypothetical it's a 9:30 tipoff.

"Sorry I blew deadline, but I had to transcribe two minutes of tape after the game."

Sometimes, you don't have two minutes. The story is due now. Happens more often than you think, even to those of us who know what we're doing.

 

My cassette recorder gave up the ghost a year ago and I went digital.

Works much better and is much clearer in the windy conditions which prevail where I live (except the four months in summer where you want it to be so.)

The downside is the old interviews I've done over the last decade and a half now require a trip to the museum.

 

I'm guessing this writer transcribed this quote verbatim, using a tape recorder, because it makes no sense:

“One of the challenges as a football player as a football coach as an entire team is as you get in the grind of training camp is coming out being great every day,” Garrett said.

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/cowboys/post/_/id/4681570/cowboys-will-scrimmage-sunday

I would have at least taken out one usage of the word "is," since it's redundant. If that makes me a bad journalist, then I'm a bad journalist.

 

Problem with recorder is some time you are a slave to the quote. I hate those block quotes that people use. It shouldn't be that obvious that I used a tape recorder.

I use a recorder for two reasons:

1. Can't read my own handwriting
2. I like quotes that are conversational.

If I am on a deadline and looking to sprinkle in quotes, the recorder is left in the press box and I pick a quote and write it out carefully and then leave.

You have to be careful with a recorder because if you have a 45 minutes interview, it's going to take you 90 minutes to transcribe it. That's a lot of work unless it's a pretty in depth feature.

How about a combination? Typing it straight into a computer and using the recorder to clean up the notes.

 

I'm with you on sticking with the verbatim stuff, but I always feel like its borderline unethical for me to run an egregiously grammatically incorrect sentence by a kid in high school or younger. Few people will blink when a kid says "funner," but whenever I see something like that in print it sticks out like a sore thumb and makes the subject sound "more stupider." Maybe that's just my hangup.

 

I do a lot of video for the web along with my print stories, so I'm always paranoid I'll miss a word and someone will call me out on even a slight inaccuracy on a quote that is both in the video and in the story.

Also, what's up with the archiving? I'm kind of digital pack rat when it comes to music - I have about 20 gigs of Springsteen mp3s, for instance - but I have never archived any of my digital interviews. I do, however, transcribe them in Google Docs and then I've got a searchable archive accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.