NCRA’s series On Assignment asks members about some of their favorite jobs. Linda Harrison, RDR, CRR, CRC, a CART and broadcast captioner from Manville, R.I., has captioned some of the most high-profile events on television including Barbara Bush’s funeral and the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nev. Here she tells the JCR about covering a royal wedding.
JCR | The royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was a worldwide spectacle. How did you get the job to caption it?
LH | At the time of the royal wedding in 2018, I was working for a captioning company, and I frequently captioned CNN, which was one of the many channels covering the wedding. I had been broadcast captioning for just shy of a year.
Fortunately, I was given access to quite a bit of prep material before the wedding. I never could have put all the information I had in my dictionary beforehand, or memorized it, but I could put at least some of it in and be familiar with some so that I didn’t get caught off guard. In addition, while captioning, I was able to watch the broadcast on my TV at home. It was quite an experience.
JCR | What was it like preparing to caption such a widely viewed, high-profile event?
LH | Exciting, challenging, time-consuming, absolutely frightening, and at times actually fun and interesting. The thing that stands out most in my mind is the visual of my dining room table covered with documents to prepare with – types of horses that may be mentioned, cake designers, types of cake decorating, styles of clothing, names and titles of people of royalty, names of celebrities that may or may not be attending – just about anything that may be mentioned in the commentary during the event but certainly not everything. You never know everything.
JCR | Do you remember any words that were particularly difficult to write?
LH | Given the time that has passed, I can’t think of any in particular that stand out. However, I was pretty much constantly on edge waiting for that name, title, or place that I wasn’t familiar with to come up.
JCR | Are you more (or less) interested in Harry and Meghan now?
LH | I would say neither and not for any particular reason. I’m just more aware of them. I really wasn’t familiar with Meghan until the engagement was announced.
JCR | Looking back, how did captioning the royal wedding shape your perspective or skills as a captioner?
LH | It actually gave me so much confidence after having done it. With confidence I sometimes have less hesitation or jitters when writing steno. I try to remind myself of that now as I am writing a particularly difficult speaker. As any court reporter will tell you, though, it never completely goes away. There’s always some element of nerves.
JCR | What has been your favorite event to caption?
LH | My favorite event to caption was opening day ceremonies at Fenway Park. It was my dream and one of my reasons for getting into broadcast captioning. I really enjoy baseball and the Boston Red Sox. I loved captioning that event and had the chills while doing so. I think of it every opening day.
JCR | How did your prior experience in court reporting and CART prepare you for the demands of broadcast captioning, especially for a live event of this scale?
LH | I believe the more experience you have in different scenarios, the better prepared it makes you mentally. You can never predict what is going to be said, a speaker’s cadence, or even the subject matter at times of what you are going to caption. However, if you are mentally prepared, have done as much prep as you possibly can for an event, and do not panic regardless of what happens and just keep writing as best you can to provide the best access to communication for others that you can, you will succeed. Having been in so many different situations throughout my career as an official in Superior Court and as a CART provider in various settings really gave me the confidence and skill to handle this particular event.
JCR | What do you enjoy most about working across different captioning and reporting settings (court, CART, and broadcast)?
LH | I have loved the experience and knowledge gained in all three arenas. I have met many wonderful people, gained knowledge about many different fields, and continue to do so every day. The education I get providing CART services at the universities, as well as the knowledge gained during many trials with expert witnesses in the past and in the broadcast realm as well, actually has helped me improve at “Jeopardy!”
Linda Harrison, RDR, CRR, CRC, is a CART and broadcast captioner from Manville, R.I. She can be reached at harri1125@cox.net.
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