CBC Communication & Stakeholder Engagement 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A broadcast director asks a captioner to delay caption display by 2 seconds for 'aesthetic sync.' What is the appropriate response?
- Agree immediately to satisfy the director
- Explain that artificial delays reduce accessibility and may violate FCC timing standards (Correct answer)
- Add the delay only during commercial breaks
- Ask the encoder operator to implement the delay without telling the director why
Correct answer: Explain that artificial delays reduce accessibility and may violate FCC timing standards
FCC rules require captions to be synchronous with audio, so artificial delays imposed for aesthetic reasons compromise accessibility compliance.
Question 2: When a news anchor deviates significantly from the teleprompter script mid-segment, what is the captioner's best communication strategy?
- Stop captioning until the anchor returns to script
- Notify the producer immediately via intercom
- Continue captioning the live speech accurately and inform the client afterward of the deviation (Correct answer)
- Switch to a pre-written caption file for the segment
Correct answer: Continue captioning the live speech accurately and inform the client afterward of the deviation
Captioners must caption what is actually spoken, not the script, and can debrief clients after the broadcast about script deviations.
Question 3: A producer insists the captioner use unofficial abbreviations for a sports segment to keep pace. What should the captioner do?
- Use the abbreviations without question since the producer has authority
- Decline, use standard captioning abbreviations only, and explain the reasoning to the producer (Correct answer)
- Use the unofficial abbreviations and document them in the session log
- Ask the talent to speak slower instead
Correct answer: Decline, use standard captioning abbreviations only, and explain the reasoning to the producer
Captioners should use industry-standard abbreviations to ensure captions are universally understood, and should educate producers on this standard.
Question 4: Which stakeholder is primarily responsible for ensuring the captioning feed reaches the broadcast encoder correctly?
- The anchor talent
- The graphics operator
- The broadcast engineer or encoder operator (Correct answer)
- The legal compliance department
Correct answer: The broadcast engineer or encoder operator
The broadcast engineer or encoder operator manages the technical infrastructure that routes the captioning signal into the broadcast stream.
Question 5: A Deaf viewer submits a complaint that captions repeatedly misspelled the guest's name throughout a live interview. What is the most professional first step?
- Dismiss the complaint as unavoidable in live captioning
- Review the session log, acknowledge the error to the client, and document preventive measures (Correct answer)
- Blame the producer for not providing a pre-show name sheet
- Offer a refund to the broadcast station
Correct answer: Review the session log, acknowledge the error to the client, and document preventive measures
Reviewing the session, acknowledging the error, and identifying prevention strategies demonstrates professional accountability and continuous improvement.
Question 6: Before a live broadcast, the client provides a guest list but no phonetic spellings. What is the captioner's best proactive step?
- Proceed without extra preparation since phonetics are the client's job
- Research pronunciations independently and build a custom dictionary entry before air (Correct answer)
- Ask the anchor to spell each name on air
- Skip captioning names entirely to avoid errors
Correct answer: Research pronunciations independently and build a custom dictionary entry before air
Proactively building a custom dictionary with researched phonetic spellings reduces on-air errors and demonstrates professional preparation.
Question 7: A station manager wants captions positioned over the lower-third graphic that displays a guest's title. What guidance should the captioner offer?
- Move captions to the top of the screen to avoid overlap with the graphic
- Inform the manager that caption placement is dictated by FCC rules and cannot simply be moved at will without compliance review (Correct answer)
- Remove the lower-third graphic entirely
- Shrink the font size so both fit in the lower-third area
Correct answer: Inform the manager that caption placement is dictated by FCC rules and cannot simply be moved at will without compliance review
Caption placement standards are governed by FCC rules, and changes require compliance review rather than informal ad-hoc adjustments.
CBC Communication & Stakeholder Engagement 2
A broadcast director asks a captioner to delay caption display by 2 seconds for 'aesthetic sync.' What is the appropriate response?