In the multimedia age of the 21st century shorthand is “more necessary than ever”, according to a leading training chief.

Kim Fletcher, chairman of the National Council for the Training of Journalists, was speaking Radio 4’s Today show about the importance of the skill.

He said: “If you’ve got a shorthand note you can find the quote very, very quickly.

“You go in with a tape recorder, or a digital recorder, and if you’ve spent an hour in there with your recorder you’ve got an hour of tape to go through, that takes quite a long time.

“You can’t take digital recorders into court. The other thing about it, almost a theoretical thing, it’s the notion of learning shorthand.

“It demonstrates a real dedication to the craft. In a day when so many people are jumping up, blogging, calling themselves journalists, you go and take the trouble to learn shorthand, and it suggests you’re serious about things.”

Comments

Cleland Thom (12/11/2009 13:41:46)
See my blog post http://www.ctjt.biz/blog/daily_journal/0/shorthand.html

Ticketyboo (13/11/2009 22:46:40)
Perhaps if they gave as much prominence to the new skills of journalism as they do to the traditional (see old) skills then they might have some relevance in a modern industry which is crying out for modern thinking, yet is being strangled by the irrelevant dinosaurs at the NCTJ.