The relation between digital audio recorder and journalists is clear: journalists delegate the task of recording and memorizing information to the digital voice recorder. They use the recorder in situations like interviews and conferences to record every moment of audio information which might be useful later when they compose their reports.
Moreover, the digital audio recorder now plays 3 different roles in journalism:
- Extension of Memory: The recorder is a smart version of notebook, a type of extension of human memory. The journalists no longer need to distractingly jot down every quote during the interview. The digital recorder expedites the writing process and adds accuracy to news writing.
- Amulet: It is acting as the amulet of journalists when the interviewees or the related parties decry the news organizations or even attempt to sue – there have been cases where interviewees decided to change their testimony for personal reasons, and that interviewees accepted money from related parties and denied what they had said.
- Symbol: It is regarded as one of the modern primary symbols of journalists, and keeping a digital voice recorder handy is taught as a tradition in journalism schools across the world.
However, the digital audio recorder did not immediately achieve such status within its socio-technical system. The primitive audio recorder was large, heavy, and used large cassette tapes to record. They were often cable-powered and not user-friendly for non-professionals. At that time, audio recorders were not very popularized among journalists, but with 40 years of development, society has shaped this device into an ideal technology.
| Human Desires | Technological Features and Their Development |
| A portable device | Size: a suitcase (the first portable VTR) → smaller than a palm (101.5 * 36.6 * 10.5 mm).
Weight: heavy → light (52 g) Storage: small → 4 GB built-in memory with SD-card insert for additional space. Battery: cable → low capacity battery → high capacity built-in battery (maximum: 27 hours of recording) |
| High quality sound | Recording Settings: limited frequency and bit rates (low quality sound)
→ selectable settings for different surroundings (high quality sound). Microphone: low sensitivity external microphones → high sensitivity built-in stereo microphones (S-MIC) |
| Being easy to use | User Interface: hard to operate for non-professionals (not user-friendly)
→ easy to operate with visualization on the screen & folder system (user-friendly). |
Portability, usability, and the ability to record quality sound caused the digital audio recorder to be popularized during the late 1990s, and secured its place in the news industry alongside the printer, radio and television. In return, the frequent usage of digital audio recorders has shaped journalists’ behavior, audiences’ concept of news and the news-consuming society in general:
| Micro Scope | An increasing need for technician in data recovery: the savior to helpless reporters and their broken recorders.
An increasing anxiety between journalists and interviewees: people tend to get anxious when recorded. A stronger protection between journalists and related parties: less false charges against journalists. |
| Macro Scope | Changes the relationship between journalists and technology: technology has become the second instinct of journalists – it’s hard for young reporters to make quality content without devices like digital voice recorder in a fast pace.
Changes the expectation for modern news and shapes a real-time news industry: people are taking more accurate news with less producing time for granted – news used to be regional, sentimental, inaccurate and slow. Changes how people observe the world and their relationship with news: human’s first impression (first detention) and long-term conception (second detention) of the world are structured by news (tertiary detention) – checking the news has become the second instinct of human to observe the world (the original instinct is to see the world with their own eyes). Changes the situation of social justice: solid proof leads to solid justice. |
