Back in 2012, I first wrote about immersive reading here in ProVideo Coalition. At that time, I was talking about a subfeature of a Kindle app on certain devices (but not on any eink device). Immersive reading was —and still  is— a subfeature of Amazon’s WhisperSync, something that allows a package deal of qualifying ebooks with a matching audiobook, not only to save money and keep track of how far you reached in either the ebook or the audiobook and keep them in sync, but (with immersive reading) also to be able to read and listen simultaneously and have the currently spoken words highlighted to keep mental focus. Many sources say that the reader-listener comprehends the content much more deeply that way. Now, our audio podcasts can have a similar benefit by playing with the premium (paid) PowerPress player, as long as a proper timecoded transcription has been performed and supplied. (This immersive reading advantage I am covering is separate from the very well covered SEO discoverability and accessibility benefits for deaf followers which transcripts provide. FYI, in 2024 the National Association of the Deaf actually prefers the term deaf to designate the condition.) I just achieved this goal with episode 86 of my CapicúaFM show. Although when I first asked, the developer’s responded that the premium PowerPress player didn’t support italics, fortunately they had underestimated the capabilities and they work perfectly, both on desktop and mobile of the website. Ahead you will see immersive reading of the podcast with proper italics in action, together with a review about the appropriate use of italics, per many grammar and style guides in both Castilian and in English.

When we are supposed to use italics

Per many grammar and style guides I have read over the decades both in Castilian and in English, we are supposed to use italics:

• When using a foreign term like Déjà vu
• When mentioning the name of an album, magazine, movie, newspaper, radio show (including podcasts) theatrical play or website quoted without the TLD suffix. (However, internal songs, scenes, articles or episodes are not supposed to be in italics, but in bold or quotation marks.)
• Sometimes for general emphasis

That’s why I have been using italics that way for decades in all of my writing and now in transcripts for closed captions.

On my CapicúaFM show, we occasionally mention and analyze theatrical plays (i.e. Nadie te conoce como yo or Nobody knows you better than I do), TV shows (i.e. Star Trek: Picard) and movies (Los amantes del círculo polar or Lovers of the Arctic Circle). Those names of plays, movies and TV shows need to be in italics in the episode notes and the transcripts. Even more often, we mention book names, not only my own books (a few examples in English include Branded RSS Podcasting, Chromebooks for bilingual writers, The Castilian Conspiracy, WordPress security + multi-backups, Get phone privacy) but the books written by many authors who have edited, published and done wide distribution of their books (including print books, ebooks and audiobooks) vía TecnoTur Publishing (a few examples include Aquí estoy, Madre Tierra, El mundo según Teresa Di Sclafani, Santiago Valiente). Those book names must also be in italics in the episode notes and in the closed captions. Fortunately, we now have proper italics within the closed captions and immersive reading on our CapicúaFM website, as you’ll see ahead.

Example of closed captions with immersive reading & italics

(Click on the Play button above before clicking on the CC button.)

Above you will see the premium PowerPress plugin playing my CapicúaFM episode 86, with the option to see closed captions with immersive reading and proper italics whenever a book name is mentioned in this episode. As I publish this, you will see episode 86 above. After I publish subsequent episodes, the embedded episode shown above may change. Today, only episode 86 has the CC button active, but I plan to add transcriptions to all new episodes and select older ones.

Other features in the premium player

• Forward 15 seconds
• Back 15 seconds
• Play Speed
• Auto Scroll
• Visit Podcast (a link used to link to the podcast website page when embedding the player on a different website, as I did above)

The proper transcription to make this possible

In future articles, I’ll cover how to create the proper transcription, edited by a human being who corrects and adds the proper HTML tags for italics.

Upcoming related articles

• Apple Podcasts gets haphazard closed captions with iOS 17.4
• YouTube: proper closed captions with italics
• Descript’s strengths and weaknesses for closed captions

A palindromic discount to celebrate

In order to celebrate the arrival of immersive reading with closed captions for audio podcasts on their website with Branded RSS, I am offering a 22% discount code for the initial yearly, biannual or triannual bookings made on TecnoTur’s podcasting offering from today until the end of March 2024. Use the code ImmersiveMarch2024 to get your 22% discount. This discount may not be combined with any other offer and is applicable only to Podcasting plans.

Requests I made to the PowerPress developer

Several strings on the player are currently English only, with no access that I have found to be able to translate/localize them to other languages. Here are the strings:

• Open in new window
• Display Menu
• Play Pause
• Forward 15 seconds
• Back 15 seconds
• Play Speed
• Closed Captions
• Menu
• Apps
• Share
• Download
• Auto Scroll
• Visit Podcast (a link used to link to the podcast website page when embedding the player on a different website, as I did above)

I am in contact with the developer to get these strings into Castilian («Spanish») for those podcasts and websites.

Conclusions

I am ecstatic to have closed captions with immersive reading and proper italics on audio podcast websites, thanks to the premium PowerPress player and its wonderful developers. I am glad I tested the italics and discovered that they had underestimated the player’s capabilities regarding italics. Feel free to take advantage of the celebration discount indicated in the article, and be sure to subscribe to be notified of the upcoming articles and reviews, as indicated ahead.

Lee este artículo en castellano

Reproducción de podifusiones: lectura inmersiva e itálicas en sitios web

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Most of my current books are at books.AllanTepper.com, and also visit AllanTepper.com and radio.AllanTepper.com.

FTC disclosure

Blubrry did not pay for this article. TecnoTur pays Blubrry for some services, including statistics and access to the premium PowerPress player. Some of the manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur, BeyondPodcasting, CapicúaFM or TuSaludSecreta programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine. Some links to third parties listed in this article and/or on this web page may indirectly benefit TecnoTur LLC via affiliate programs. Allan Tépper’s opinions are his own. Allan Tépper is not liable for misuse or misunderstanding of information he shares.