In an episode of the British TV series Death in Paradise, one of the police mentions that some notes written in shorthand might indicate that the writer was a journalist. (I couldn’t identify the episode, and the point was very minor in the plot. The glimpse of the notebook looked like it might have been Pitman. The show is set on a Caribbean island, and is quite modern, with the police using computers and cell phones.)
I am guessing that the use of recording devices in a courtroom may often be prohibited, as are cameras. But is it true that journalists often use shorthand? Now or ever? If so, how do they learn it? Who teaches it? The TV show, of course, is utter fiction.
So, as a practicing attorney, I can tell you that the use of recording devices and cameras in courtrooms are now governed by the rules of procedure in every state – usually a single camera feed that is split to the different networks. With some exceptions (usually in the judge's discretion), the use of electronic recording devices is common and accepted.
And yes, back in the day, journalists and reporters often used shorthand to record interview notes. (For example, the February, 2020 newspaper article that recently swept around the country, "Notorious Utah Brothel Owner's Interview Eludes Historians.")
But as for rules of courtroom procedure in other countries, and whether international journalists and reporters continue to use shorthand to record interview notes, I have no idea. My gut instinct is, the reference seems a bit anachronistic to me in a modern drama. Just my opinion…
I discovered shorthand through a British friend who got a degree in journalism in 2006, and for that she was required to learn Teeline. Not sure why though.
Speaking of Gregg shorthand and journalists on TV shows, the 2013 episode "Dead Air" from the show CSI revolved around the murder of a news anchor who left behind Gregg shorthand notes which had to be deciphered by the CSI team in order to crack the case.
Of course, as imdb.com points out, "(t)here is a mistake in the explanation of how the Gregg shorthand system works. The strokes for letters T and D are drawn upwards, whereas those for J, SH and CH are drawn downwards. The episode explains it exactly the other way."
Still, even with the error, it was fun watching shorthand take such a prominent place in the top TV show at the time.
Odd that they didn't have a script consultant to correct that mistake!
You might find this recent article of interest. There are other articles from the UK too which support the view that a reporter without Shorthand is less well regarded.
https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/is-shorthand-still-an-essential-skill-for-journalists-regional-and-agency-editors-views/
Thanks for sharing this, Carmel. Interesting!
Teeline and Pitman are still used by journalists in the UK. In court, by law, they can be used as evidence.
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/why-teeline-still-shorthand-success-journalism-1764003
https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/piers-morgan-says-he-still-uses-teeline-on-air-to-note-powerful-quotes-as-shorthand-skill-turns-50/
Piers Morgan (famous/infamous in the UK, a very divisive journalist) says he uses them as a backup to tape recorder, in case of recording problems.
Although opinion is divided on whether this skill is becoming obsolete:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2010/dec/08/journalism-education-dailytelegraph
Teeline is a shorthand system devised by James Hill, a Pitman teacher. He developed it as a way of "fast writing". However, He found people were using it to do shorthand-like tasks, so introduce a lot more abbreviations etc.
Teeline is an orthographic system, where each shorthand symbol is made to resemble its corresponding longhand letter. This was to flatten the learning curve that was present in shorthand learning.
Teeline is also a light-line system i.e. there is no shading. I don't think there is position-writing either.
Like Pitman, a common technique is to omit vowels. There are, from what I understand, alternate versions of certain characters, to make words easier to join. Like Gregg, there are the usual shorthand techniques e.g. prefixes, suffixes, phrasing, omission of words in phrases.
100wpm is required in the UK for journalism, but writers have been known to go up to 160wpm, although this is very uncommon.
I've looked at Teeline a bit, though I've never tried to write it. Your assessment is what I remember, except that I believe Teeline does in fact use position writing.