Do journalists use dictation software?

Yes. Journalists have dictated copy for decades, and today many use speech-to-text tools, with transcription the most common use in the survey below. The closest recent figure measures AI transcription among UK journalists, not dictation specifically, and we found no survey that counts how many write their drafts by voice.

Reporters have dictated copy to editors for generations

Dictation is an old newsroom habit. In the pre-computer newsroom, reporters on deadline would telephone in and dictate their notes to an editor ¹. The method changed with the tools, but the reason did not: getting copy filed quickly from wherever the story was.

The closest current figure is AI transcription, and it is common

A Reuters Institute survey of 1,004 UK journalists asked how often they used AI for 31 journalistic tasks ². More than half, 56 percent, use AI professionally at least once a week ³. Transcription and captioning was the most frequent of those tasks: 49 percent use AI for it at least monthly ².

Those figures have limits. The survey covers UK journalists only, it covers AI in general rather than dictation software, and the frequencies are self-reported. Transcription is also a different job from dictation: it turns a recording of someone else's speech into text, while dictation turns your own speech into a draft. So the 49 percent figure tells you that transcription is widespread, not how many journalists dictate their stories.

Shorthand and speed writing are the older training

Before dictation software, speed was a trained skill. In 2016, shorthand stopped being one of the mandatory skills modules in the syllabus of the UK's National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) ⁴. In the same year, the Press Gazette reported that a shorthand speed of 100 words per minute remained a requirement for NCTJ news students seeking the gold standard pass ⁵. Voice tools and shorthand solve different problems, but both are about getting spoken words onto the page quickly.

Accuracy is the part a dictating journalist cannot skip

Speed is the advantage of dictation, and checking is the job. The Society of Professional Journalists tells journalists to verify information before releasing it ⁶, and its code says that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy ⁷. That applies to a dictated draft in the same way it applies to a typed one.

The error that matters most in a transcript is invented text. In a 2024 study of Whisper transcriptions, roughly 1 percent contained entire hallucinated phrases or sentences that did not exist in the audio ⁸. The study tested one dataset and one version of Whisper, so the rate for the tool you use may differ. The practical rule is simple: a sentence in a transcript that you cannot find in the recording is a problem, whatever the average rate.

For every quote, name and number in a voice draft, check it against the recording or a primary document. Play each quotation back and match the words exactly. Confirm each name against a document or the person's own channel. Recheck each figure, because numbers are easy to mishear. Mark anything you cannot verify and leave it out until you can.

It depends on the job, the outlet and the source

Some cases change the answer:

• A news draft: dictation is a reasonable way to get a first version down, as long as every fact is checked before publication.
• A video or podcast script: the speech is already in the form you need, so dictating it is often the most natural route. How many words is a 10-minute video script shows how to size it.
• A confidential source: where the audio is processed matters more than the convenience. Prefer a tool that processes audio on your device, and read the vendor's policy before you record anyone. Our guide on whether voice-to-text is safe covers the questions to ask.
• A non-UK newsroom: the survey figures above are from the UK. We found no comparable, verifiable figure for other countries, so do not assume the UK rate applies elsewhere.

For the wider picture of dictation in newsrooms, creative work and other jobs, see the guide on dictation for journalists and content creators, and the subject overview in dictation for work. For the terms used on this page, the shorthand and voice writing entries explain the older methods.