Research Guides: Journalism: Audio

Free transcription tools

Otter.ai transcription services
Otter.ai is a Los Altos, California-based technology company that develops speech to text transcription and translation applications using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Its software, called Otter, shows captions for live speakers, and generates written transcriptions of the speeches. It operates under a freemium model.

Current news audio

AP Newsroom This link opens in a new window
AP Newsroom contains audio interviews, news clips, and raw sound gathered by Associated Press reporters around the world. Content is updated daily and continuously. The archive also includes historical audio from 1989 to present. Each clip may be downloaded as a .mp3 file.

Streaming historical radio programs and broadcasts

Internet Archive Radio Programs
The Internet Archive's radio collection provides free access to digitized radio plays and programs. Coverage spans much of the 20th and 21st century.
National Public Radio Morning Edition archives
This archive of streaming National Public Radio (NPR) broadcasts from their daily morning news program, Morning Edition, goes back until 1996.
Internet Archive — Audio News and Public Affairs
The Internet Archive's audio news and public affairs collections features free, streaming access to alternative independent radio news programming. In addition to radio news shows, this collection features the Presidential Recordings collection of historical speeches, secret recordings, and Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts.
National Public Radio "All Things Considered" archive
This streaming archive of National Public Radio's daily nightly news program, All Things Considered, goes back to 1995.

Stock Film and Video Footage

Audio tracks can often be taken from the film and video content below.

Internet Archive: FedFlix
FedFlix has films produced by the United States Government, from training films to history, from our national parks to the U.S. Fire Academy and the Postal Inspectors. All of the content is available for reuse without any restrictions whatsoever.
Internet Archive: Stock Footage archive
Search across all of the Internet Archive's free, downloadable, and reusable film and video content in one place.
Open Video Project
An older website created by the UNC Chapel Hill Libraries, this site provides video clips from a variety of sources, especially U.S. government agencies such as the U.S. Records and Archives Administration and NASA. Free to download and reuse for Fair Use, though much of the content is low-resolution and some of the files are no longer available (the site does not look to be actively maintained).
C-SPAN video library (U.S. House and Senate coverage)
C-SPAN is a public service created by the American Cable Television Industry, and contains footage of the gavel-to-gavel proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and to other forums where public policy is discussed. Most of it is free to download and reuse; create a free account to download lower-quality clips for free. High resolution clips are a modest fee.
Internet Archive - TV News Archive
A free archive of streaming, U.S. News content. Searchable by closed captions from the major cable and broadcast television networks from 2009-present. Streaming videos are not available for download, but users are able to borrow DVDs of each show. Transcripts are available for each show.

Vanderbilt Television News Archive This link opens in a new window
The Vanderbilt Television News Archive is a searchable collection of the individual network evening news broadcasts from ABC, NBC, and CBS from 1968-present, CNN from 1995-present, and Fox from 2004-present. Broadcasts from CNN and NBC can be streamed; broadcasts from all sources, including ABC, CBS, and Fox, can be loaned and downloaded in MP4 format after creating an account and paying a nominal duplication fee ($12 per clip + a $10 processing fee).
Follow this link for more information on the loan process for this content and any associated fees: MP4 loans — compilation and duplication fees

Free Stock Footage
FreeStockFootage.com offers a large collection of free and low cost HD and 4k video stock footage, B-Roll, and motion graphics downloaded by the clip. Clips can be used for personal, corporate, and commercial productions, as well as blogs, social media, advertisements, web and mobile applications, and more.