Academia.eduAcademia.edu

Outline

Title
Abstract
Key Takeaways
Introduction
Literature Review
Method
Opened-Ended Questionnaires
Textual Analysis
Results
Discussion and Conclusion
References
All Topics
Languages and Linguistics
Language Interpretation and Translation

Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation

Profile image of Saeed AmeriSaeed AmeriProfile image of Masood KhoshsalighehMasood Khoshsaligheh

2019, Mutatis Mutandis

https://doi.org/10.27533/UDEA.MUT.V12N2A08
visibility

…

description

21 pages

link

1 file

Abstract

The number of studies addressing non-professional or amateur subtitling or fansubbing has increasingly multiplied over the past years, underlying its relevance in the present world. This is partly because a growing number of audiences worldwide now watch TV series and films with subtitles by amateur subtitlers, which are freely shared online, and Iranian viewers are certainly included. In Iran, to get around the "cultural gate-keeping" policy advocated and strictly enforced by the state in the national media system, from the early 2010s onward, numerous Persian-language websites have embarked on a new initiative whereby original, especially American tv series and films are made available for download together with their Persian subtitles. Despite the upsurge of this phenomenon in the Iranian context, there is limited literature and research on Persian non-professional subtitling. To fill this knowledge gap, this article aims to examine and analyze the different practices that are closely associated with Persian amateur subtitling. This includes building a profile of Iranian amateur subtitlers, along with an account of their working process, followed by a description of fansubbed products. The data are gathered using an open-ended questionnaire with a criterion sample of Iranian non-professional subtitlers, a survey of Iran-based video and subtitle sharing websites, and a close examination of the common features found in fansubbed Persian products, including reading speed and fansubbers' experimentation with the original. El sistema de subtitulación aficionada iraní: Una investigación cualitativa Resumen La cantidad de estudios que abordan la subtitulación no profesional o aficionada, o fansubbing, se ha multi-plicado en los últimos años, lo que subraya su relevancia en el mundo actual. Esto se debe en parte a que un número creciente de espectadores en todo el mundo ahora ve series de televisión y películas con subtítulos compartidos en línea por subtituladores no profesionales e Irán no es una excepción. Desde principios de 2010 en adelante, en Irán, numerosos sitios web en lengua persa se han embarcado en una nueva iniciativa para 1 This article has its basis on the project "An Empirical Investigation into Persian Non-professional Subtitling", endorsed by the Faculty of Letters and Humanities at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.

Key takeaways
sparkles

AI

  1. Iranian amateur subtitling emerged to bypass cultural censorship since early 2010s, addressing a significant audience need.
  2. The study profiles 30 Persian fansubbers, primarily male and in their 20s, revealing demographic trends.
  3. Fansubbers employ open-ended questionnaires and textual analysis to explore subtitling practices and motivations.
  4. Challenges include translating culture-specific elements and maintaining subtitle readability amid high reading speeds.
  5. Non-professional subtitling lacks adherence to professional norms, reflecting the absence of established Persian subtitling standards.

Related papers

Translators' Agency in Persian Fansubbed Movies: A Paratextual Analysis
Milad Miraki

Critical Literary Studies, 2024

Drawing upon the notion of ‘paratextual agency’ (Paloposki, “Limits of Freedom” 191), the current study investigated the agency of the Iranian fansubbers. To do so, a corpus of 20 Persian fansubs of Hollywood movies released during the last decade was selected randomly. The study was carried out in two steps. Firstly, translators’ notes were categorized based on their content, frequency, and percentage of each category. Secondly, these notes were analyzed to scrutinize the agency of the Iranian fansubbers. The findings of the study reveal that notes added on the part of the Iranian fansubbers can be categorized into narrative-related notes, locations, famous figures, organizations, medical information, allusions, and transliteration. The study illustrates that by providing such notes to the audience, Iranian fansubbers move beyond the conventional role of subtitler and a mere linguistic conveyor of the movies and take the responsibility of teachers, researchers, cultural representatives, and intermediary agents. The study concludes that fansubbing in Iran is concerned with elucidating culture-bound items of the movies to make them more understandable for the audience. The conclusions of this study can open up prospective avenues for the sociologically-oriented approaches to audiovisual translation, with an eye on the agency and status of fansubbers.

View PDFchevron_right
A Cultural Discourse Perspective through the Strategies of Subtitling of American Films from English into Persian A Case Study of Subtitling Friends Series
Amin Amirdabbaghian, yousef purebrahimi

The research is based on the analysis of the American television series named Friends with the focus on the CSIs (Culture Specific Items) and how these differences have been handled by Persian translators who produced the subtitles. The analysis was based on the assumption that Iranian's culture is different from the US culture so people in these two countries may have problems in understanding CSIs if they are translated literally and if the subtitle translation is not adapted to the target audience. The research looked at the way subtitle translators involved with subtitling the American television series Friends had dealt with CSIs in when translating oral discourse into Persian. The main objective of this study has been to analyze different translation choices which are currently used by the translators in questions, dealing with CSIs where cultural differences between Iran and the US arise. The researcher has provided some questionnaires among university students of this field, some of the students were B.A. students of translation studies and some other were M.A. students of linguistics. The research discovered that in the translation of CSIs, Synonymy and Naturalization are the most frequent strategies which are used and performed well, succeeding to help the Iranian audience to comprehend the cultural connotations associated with the CSIs. Also the research discovered that high efficacy is obtained in translation.

View PDFchevron_right
2016. A reception study on non-professional subtitling: do audiences notice any difference?
David Orrego-Carmona

The audience's reluctance to wait for the international release of audiovisual products, coupled with the easy access to audiovisual material and subtitling tools on the Internet, has triggered an increase in the production and use of non-professional subtitling. However, up to now, we know little of how people receive the subtitles and how much they understand when watching products with non-professional subtitles. This paper presents the results of a study that explores the audience reception of subtitled TV series using professional and non-professional subtitling. Fifty-two participants were shown three excerpts from The Big Bang Theory with three subtitle versions: the professional version extracted from the Spanish DVD and two non-professional versions produced by two different non-professional subtitling communities. Data were collected through questionnaires, eye-tracking and interviews. The results show that non-professional subtitles do not necessarily affect the audience reception negatively. Further, both eye-tracking and self-reported data yielded interesting insights into audience's reception. Based on the findings, it is possible to say that there are non-professional translations that are as good as their professional counterparts.

View PDFchevron_right
2014. Where is the audience? Testing the audience reception of non-professional subtitling
David Orrego-Carmona

From Translation Research Projects 5, eds. Esther Torres-Simon and David Orrego-Carmona, Tarragona: Intercultural Studies Group, 2014. pp. 77-92 http://isg.urv.es/publicity/isg/publications/trp_5_2014/index.htm This paper presents the results of a pilot study exploring the reception of non-professional subtitling. Nine participants were shown three video excerpts with commercially available professional subtitles and two different versions of non-professional subtitles. To examine participants’ reception, eye-tracking was used to collect gaze data, while questionnaires and interviews were used to assess comprehension and translation difficulty. The results indicate that the reception of the product depends on the participants’ level of English. Additionally, the participants demonstrated a greater degree of comprehension with professional subtitling, but their level of satisfaction with the content and the translation does not vary significantly. The methodology to explore the reception of subtitled material is supported by the results of the pilot study.

View PDFchevron_right
Blurring the Line between Professional and Amateur Subtitling
Animmarn Leksawat

Między Oryginałem a Przekładem, 2022

Fansubbing has generally been characterised by particular features that deviate from professional subtitling conventions; however, recent research begins to show the complexity of the phenomenon and hints at how the line between the professional and the amateur practices is blurring [Dore and Petrucci 2021; Massidda 2015]. The case of Diary of Tootsies, a Thai comedy series and its translations is another representative example of the interconnection of professional and amateur AVT and the need to question the dichotomy between the two practices. This paper revisits professional subtitling conventions and the unconventional features typically associated with fansubs, and then maps them onto the subtitles in the indirect translation chain: the official English subtitles, used as a pivot, and the fansubs created by Spanish-speaking fans. The findings reveal several textual features that are usually attributed to fansubs can also be detected in official subtitles, for instance, unconve...

View PDFchevron_right
Subtitling in the Streaming Era: A Comparative Analysis of Strategies Used to Translate Cultural References into Arabic
Abeer Alfaify

English Linguistics Research, 2023

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent frequent lockdowns, streaming platforms have become an essential part of people's media consumption. Translation has played a key role in the rapid growth of these streaming services by allowing global access to different translated versions of their content. While the impact of these streaming services on the reconstruction of media production has been a reoccurring topic in media studies, their impact on translation is still relatively underresearched. With that in mind, this article aims to identify current translation tendencies by examining the translation strategies commonly used in subtitling cultural references (CRs) into Arabic on three of the primary streaming platforms (Netflix, OSN+ and Prime Video) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This is particularly significant not only because most studies on cultural references focus on European languages and contexts, but also because the few studies examining Arabic subtitles are mainly focused on subtitles available on DVDs (Alfaify, 2020), fansubbing websites (Abdelaal, 2019) and satellite television (Thawabteh, 2014). Additionally-and contrary to the common practice, which tends to ignore the complex multimodal nature of the cultural references-this article examines both verbal and crossmodal cultural references and the patterns of rendering them in professional subtitles across the investigated streaming platforms.

View PDFchevron_right
Subtitling Research in the Arab World: Review Article
Yasser Al Tamimi

International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation

This article outlines the most important trends in subtitling research in the Arab World. Despite its importance, immediacy of reception and the broad audience subtitles reach, academia has lagged for decades and failed to cope with the growing subtitling industry, missing great opportunities for research, practice as well as the teaching of subtitling in institutions of higher education. However, a good number of subtitling practitioners and academics have realized this wide gap in the research and started to carry out serious projects to investigate this area. This article reviews the current body of literature that spans the past twenty years and highlights the major areas of research as well as the gaps that still exist. This review has found out that the major areas that have been covered so far include technical aspects of subtitling; linguistic difficulties (lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, etc.); rhetorical aspects (such as euphemism, humor and word play); and cultur...

View PDFchevron_right
Exploring the Attitudes and Expectations of Iranian Audiences in Terms of Professional Dubbing into Persian
Masood Khoshsaligheh, Saeed Ameri

For more than seven decades, dubbing has been the dominant professional modality for overcoming language barriers in foreign movies and TV series in Iran and has been revered as a national art. Although limited, some recent work has explored Persian dubbing reception and to continue this endeavor, this study attempts to offer further insights into how the Iranian viewers perceive dubbing, translation for dubbing and what they expect from dubbing. More precisely, the study aims at examining how the Iranian audiences view dubbing and particularly its agents and translation. To these ends, a questionnaire including open and closed items was designed. The overall results revealed that translation quality was considered considerably less important than the technical issues related to the dubbing production, such as voice-acting and synchronization. The findings also suggested that the performance of dubbing actors and dubbing directors was regarded more important than the contribution of translators. Overall, these findings seemed to indicate that the Iranian viewers' appreciation of a dubbed program is mainly guided by non-translation issues including the performance of the dubbing actors and the accuracy of the relevant synchronizations.

View PDFchevron_right
A Survey on Viewing Preferences and Habits of Iranian Audience of Audiovisual Translation
Saeed Ameri

Applied Linguistics Inquiry, 2023

The remarkable popularity and success of foreign feature films and television series as a source of entertainment cannot be disputed. The emergence of amateur subtitling communities has led to dramatic changes in individuals’ viewing habits and styles as fansubbers offer an ideal opportunity for people to access international audiovisual materials, especially in dubbing countries like Iran. However, empirical research on audience viewing preferences and habits in terms of audiovisual translation is scarce. To bridge the gap, over 1200 Iranian viewers filled in an online questionnaire. The results suggest the emergence of new habits and preferences as proportionately more Iranians nowadays access international films and TV series with Persian subtitles, at least among young adults. Also, a small number of the respondents prefer to watch foreign films and programs dubbed. Additionally, there was a weak interplay between viewers’ English proficiency and their tendency towards watching dubbed or subtitled programs, and national TV channels do not appear to be the primary entertainment source when it comes to international cinematic products. Understanding viewers’ preferences and viewing styles forges possible future paths for the translation industry to cater for the needs of individuals with different viewing styles and needs.

View PDFchevron_right
2014. Subtitling, video consumption and viewers: The impact of the young audience
David Orrego-Carmona

2014. "Subtitling, Video consumption and Viewers: The Impact of the Young Audience". Translation Spaces 3. 51-70. doi 10.1075/ts.3.03orr The emergence of international audiences and the activities of prosumers are modifying international media flows. Consumers have become active mediators in the distribution of audiovisual contents through the Internet, overstepping official distribution channels. As an efficient way to overcome linguistic barriers, non-professional subtitling plays an important role within this framework. In order to analyze how the new environment is altering users’ behavior and attitudes, this article looks at the case of video consumption and non-professional subtitling use in Spain. By drawing on questionnaires, interviews and documentary sources on the Internet, the article aims at providing a general picture of current consumption habits of audiovisual material in a globalized society. It explores users’ engagement with audiovisual content, their attitude towards subtitling and non-professional subtitling, and how they manage their expectations and adapt to the new conditions. Keywords: audiovisual translation modes, audiovisual habits, fans, media flows, international audiences, subtitling, non-professional subtitling

View PDFchevron_right

References (70)

  1. Abdi, Z., & Khoshsaligheh, M. (2018). Appl- ying multimodal transcription to Persian subtitling. Studies About Languages, 32, 21-38.
  2. Antonini, R., & Bucaria, C. (Eds.). (2015). Non-professional interpreting and translation in the media. Wien, Austria: Peter Lang.
  3. Antonini, R., Cirillo, L., Rossato, L., & Torre- si, I. (2017a). Introducing npit studies. In R. Antonini, L. Cirillo, L. Rossato, & I. Torresi (Eds.), Non-professional interpreting and translation: State of the art and future of an emerging field of research (pp. 2 -26). Am- sterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.
  4. Antonini, R., Cirillo, L., Rossato, L., & Torre- si, I. (Eds.). (2017b). Non-professional Inter- preting and Translation: State of the art and future of an emerging field of research. Am- sterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.
  5. Bogucki, Ł. (2016). Areas and methods of audio- visual translation research (2nd ed.). Frank- furt, Germany: Peter Lang.
  6. Caffrey, C. (2009). Relevant abuse? Investigating the effects of an abusive subtitling procedure on the perception of tv anime using eye tracker and questionnaire. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), Dublin City University, Du- blin, Ireland.
  7. Cemerin, V., & Toth, M. (2017). An explora- tion of motives for fansubbing based on several croatian fansubbing communities. In D. Orrego-Carmona & Y. Lee (Eds.), Non-professional subtitling (pp. 199-234): Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  8. Chang, P.-l. (2017). Chinese fansubbing of us tv show "The Big Bang Theory": From ideological perspectives. In D. Orre- go-Carmona & Y. Lee (Eds.), Non-profes- sional subtitling (pp. 235-260). Newcastle, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  9. Chaume, F. (2013). The turn of audiovisual translation: New audiences and new tech- nologies. Translation Spaces, 2(1), 105-123. doi:10.1075/ts.2.06cha
  10. Chaume, F. (2018). An overview of audiovi- sual translation: Four methodological tur- ns in a mature discipline. Journal of Audio- visual Translation, 1(1), 40-63.
  11. Diaz Cintas, J. (2015). Technological strides in subtitling. In C. Sin-wai (Ed.), The Routle- dge encyclopedia of translation technology (pp. 632-643). Abingdon, England: Routledge.
  12. Diaz Cintas, J. (2018). 'Subtitling's A Carnival': New practices in cyberspace. Jostrans: The Journal of Specialised Translation, 30, 127-149.
  13. Diaz Cintas, J., & Muñoz Sánchez, P. (2006). Fansubs: Audiovisual translation in an amateur environment. Jostrans: The Jour- nal of Specialised Translation, 6, 37-52.
  14. Diaz Cintas, J., & Remael, A. (2007). Audio- visual translation: Subtitling. Abingdon, England: Routledge.
  15. Duraner, J. E., Tunali, G., & Koçak, M. I. (2017). Fansubbers as cultural agents for Korean dramas. In D. Orrego-Carmona & Y. Lee (Eds.), Non-professional subtit- ling (pp. 145-170). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  16. Dwyer, T. (2012a). Bad-Talk: Media piracy and "Guerrilla" translation. In B. Maher & R. Wilson (Eds.), Words, Images and Performances in Translation (pp. 194-215). New York, ny: Continuum.
  17. Dwyer, T. (2012b). Fansub dreaming on Viki: "Don't just watch but help when you are free". The Translator, 18(2), 217-243. doi:1
  18. Dwyer, T. (2017). Speaking in subtitles: Reva- luing screen translation. Edinburgh: Edin- burgh University Press.
  19. Dwyer, T. (2019). Audiovisual translation and fandom. In L. Pérez-González (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of audiovisual trans- lation (pp. 436-452). London, England: Routledge.
  20. Gambier, Y. (2013). The position of audiovi- sual translation studies. In C. Millán & F. Bartrina (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of translation studies (pp. 45-59). Abingdon, England: Routledge.
  21. Guillot, M.-N. (2019). Subtitling on the cusp of its futures. In L. Pérez-González (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of audiovisual translation (pp. 31-47). London, England: Routledge.
  22. Hu, B. (2010). Korean tv serials in the Engli- sh-language diaspora: Translating diffe- rence online and making it racial. The Velvet Light Trap (66), 36-49. doi:10.1353/ vlt.2010.0007
  23. Jiménez-Crespo, M. A. (2017). Crowdsourcing and online collaborative translations: expan- ding the limits of translation studies. Amster- dam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.
  24. Josephy-Hernández, D. E. (2017). The trans- lation of graphemes in anime in its ori- ginal and fansubbed versions. TranscUltu- rAl, 9(1), 78-104.
  25. Karamitroglou, F. (1998). A proposed set of subtitling standards in Europe. Translation Journal, 2(2). Retrieved from https://trans- lationjournal.net/journal/04stndrd.htm
  26. Khatib, G. (2014, May 8). Movie piracy in Iran -part 1: From smuggled videos to illegal downloads. IranWire. Retrieved from ht- tps://iranwire.com/en/features/344
  27. Khoshsaligheh, M., & Ameri, S. (2016). Ideological considerations and prac- tice in official dubbing in Iran. Altre modernità, 15(Special Issue), 232-250. doi:10.13130/2035-7680/6864
  28. Khoshsaligheh, M., & Ameri, S. (2017a). Di- dactics of audiovisual translation in Iran so far: Prospects and solutions. Paper presented at the National Conference on Interdisci- Mutatis Mutandis. Vol. 12, N.° 2, 2019, julio-diciembre, pp. 433-453 plinary Approaches to Translation Edu- cation, Tehran, Iran.
  29. Khoshsaligheh, M., Ameri, S., Khajepour, B., & Shokoohmand, F. (forthcoming). Non-professional subtitling in a dubbing country: The reception of Iranian audien- ce. Observatorio, 13(3).
  30. Khoshsaligheh, M., Ameri, S., & Mehdiza- dkhani, M. (2018). A Socio-Cultural Study of Taboo Rendition In Persian Fansub- bing: An Issue of Resistance. Language and Intercultural Communication, 18(6), 663-680. doi:10.1080/14708477.2017.1377211
  31. Leonard, S. (2005). Progress against the law: Anime and fandom, with the key to the globalization of culture. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 8(3), 281-305. doi:10.1177/1367877905055679
  32. Luczaj, K., & Holy-Luczaj, M. (2017). Tho- se who help us understand our favourite global tv series in a local language: Qua- litative meta-analysis of research on lo- cal fansub groups. Babel, 63(2), 153-173. doi:10.1075/babel.63.2.01luc
  33. Luczaj, K., Holy-Luczaj, M., & Cwiek-Ro- galska, K. (2014). Fansubbers. The case of the Czech Republic and Poland. The Journal of Comparative Research in Anthro- pology and Sociology, 4(2), 175-198.
  34. Massidda, S. (2015). Audiovisual Translation in the Digital Age: The Italian Fansubbing Phe- nomenon. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
  35. Massidda, S., & Casarini, A. (2017). Sub me do: The development of fansubbing in traditio- nal dubbing countries -the case of Italy. In D. Orrego-Carmona & Y. Lee (Eds.), Non-professional subtitling (pp. 63-86). Cam- bridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  36. Naficy, H. (2012). A social history of Iranian cine- ma: The globalizing era, 1984-2010 (Vol. 4).
  37. London, England: Duke University Press.
  38. Netflix. (2018). General subtitling guidelines. Re- trieved from https://backlothelp.netflix. com/hc/en-us/articles/215758617-Ti- med-Text-Style-Guide-General-Requi rements
  39. Nornes, A. M. (1999). For an Abusive Sub- titling. Film Quarterly, 52(3), 17-34. doi:10.2307/1213822
  40. Orrego-Carmona, D. (2015). Internal structu- res and workflows in collaborative subtit- ling. In R. Antonini & C. Bucaria (Eds.), Non-professional interpreting and translation in the media (pp. 211-230). Frankfurt, Ger- many: Peter Lang.
  41. Orrego-Carmona, D. (2018). New audiences, international distribution, and translation.
  42. In E. D. Giovanni & Y. Gambier (Eds.), Reception studies and audiovisual translation (pp. 321-342). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.
  43. Orrego-Carmona, D., & Lee, Y. (2017a). Non-professional subtitling. In D. Orre- go-Carmona & Y. Lee (Eds.), Non-pro- fessional subtitling (pp. 1-14). Newcastle, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  44. Orrego-Carmona, D., & Lee, Y. (Eds.). (2017b). Non-professional subtitling. Newcastle, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  45. Orrego-Carmona, D., & Richter, S. (2018). Tracking the distribution of non-profes- sional subtitles to study new audiences. Observatorio, 12(4), 64-68.
  46. Pedersen, J. (2011). Subtitling norms for televi- sion: An exploration focussing on extralinguis- tic cultural references. Amsterdam, the Ne- therlands: John Benjamins.
  47. Pedersen, J. (2017). The far model: Assessing quality in interlingual subtitling. Jostrans: The Journal of Specialised Translation, 28, 210-229.
  48. Pedersen, J. (2019). Fansubbing in subtitling land: An investigation into the nature of fansubs in Sweden. Target, 31(1), 50-76. doi:10.1075/target.18017.ped
  49. Perego, E. (2008). Subtitles and line-breaks: Towards improved readability. In D. Chia- ro, C. Heiss, & C. Bucaria (Eds.), Between text and image: Updating research in screen translation (pp. 211-223). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.
  50. Perego, E. (2014). Humour and audiovisual translation: An overview. In G. L. D. Rosa, F. Bianchi, A. D. Laurentiis, & E. Perego (Eds.), Translating humour in audio- visual texts (pp. 9-14). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.
  51. Pérez-González, L. (2007a). Fansubbing anime: Insights into the butterfly effect of globalisation on audiovisual transla- tion. Perspectives: Studies in Translatolo- gy, 14(4), 260-277. doi:10.1080/090767 60708669043
  52. Pérez-González, L. (2007b). Intervention in new amateur subtitling cultures: A mul- timodal account. Linguistica Antverpiensia, 6, 67-80.
  53. Pérez-González, L. (2014). Audiovisual transla- tion: Theories, methods and issues. London, England: Routledge.
  54. Ranzato, I. (2016). Translating culture specific references on television: The case of dubbing. Abingdon, England: Routledge.
  55. Szarkowska, A., Krejtz, I., Pilipczuk, O., Dutka, Ł., & Kruger, J.-L. (2016). The effects of text editing and subtitle pre- sentation rate on the comprehension and reading patterns of interlingual and intralingual subtitles among deaf, hard of hearing and hearing viewers. Across Languages and Cultures, 17(2), 183-204. doi:10.1556/084.2016.17.2.3
  56. Wang, D. (2017). Fansubbing in China -With reference to the fansubbing group yyets. Jostrans: The Journal of Specialised Transla- tion, 28, 165-190.
  57. Wu, Z. (2017). The making and unmaking of non-professional subtitling commu- nities in China: A mixed-method study. In D. Orrego-Carmona & Y. Lee (Eds.), Non-professional subtitling (pp. 115-144). Newcastle, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  58. Zeydabadi-Nejad, S. (2016). Watching the forbidden: Reception of banned films in Iran. In M. Hagener, V. Hediger, & A. Strohmaier (Eds.), The state of post-cine- ma: Tracing the moving image in the age of digital dissemination (pp. 99-113). London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
  59. Zhang, L. T., & Cassany, D. (2017). Fansu- bbing from Spanish to Chinese: organi- zation, roles and norms in collaborative writing. BiD: textos universitaris de bibliote- conomia i documentació, 37. Retrieved from http://bid.ub.edu/en/37/tian.htm Filmography Forte, L. (Producer), & Wedge, C. (Director). (2002). Ice Age 1. [Animation]. United States: Blue Sky Studios.
  60. Grossman, N. (Producer), & Tyldum, M. (Di- rector). (2014). The Imitation Game. [Mo- tion picture]. United States: Black Bear Pictures.
  61. Kinberg, S. (Producer), & Miller, M. (Direc- tor). (2014). Deadpool. [Motion picture].
  62. Nunnari, G. (Producer), & Snyder, Z. (Direc- tor). (2006). 300. [Motion picture]. United States: Legendary Pictures.
  63. Permut, D. (Producer), & Woo, J. (Director). (1997). Face/Off. [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.
  64. Perry, P. (Producer), & Quale, S. (Director). (2011). Final Destination 5. [Motion pictu- re]. United States: New Line Cinema.
  65. Silver, J. (Producer), & Wachowski, L., & Wachowski, L. (Directors). (1999). The Matrix. [Motion picture]. United States & Australia: Warner Bros.
  66. Walker, J. (Producer), & Torres, G. (Director). (2011). Brake. [Motion picture]. United States: Walking West Entertainment.
  67. Walker-McBay, P. (Producer), & Linklater, R. (Director). (1995). Before Sunrise. [Motion picture]. United States: Castle Rock En- tertainment.
  68. Wallace, R. (Producer), & Wallace, R. (Di- rector). (1998). The Man in the Iron Mask. [Motion picture]. United States: United Artists.
  69. Ziskin, L. (Producer), & Raimi, S. (Director). (2007). Spider-Man 3. [Motion picture].
  70. Cómo citar este artículo: Ameri, S. y Khoshsaligheh, M. (2019). Iranian Amateur Subtitling Apparatus: A Qualitative Investigation. Mutatis Mutandis. Revista Latinoamericana de Traducción, 12(2), 433-453. doi: 10.27533/udea.mut.v12n2a08

Related papers

Insights into Iranian younger audience of Persian amateur subtitling: a reception study
Saeed Ameri

Onomázein, 2022

In today’s digital culture, amateur subtitling as a type of non-professional subtitling has mushroomed worldwide and has arguably challenged conventional practices of audiovisual translation. The contemporary digital mediascape has provided an opportunity for audiences to access a wide variety of audiovisual content through multiple translation modes. The aim of this study is twofold. It examines Iranian younger viewers’ audiovisual translation viewing habits and preferences and explores their reception and assessment of Persian amateur subtitling. A selection of 132 Iranian participants attended the study to watch an entire episode of an English television comedy with Persian amateur subtitles. A questionnaire and semistructured interviews were used to collect data on viewers’ audiovisual translation viewing habits and their reception of the subtitled episode. Findings suggest that a large number of users prefer to watch audiovisual content with subtitles created and distributed by non-professionals. The results of the experiment indicate the viewers’ positive attitudes and perceptions towards amateur subtitles. On the basis of the empirical evidence, it can be argued that the Iranian audience, who had grown up accustomed to dubbing, have now become acclimatized to subtitling. Other evidence is indicative of the viewers’ positive experience and appraisal of Persian amateur subtitling.

View PDFchevron_right
Subtitling in the Iranian Mediascape: Towards a Culture Specific Typology
Saeed Ameri

2020

Given the increasing pace of dissemination of cultural content across global borders, subtitling as a cost-effective solution for rendering audiovisual programs is gaining more popularity, even in societies, which have been traditionally using dubbing as the dominant modality for foreign films and television series. Likewise, various types of subtitling practices have developed and are used in Iran both at official and non-official outlets. While official dubbing has failed in some aspect in addressing the growing interest of Iranian viewers of foreign content, a variety of non-professional subtitling has been filling the gap, and subtitling appears to be dominating the audiovisual media market. Despite such developments, the necessities of professional practice of subtitling, including standardized guidelines, codes of ethics and practice, and training, have never been realized in Iran. In the absence of a professional subtitling tradition, this article presents the status quo of non-professional subtitling into Persian and introduces the specific typology of this practice in the Iranian mediascape.

View PDFchevron_right
Amateur subtitling in a dubbing country: The reception of Iranian audience
Saeed Ameri, Masood Khoshsaligheh

Observatorio, 2019

Although dubbing is the official and dominant modality of translating foreign films and television series in Iran, amateur subtitling has been increasingly used by the Iranian audience for audiovisual products that are not dubbed, or at least not soon enough or not without substantial 'cultural appropriation.' Given the increasing attention paid to viewers' reception in the domain of audiovisual translation, this study attempts to explore the reception of Iranian viewers of the non-professional subtitling into Persian. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed for the present research. Initially, the qualitative analysis of the focus groups conducted with consumers of such products suggested five main themes: translational, translatorial and technical expectations as well as the advantages and disadvantages. The quantitative analysis of the survey data confirmed the five themes in the second phase of the study.

View PDFchevron_right
An Experiment on Amateur and Professional Subtitling Reception in Iran
Saeed Ameri

SKASE Journal of Translation and Interpretation, 2021

Over the past decade, audiovisual translation has welcomed the swift shift towards experimental reception studies, and interdisciplinary approaches which draw on media psychology theories, such as immersion are becoming the new trend in audiovisual translation. Nonetheless, studies on amateur subtitling reception are recent and scarce, notably in dubbing countries like Iran, where both dubbing and amateur subtitling are co-existing. This paper reports the results of an experiment examining whether a select group of Iranian viewers may report different reception and immersion when watching a professionally subtitled vs. non-professionally subtitled audiovisual material. To this end, around sixty Iranian viewers attended the experiment and reported their reception and immersion through a questionnaire. Overall, the results suggested that amateur subtitling did not negatively affect the viewers' immersion in the program. Viewers' comprehension and some subtitling reception variables (subtitling reading difficulty, duration, and subtitling overall quality) were nevertheless challenged by the amateur subtitles since the participants had a better comprehension and reception when watching the program with professionally produced subtitles. Other findings indicated that (constant) exposure to foreign cinematic programs and (un)familiarity with subtitling had no significant effect on the viewers' reception and immersion.

View PDFchevron_right
Venutian Scale in the Realm of Subtitling in Turkey A Comparative Analysis of the Fansubs and the Official Subtitles of Family Guy
Mehmet Erguvan

Journal of Translation Studies, 2016

Allied with ongoing research, audio-visual translation (AVT) has come to the core through a technological break-through. The “assumed to be developed” status of AVT has made subtitling, one of the types of AVT, a given in our time. In time, subtitling has also opened its doors for fansubbers toiling and moiling in this process. Initially emerging as a leisure activity, fansubbing has become concerned with the (re)presentation of cultural differences and thus fansubbers have started actively engaging in the duality of domesticating and foreignizing strategies of translation, which has been a central issue for translation scholars such as Lawrence Venuti. Keeping these points in mind, this study attempts to present an overview of the situation of Turkish fansubbers most particularly underlining the actors who take part in fansubbing (e.g., translators, editors, technicians, proofreaders and so on). Additionally, following the (re)evaluation of large repertoire of subtitling translation strategies, these strategies are discussed within the framework of Venutian scale -i.e., from the most foreignizing strategies to the most domesticating strategies- by scrutinizing the notion of (in)visibility. Ultimately, it has been set forth that, in Turkey, fansubbing partly differs from professional subtitling in that while fansubbers may use translation strategies that would not be acceptable in a professionally subtitled product, professional subtitlers are obliged to pursue the norms imposed by the industry (e.g., employers and The Radio and Television Supreme Council in Turkey). That being the case, Turkish fansubbers who are often judged harshly by their peers tend to produce more source-oriented or, what Nornes (2004) calls, abusive translation. Herewith, this study seeks to shed light on the “Turkish fansubbing environment” and, to that end, draws a comparison between professionally-produced and fan-produced Turkish subtitles of the animated sitcom Family Guy. In conclusion, based on a case of Family Guy, this study underlines the differences between the target texts that stem largely from the diversifying needs and expectations of different profiles of the audiences, one preferring fansubs and another, subtitling by professional institutions. Keywords Fansubbing, professional subtitling, domestication, foreignization, (in) visibility.

View PDFchevron_right

Related topics

  • Audiovisual Translation
  • Non-Professional Translation
  • Non-professional Subtitling

    • Cited by

    Video game localisation in Iran: a survey of users’ profile, gaming habits and preferences
    Saeed Ameri

    The Translator, 2020

    Today, an increasing number of people are playing video games, hence the continued growth of the game industry's annual revenue, surpassing $150 billion in 2019, exceeds those of music and film industries combined. Considering the huge international market, accumulating and analysing information about gamers' opinions, attitudes and experiences is of necessity for the game localisation market and could supplement and enrich the limited existing research findings. To address this gap, this article presents the results of a survey of Iranian console and computer gamers' reception. Using quantitative data from over 750 gamers, the study examines the Iranian gamers' profile, gaming habits, preferences, and perception of the present situation of video game localisation in Iran. The results reveal that the entertainment of playing video games appears to be entirely male-oriented and mostly in their teens and early to mid-20s. The most telling results suggest that Iranian gamers prefer a localisation approach in which the translation maintains the otherness of the original, and that on average, they are dissatisfied with the present state of game localisation into Persian.

    View PDFchevron_right
    580 California St., Suite 400
    San Francisco, CA, 94104
    © 2025 Academia. All rights reserved