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Article published In: Audiovisual translation in the age of streaming
Edited by Jinsil Choi, Kyung Hye Kim and Jonathan Evans
[Target 35:3] 2023
► pp. 331–353

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The audience strikes back

Agency and accountability in audiovisual translation and distribution

ORCiD logo with link | University of Bologna
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 20 July 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.00016.buc
Abstract
Newer distribution models and delivery mechanisms for audiovisual content have, over the years, contributed to the emergence of different dynamics between the consumers (or end-users) of these audiovisual texts and their providers on a global scale. Fans and casual viewers alike have now become more vocal in expressing their dissatisfaction with subtitled or dubbed content that is not up to their standards. In this article, I take a macro-level approach to audience studies in audiovisual translation (AVT) by reflecting on if and how viewers’ perspectives are being incorporated into streaming platforms’ policies and sense of accountability towards their subscribers. By analysing a recent case study from Netflix Italia – the Japanese anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (Netflix. 2019–2020. Neon Genesis Evangelion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) – I consider the ways in which the streaming platform took on board the subscribers’ complaints about the quality of the Italian adaptation and modified its offering accordingly. This new dynamic seems to suggest that distributors who are more sensitive to their subscribers’ needs may foster a process of co-creation and meaning-making of the localized content that concretely acknowledges the consumers’ point of view. At the same time it raises issues concerning the impact that the opinions of viewers who are mostly untrained in the standards and practices of AVT might ultimately have in localization and distribution choices.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Viewers with agency
  • 3.Listening to viewers’ feedback
    • 3.1Neon Genesis Evangelion
  • 4.Viewers as co-creators?
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
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Cited by three other publications

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Jiang, Jincai
2025. Relevance and text-on-screen in audiovisual translation: the pragmatics of creative subtitling. The Translator ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Künzli, Alexander
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