New Challenges in Audiovisual Translation

At the turn of the 21st century, the booming of new communication technologies and the transformations that occurred as regards the fruition of traditional media (television, telephone, cinema, etc.) have triggered what has been labeled as the “digital revolution”. Not only have new media and their augmented potentiality for interactive consumption significantly influenced the social, economic, and political frameworks of both Western and emerging countries, but they have also brought about changes in cross-cultural interactions, which are increasingly fast and farreaching. Boundaries between a ‘centre’ and a ‘periphery’ in the dissemination of audiovisual texts have become gradually more blurred: hegemonies are being challenged, with local, small-scale industries becoming more and more visible at a global level, while productions reaching the global circuit are often born as supranational projects. Studies on audiovisual translation today can rightfully claim a central role in the process of understanding and clarifying many of the challenges and opportunities that the digital revolution has brought about. Although widely seen as a sub-discipline of Translation Studies, studies on audiovisual translation are truly interdisciplinary in themselves, bringing together knowledge of more or less traditional media, IT , audience reception, cognitivism and, of course, languages and cultures.