Abstract
BACKGROUND: Audiovisual content prevails in many modern societies. However, not all audiences can access the audiovisual content in its original form due to language barriers or sensory impairments (Greco, 2016). This is where audiovisual translation (AVT) and media accessibility (MA) come into play, providing access services such as e.g., subtitling, dubbing, captioning and audio description (AD). AVT&MA is the most dynamically developing area of TS (Remael, Reviers, & Vandekerckhove, 2016). While it produced a large quantity of research in less than 30 years, the majority of current AVT&MA studies are descriptive and prescriptive. Calls for more varied and in particular empirical research methods to support the AD field's development into a mature discipline (PerezGonzalez, 2014) have led to a spiked interest in experimental research. However, two crucial research gaps remain in this respect: (1) Experimental research in AVT&MA, is a fledgling area that experiences growing pains (Di Giovanni & Gambier, 2018). The predominant AVT&MA experimental research paradigm still uses offline measurement methods (e.g., questionnaires, interviews, focus groups etc.) (for a detailed overview see (Cintas & Szarkowska, 2020; Orero et al., 2018). (2) Process research approaches are almost inexistent in AVT&MA research. The field of AVT&MA remains largely focused on the product. Only a handful of studies employed the translation process research framework within AVT&MA (Gary Massey & Jud, 2020; Orrego-Carmona, 2018). AD process research, in particular, is the least explored area.
AIM: We will address the two research gaps described above by conducting an empirical study of the audio description scripting process focusing on how it might be affected by experience of describers.
URGENCY: This initiative is not only highly relevant to complement existing approaches in AD research, but it is also urgent. The development of process-oriented studies in AVT&MA is a crucial consideration to avoid a one sided view on AVT&MA practices as a product and elicit essential questions that product oriented approaches cannot answer (such as the motivation behind translation choices or the impact of contextual features on translation choices, to name but a few). The field of AD is currently at a pivotal point in its development, in need of solid, empirical evidence to underpin its theoretical claims and evolve into a mature discipline and the development of empirical process research is a crucial step in this development. Against this background, this project is not only a fundamental and logical next step in developing new knowledge in the field, but it will also contribute to establishing the University of Antwerp as a reference center in AVT and MA research.
APPROACH: Our project is situated in an empirical paradigm and within the realm of Cognitive Translation and Inerpreting Studies. Building on methodological standards and measures of Translation Process Research this project is the first one to combine a comprehensive set of quantitative and qualitative tools to study the AD production process.
INNOVATION AND IMPACT: (1) Research into a new, unclaimed research avenue within AVT&MA. (2) A multimethod experimental-design, linking methodologies rarely or never used within AVT&MA. (3) Interdisciplinary approach establishing collaboration within the University of Antwerp (TriCS, Antwerp Social Lab and Antwerp Human Lab). (4) tackling of the replication and reproducibility crisis through open science approach.
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