Smart Technologies, Smart Translations: Languages & The Media Call for Proposals is now open!

New technologies are facilitating the creation and dissemination of new forms of content. In a world where multilingualism is becoming the norm, these changes raise new challenges on media producers, distributors, consumers and translators. Simultaneously, advances in ICT continually bring innovative translation tools and services to the market.

As the flow of content increases, so does the demand for translation in the form of dubbing, subtitling, voiceover, subtitling for the deaf and audio description. Technology has come to play an important part when trying to catch up with these changes. In recent years, developments in machine translation, cloud storage, digital television and voice recognition, amongst others, have not only had wide-reaching ramifications for the media and translation sectors, but have also gone mainstream, with users across the world having easy access to sophisticated technologies and expecting instantaneous results. Are these smart technologies leading to smart translations?

Within the industry, new job profiles are emerging alongside new services and the employment landscape is being radically altered by expanding possibilities of access to audiovisual media. The needs of global broadcasting, for instance, must accommodate potentially conflicting demands for diversification and localisation, whilst NGOs and international organisations must overcome the complex and diverse demands of operating in multilingual fields.

With changes in production come changes in consumption. Or is it the other way around? Social media has been the catalyst for profound transformations in the way we communicate, notably by empowering ‘prosumers’ to be in charge of content creation, thus raising a whole raft of accessibility, legal and usability implications. In addition, new educational technologies are opening up access to education and training like never before. How are these affecting AVT? What untapped potential does interdisciplinary research hold for the sector?

The 10th Languages & The Media conference will bring together researchers, language practitioners, translators, interpreters, software developers and all those who produce, market, or distribute audiovisual materials for information, entertainment or educational purposes to discuss these pressing questions. Join us if you would like to voice your opinion and take part in the discussion.