Subtitling in the Iranian Mediascape: Towards a Culture-Specific Typology

Masood Khoshsaligheh1a, Saeed Ameri2a, Farzaneh Shokoohmand3a, Milad Mehdizadkhani4b

Abstract Given the increasing pace of dissemination of cultural ARTICLE HISTORY: content across global borders, subtitling as a cost-effective Received May 2020 solution for rendering audiovisual programs is gaining more Received in revised form July 2020 popularity, even in societies, which have been traditionally Accepted July 2020 using dubbing as the dominant modality for foreign films and Available online August 2020 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 KEYWORDS: developments, the necessities of professional practice of Non-professional subtitling subtitling, including standardized guidelines, codes of ethics Amateur subtitling and practice, and training, have never been realized in Iran. Quasi-professional subtitling In the absence of a professional subtitling tradition, this Professional subtitling article presents the status quo of non-professional subtitling Subtitling for the d/Deaf and hard of into Persian and introduces the specific typology of this hearing practice in the Iranian mediascape.

© 2020 IJSCL. All rights reserved.

1 Associate Professor, Email: [email protected] (Corresponding Author) Tel: +98-915-5012669 2 PhD, Email: [email protected] 3 Assistant Professor, Email: [email protected] 4 PhD Candidate, Email: [email protected] a Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran b University of Szeged, Hungary

56 Subtitling in the Iranian Mediascape: Towards a Culture-Specific Typology

1. Introduction market with the advertised function. This market provided foreign language enthusiasts esides the seven-decade-old prevalence with authentic foreign multimedia, mostly of dubbing in Iran as the exclusive English content, and helped them improve their B audiovisual translation (AVT) solution foreign language competency. That was a for watching foreign feature films and convenient excuse, helping to conceal the television series, a variety of Persian-language illegal nature of this unauthorized distribution subtitling practices has emerged and rose to of selling pirated foreign films (Jalili, 2001). fame among Iranian audiences, especially the However, it was legally problematic on two young generation, due to the expectations that grounds. Firstly, it was violating copyright laws, the official dubbing has failed to fulfill in recent and secondly, severe consequences such as years. Although dubbing has been practiced in ethical issues followed from the unauthorized Iran since the mid-1940s, it was not until the distribution of foreign cultural products. late 1990s, that Persian subtitling was born in Another early attempt in broadcasting foreign the Iranian society. Over the past decade, the use films along with Persian subtitles is MBC of subtitling has substantially risen in Iran. The Persia, a satellite television channel, starting in increase is due to the development of 2008. According to Naficy (2012), the subtitles broadband technologies and high-speed were of such poor quality mostly in terms of Internet access for the public, which in turn has consistency, coherence, and synchronization, paved the way for cheap and fast access to and the deficiencies were even notable to the original films and TV shows by the Internet lay public audiences who were not competent downloading. Enjoying this readily available in the source language. ocean of foreign cinematic programs—mostly pirated versions—requires a translation In the absence of a professional tradition of solution for which official dubbing could not be subtitling in Persian, this article aims to serve an option as the audiences look for a fast mode, as an introduction to the different types of which contains the least amount of cultural subtitling practices in the Iranian context. The intervention in the original content. clarification of the subtitling practice would help consistency and accuracy in the use of the related However, the absence of professional subtitling terminology in the growing research has led to the emergence of various types of publication on subtitling in Persian. In several subtitling practice in Persian. The practice has local studies, the distinction of professional, non- been investigated from multiple angles, such as professional, and amateur subtitling is not its use in language learning (Ameri & Ghodrati, carefully observed, and the terms are 2019), its application in the rendition of graphic interchangeably used. Initially, in the following codes (Mehdizadkhani & Khoshsaligheh, section, the international literature on non- 2019), its status quo for deaf viewers professional subtitling is briefly surveyed. (Shokoohmand & Khoshsaligheh, 2019), eye- Later, the main types of Persian subtitling are tracking its readability (Zahedi & introduced and discussed, and real-life Khoshsaligheh, 2019), its pedagogy (Rastegar examples are also presented. In the concluding Moghaddam & Khoshsaligheh, 2020), and its section, contextual considerations in reception through using multimodal understanding these types, as well as the transcription (Abdi & Khoshsaligheh, 2018). potentials for prospective types of subtitling, Unexpectedly, the history of subtitling in Iran are discussed. has been scarcely researched, and therefore its birth and development are reasonably 2. Theoretical Framework uncertain. According to a few sporadic magazine articles (Jalili, 2001; Shajarikohan, Non-professional subtitling can be considered 2011), the birth of Persian subtitling dates back an umbrella term under which a range of to the final years of the last century. Original subtitling practices by fans, amateurs, contents were made widely available on the activities, and students are produced. In this illegal Iranian markets and even legal ones sense, the number of publications on non- under the ambitious and bold title “Language professional subtitling has been on a steady rise Learning Material”. Indeed, films were over the last decade including journal articles, unofficially subtitled and distributed in the edited books, and encyclopedic entries (e.g., Dwyer, 2019; Orrego-Carmona & Lee, 2017b;

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Pérez-González, 2020). To achieve a more As far as translation is concerned, non- comprehensive understanding of non- professional subtitling strives to bring to the professional subtitling, some factors, as light the foreignness of the original content translation scholars argue (Antonini, Cirillo, through foreignization approaches, such as Rossato, & Torresi, 2017; Martínez- Gómez, retention and glossing (Dwyer, 2019; 2020; Orrego-Carmona & Lee, 2017a), are to Massidda, 2015; Massidda & Casarini, 2017; be taken into account: training, remuneration, Nornes, 1999). Therefore, non-professional recruitment, ethics, and standards of practice. translations are “closer to the original, wordier, Non-professional subtitlers, according to [and] more word-for-word” (Gambier, 2013, p. Orrego-Carmona and Lee (2017a, p. 4), “do not 54). The reason appears to be clear; such a receive and do not require monetary strategy will increase “the visibility of the remuneration for the activities they perform and mediator and the process of mediation” and can the translations they provide”. For Evans “increase awareness of the foreign culture and (2020), fan translation differs from non- encourage the viewer to engage with it on its professional translation, as in the former, the own terms” (Dwyer, 2019, p. 459). strong focus is on foreign content that is Nonetheless, Chinese fansubbing apparatus on important for a community of fans. Non- the contrary to those of the Western and Iranian professional translation is mainly concerned fansubbing seems to be target-orientated and with “pro-bono work for non-governmental promotes and applies domestication strategies organizations” like TED (p. 177). Lee (2018) (Chang, 2017; He, 2017) probably to serve as contends that non-professional subtitling has “a means to best entertain Chinese audiences” developed as a social outcome of fansubbing. (Lee, 2018, p. 573). Failure or defiance to comply with commercial Fansubbers as a category of non-professional subtitling standards is the prime feature subtitlers work on various motivations associated with this phenomenon. (Cemerin & Toth, 2017; Duraner, Tunali, & Nevertheless, recent studies (Jiménez-Crespo, Koçak, 2017; Luczaj & Holy-Luczaj, 2017): 2017; Orrego-Carmona, 2019) claim otherwise, altruistic or non-altruistic. They may simply stating that non-professional subtitlers do not wish to help others access their favorite foreign tend to neglect or refuse mainstream subtitling program in a language they understand, or they conventions. This very contrast between the just do it as a recreational activity, or to improve scholars in this regard is the ultimate purpose of their command of the foreign language. Others writing this article to emphasize that first, the are involved to be recognized as an essential concept of non-professional subtitling is agent in their own social circles. On occasions, culture-specific and context-dependent and these subtitlers are pushed into this activity due does not necessarily refer to the same practice to activist reasons. These subtitles—known as in every society. More importantly, a relatively Guerrilla subtitles—“are produced by diverse set of practices in the same context are individuals or collectives highly engaged in liberally and collectively referred to as political causes” to skirt censorship or circulate professional subtitling, which has their own a unique narrative which can “counter-argue differences. At the same time, they share certain the truth reported by the powerful mass media” similarities and consequently deserve their own (Díaz Cintas, 2018, p. 134). name and definition for the sake of clarity. Non-professional subtitling, especially The abusive approach of non-professional fansubbing has raised many ethical and legal subtitling, in a general sense, at times includes issues as it has violated and challenged the experimenting with the original content screen media copyright laws by translating and through “compositional parameters such as subtitling unauthorized contents (Dwyer, 2017; number, layout, and positioning of subtitles”, Massidda, 2015; Pérez-González, 2014). together with “uses of colors, typefaces, Despite this, Pérez-González (2020) maintains typography” (Pérez-González, 2020, p. 175), that the works of fansubbers “are now more not to mention “novel uses of notes and glosses widely tolerated and, in some cases, actively superimposed on visuals to provide explanatory promoted by distributors and broadcasters” (p. comments” to assist the viewers’ understating 176). In terms of Iran, Iranian legal and illegal of the unfamiliar content (Guillot, 2019, p. 37). commercial video-sharing websites heavily

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rely on non-professional subtitlers due to the Considering the Iranian context, while entry to lack of any professional subtitling, which has other professions, such as engineering, resulted from the lack of any solid training and medicine, and law, is strictly regulated, the tradition in this area, followed from a translation industry is barely controlled (Kafi, historically dubbing prevalence. Khoshsaligheh, & Hashemi, 2018). Concerning the AVT markets, particularly dubbing, 3. Subtitling in Iran traditionally, translators have not been trained 3.1. Regular Subtitling in AVT for the absence of formal training. Therefore, most dubbing translators have been 3.1.1. Quasi-Professional Subtitling selected among those who have had translating experience in written translation, especially Before introducing this category, a brief literary translation. Translating for Persian mention of the concept of professionalism is of dubbing is less technical and complicated than importance. On the one hand, if we take the subtitling as the translators are not required to term profession as any occupation by which an observe a synchronized version of their individual can make a living, a pragmatic yet translation, as there is always another agent simplistic definition of a professional translator responsible for the adaptation (Khoshsaligheh would be anyone who earns their living by & Ameri, 2016). On the contrary, subtitling providing translation services (Jääskeläinen, demands more technical know-how, and the 2010). According to Weiss-Gal and Welbourne translators are, at times, required to deliver a (2008), a real profession involves a particular subtitling file, say .srt, created by a subtitling set of code of ethics, focused education program. Additionally, dubbing translators controlled by members of the profession, follow the regulations demanded by professional autonomy, possessing a strong professional translation, so that they can be knowledge base, control over certain kinds of promoted to the official translator status, and to work, public respect for the profession, an be hired for the national television channels, influential professional association, and respect they need to pass some exams. When it comes and payment which reflect professional to subtitling, the situation is complicated prestige. In this sense, it is barely possible to compared to dubbing because subtitling assume to have professional subtitling in Iran or tradition, as alluded to earlier, began to form as many other countries, as is discussed below. a result of the emergence of unauthorized, The existing AVT literature tends to assess the uncontrolled, and underground activities in the quality of translations rather than its process late 1990s. (Bogucki, 2009; Pedersen, 2019). It appears There are still questions that call for careful that professional subtitlers are capable of considerations: Who is professional, and who is delivering a translation with high quality and official? Are there any professional and official are remarkably faster, perhaps because they are subtitlers in Iran? In consideration of the well aware of the standards of practice (e.g., criteria enumerated by Weiss-Gal and Orrego-Carmona, Dutka, & Szarkowska, Welbourne (2008), the most realistic and honest 2018). In terms of subtitling, several studies answer could be that there are currently no such as Ivarsson and Carroll (1998) and professional subtitlers in Iran. One reason is Karamitroglou (1998) as well as international that no code of ethics is available, and there is associations like the European Association of no recognition of the profession, let alone Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST) have public respect. Even subtitles on national worked towards the standardization of television are not without mistakes or problems subtitling practices. As a result, ESIST has with technical constraints. Another reason is the advocated a set of guidelines and codes for the evident absence of focused education, subtitling profession. Although subtitling controlled and guided by members of the companies, which provide services for profession. Besides, there is no professional language pairs other than English may have association, which represents the professional their own subtitling tradition, the guidelines prestige of the practitioners by ensuring the due could be used “to set some minimum standards respect and reasonable payment. In this sense, in the profession and to safeguard subtitlers’ it is barely possible to assume to be somewhere rights” (Díaz Cintas & Remael, 2007, p. 80). near-professional subtitling in Iran. The most

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reasonable answer to the above questions can guidelines of the said ministry (Khoshsaligheh, be that any official subtitler who could meet at Ameri, & Mehdizadkhani, 2018). Nevertheless, least the three professional translation criteria the authors’ observations suggest that subtitles can be entitled quasi-professional translator. made by the video-on-demand (VOD) service These criteria, discussed above, are service providers follow the state-advised fees, the professional codes of practice, and the appropriation/censorship considerations. issue of quality. The final criterion could be fulfilled through rigorous training or intensive Taking advantage of interlingual subtitling on courses provided by universities and academic Iranian national television (e.g., Sports Channel institutions in neighboring fields such as and Documentary Channel) is a great initiative translation studies—in the absence of (see Figures 1 & 2). However, it has been limited audiovisual translation pedagogy. Considering to non-fiction content so far. For instance, the the service fees, there is no set rate for subtitling service offered by a national subtitling, and the fee commonly differs on a documentary TV channel, otherwise known as case-by-case basis and from company to IRIB Mostanad, provides inter/intralingual company. Regarding the professional codes, subtitles to make the languages of ethnic groups AVT providers have their own conventions and and different dialects understandable to the regulations for the process of subtitling because audience. From the perspective of quality, these there is no Iranian subtitling association at this subtitles have some shortcomings in terms of time. However, these conventions cannot be reading speed, timing and duration, line length, tentatively accessed; further research should and incorrect use of hyphens in speaker examine these rules and compare them with identification. However, some norms of those of others followed internationally. It is commercial subtitling are adequately observed, also certain that the professional codes, if for example, segmentation synchronization, available, would be at best secondary to cultural punctuation, accuracy, and the use of block regulations of the Ministry of Culture and boxes for the sake of legibility. It is worth Islamic Guidance. In several studies in Iran, it noting that even professional translators can was found that the subtitles made by the online make errors or mistakes. Translation is a human subtitlers are of relatively poor quality as the activity, and no human activity can be entirely translators simply ignore commercial subtitling free of errors. Nevertheless, mistakes and errors conventions, such as rules relevant to temporal should not lead to norms, trends, and and spatial constraints (Ameri & Khoshsaligheh, regularities for other subtitlers. Consequently, 2019; Khoshsaligheh & Ameri, 2017b; the severity and frequency of errors should be Khoshsaligheh & Fazeli Haghpanah, 2016). taken into consideration when distinguishing Another research also evidences that online professional translators from quasi- subtitlers refuse to apply censorship and the professional or amateur ones.

Figure 1 Persian Subtitles of David Beckham’s Talks on Sports Channel

60 Subtitling in the Iranian Mediascape: Towards a Culture-Specific Typology

Figure 2 Persian Subtitles of Foreign Documentaries on Documentary Channel

The Iranian VOD services, emerging in the It is, however, envisioned that the rapid mid-2010s, have been offering both subtitled development of academic research, professional and dubbed foreign films and TV series, as well training, and increasing investment in the as Iranian fiction and non-fiction programs. As foreign multimedia content rendition would for quality, VOD services barley follow contribute to the professional development of commercial subtitling guidelines, like amateur the practice and establishment of the due social subtitling (discussed below). The main prestige of subtitling, which consequently difference between VOD subtitling services would conclude national professional and amateur subtitling is the state-requited associations and formation of regulations and “cultural gatekeeping”; VOD services are codes of ethics and conduct soon. legitimate, commercial companies and work under a license issued by the Iranian 3.1.2. Non-Professional Subtitling government. Therefore, their provided content 3.1.2.1. Amateur Subtitling has to be censored to conform to the regulations of the distribution of foreign cultural products Amateur subtitling is the most widespread (Mollanazar & Nasrollahi, 2017). A telling category of subtitling in Iran. Amateur example is the subtitled version of The subtitlers typically work for video sharing Irishman (2019) produced by one of the Iranian websites distributing pirated films and TV VOD services. Its subtitled file was shared on shows and are paid for the work they produce. Subscene, where Iranian users voiced their Indeed, amateur subtitling in Iran is the middle complaints and criticisms for the strict ground between, on the one hand, fansubtitling, censorship practiced on the translated film. which barely confines its work within the do’s and don’ts of mainstream subtitling standards, Given the basic requirements of a real and on the other hand, quasi-professional profession, the subtitles produced under official subtitling whose producers are financially licenses for the national television channels, compensated for their services. streaming services, and authorized companies are at best quasi-professional. This should be Amateur subtitlers are typically language emphasized that subtitling in dubbing countries students or fledgling subtitlers trained in other appears to be quasi-professional, mainly due to relevant disciplines, especially computer a strong dubbing tradition. Research, for sciences who seek a paid career (Ameri & example, has it subtitles made in dubbing Khoshsaligheh, 2019). Nevertheless, due to countries are wordier and denser than those of their limited yet growing knowledge in subtitling countries (Georgakopoulou, 2009; translation norms and standards and the Sokoli, 2009). Thus, countries may follow their absence of professional, nationally-devised own subtitling rules and conventions, quite conventions for Persian subtitling in terms of contrary to those of another country. Given that the technical aspects of the practice, their work the practice varies in different countries, it is does not enjoy high-quality standards for reasonable to understand the subtitling practice frequent translation-related and technical from the particular context it has originated. problems (Ameri & Khoshsaligheh, 2019).

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In the past, before the emergence of VOD amateur subtitling by Iranian viewers. The services, these subtitlers were hired by pirated results reveal that amateur subtitling, despite film sharing websites. The payments were having fairly low quality, is usually preferred unreasonably low, but amateur subtitlers had no overdubbing because it tends to be more choice but to accept to build up resumes and authentic and is faster to be produced. The same learn the practical aspects of the craft and hypothesis was also supported in two develop their language skills, not to mention to experiments (Ameri, 2020; Ameri & make a living out of it. When most video-piracy Khoshsaligheh, 2021) where amateur subtitling websites were taken down by the Iranian did not negatively affect the viewers’ reception, government in 2018 and 2019 for providing immersion, and understating of the program uncensored foreign content, the amateur when compared with professional subtitling. subtitlers have been recruited by the thriving VOD services. As observed by Ameri and 3.1.2.2. Fansubtitling Khoshsaligheh (2019), these subtitlers do not Fansubtitles are mission- and community- follow commercial subtitling norms. They are oriented. That is, the main motivation behind solitary workers whose collaboration is in the producing them is promoting a genre from a translation phase only, especially in the case of certain culture like the Korean or the Japanese. Netflix original TV shows where the whole Anime or video games are a perfect example episodes are released all at once. Although here. These subtitles are produced on a these subtitlers may be motivated by financial voluntarily basis, and no monetary rewards are rewards received from the websites, a web of sought by the fansubtitlers (Fazeli Haghpanah other motivations, including language learning & Khoshsaligheh, 2018; Khoshsaligheh & is at work. Ameri, 2017b). Good examples worth Reception studies also show that Iranian mentioning are subtitles produced by the viewers appear to be satisfied with amateur Iranian group of “The Simpsons” which aims to subtitles. Khoshsaligheh et al. (2019)’s study is familiarize the Iranian audiences with this the first attempt to explore the reception of classic American animated series (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Website of Fansubtitling Group Dedicated to the Simpsons Animated Series

The subtitles produced for foreign stand-up 4). These subtitles conform to some technical comedies by users of social networking standards of subtitling, but they are far from services such as Instagram and Telegram are professional standards in terms of translation other examples for fansubtitling in Iran. For quality, presentation rate, line length, and instance, Standupfa, as its name implies, segmentation. The source cultures involved in exclusively produces Persian subtitles for Persian fansubtitling include Anglophone, stand-up comedies, and shares them on their Japanese, South Korean, and Turkish in order Instagram page and Telegram channel (Figure of frequency.

62 Subtitling in the Iranian Mediascape: Towards a Culture-Specific Typology

Figure 4 Subtitle for Stand-Up Comedy: Chris Rock: “Nowadays We Pay for Things Which Used to Be Free”

3.1.2.3. Funsubtitling subtitles may also be used for criticism and to openly express opinions against the existing Like fundubbing (Chaume, 2012; Nord, policies, as Chaume (2020, p. 329) nicely Khoshsaligheh, & Ameri, 2015), funsubtitling mentions, “fansubbers ridicule politicians and involves fake verbal content in the subtitles of leaders by creating fake subtitles”. In the the original program, which is not difficult to following example (Figure 5) uploaded to distinguish from reality. Funsubtitling, created Aparat.com (the Iranian version of YouTube), by amateurs or a group of fans, is distributed a Korean music video by Bangtan Sonyeondan through computer-mediated technologies and was funsubtitled into Persian, and the subtitles aims to “offer false information with the had nothing to do with the original lyrics. ultimate objective of entertaining the viewer” Rather than rendering the original content, the (Díaz Cintas, 2018, p. 135). The humorous and funsubtitles in Persian reads “I am fed up with witty nature may not necessarily aim for the jealous teachers who do not allow us to nap entreating the audience as the use of parody in in the class”.

Figure 5 Funsubtitling in Persian on a Korean Music Video by Bangtan Sonyeondan

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Besides these, one political instance of fake or through English; yet, the English version was fun subtitles is worth mentioning here. During fake and had nothing to do with the original the coronavirus pandemic, many Persian speech. The viewers can see how Vladimir Telegram channels distributed and shared Putin is complaining about a conspiracy by (un)reliable information about this issue as an sinister and powerful American and European effort to support people facing problems. Much countries, which created coronavirus to put information was spread through translation, innocent people’s life in jeopardy. Despite that, especially original educational video clips the original version, which is in Russian and subtitled into Persian. Nevertheless, unreliable entirely unfamiliar to Iranians, is unrelated to and false information through fake subtitling the conspiracy of American and European was easily distrusted. A telling example is the countries as the speech was made by Putin in Persian subtitles of Vladimir Putin’s speech. 2016 to honor Victory Day (Table 1). The Russian clip was subtitled into Persian

Table 1 Fakesubes of Vladimir Putin’s Speech on Victory Day in 2016 Persian Translation (Back-translated into English) Original Speech (Back-translated into English) Today, I’m tired, I’m very tired of everything. Dear citizens of Russia, dear veterans, dear soldiers and sailors, dear sergeants and majors, warrant officers. You’ve been trying to reduce global population Comrades, officers, and admirals. growth. They’ve been doing this at the expense of With a triumph in which the joy of memory and innocent lives. sorrow on May 9 merged. Death or my homeland. Cheers Happy holiday great victory.

3.1.2.4. Activist Subtitling ridicule politicians and leaders by creating fake subtitles that either expose their hidden agenda Persian Activist subtitling is employed as a tool or simply make them sound ludicrous through to achieve socio-political goals. Thanks to the absurd utterances” (Chaume, 2020, p. 329). prevalence of digital media and the widespread Activist subtitling has also been present in the influence of social networks such as YouTube, Iranian context, especially in recent years by Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, and by far many anti-government protesters and pro- Telegram in Iran, individuals or groups with government groups. Despite being blocked in social or political agendas increasingly tend to Iran, Twitter has been the extensively used resort to subtitling to further their activities. platform for sharing videos on political and Subtitling is the most commonly used AVT social issues. To voice their protest across the mode for disseminating activist multimedia world, the activists need to translate their content on a nation-wide as well as global scale content into international languages, most often (Baker, 2019). Subtitling in this context serves English (Figure 6). The activist subtitlers, not only to raise objections to the existing social besides their hands-on activity in the translation state and power relations but also to trigger of the audiovisual content of their choice, tend social and political changes and call for other to recruit collaborations through open-calls people to attend political events (Díaz-Cintas, mostly for help in further dissemination of the 2019). As Chaume (2019) explains, subtitling contents as well as translation of the same activism includes “engagement, civic content into other languages besides English. empowerment, and dissent shown in Additionally, to make sure the content reaches audiovisual translated content” and these out to all walks of life, the posts are reposted on amateur subtitles are “produced by ordinary Telegram, the most popular social network in citizens on digital media platforms on the web” Iran. (p. 330). Elsewhere he indicates that “fansubbers

64 Subtitling in the Iranian Mediascape: Towards a Culture-Specific Typology

Figure 6 Two Examples of Activist Subtitling on Twitter

Similarly, pro-government activists also take 566). The subtitles for TED are created through advantage of subtitling. They, for example, AMARA which is a user-based subtitling translate video segments into Persian, which platform (Jiménez-Crespo, 2017). AMARA has confirm the state theories about specific the advantage of alarming the deviations from activities in Iran. Alternatively, they subtitle the subtitling standards (for example, the video segments into English to disseminate the recommended reading speed is 21 cps), helping religious or ideological doctrine on Shi’ism or the translator have better control over its work the foundations of the 1979 Islamic revolution. (Figure 7). Nevertheless, it depends on the No academic research to date has examined the translator and the reviewer to follow or ignore textual and technical strategies used in activist these norms. As far as the content of these subtitling in Persian. However, the authors’ works is concerned, they are non-fiction, as observations point to unconventional TED videos are influential talks by experts and placement, colors, sizes, and fonts of the texts. successful people. Interestingly, this non- professional subtitling tool has also been 3.1.2.5. Commission-Oriented Subtitling integrated into the translator training programs Another form of subtitling in Persian is of some Iranian universities, such as Allameh commission-oriented subtitling, which is Tabataba'i University and Ferdowsi University mainly produced for non-fiction content. Also of Mashhad, since the environment of non- called “crowdsubtitles”, these subtitles are professional translation may encourage “commissioned by platforms like TED” (Díaz students to be involved more in translation Cintas, 2018, p. 132). According to O’Hagan tasks. As to the quality of these subtitles, a (2020), TED translations are non-professional survey of the TED website suggests a variety of practices, which are carried out by a large quality in Persian subtitles. These subtitles number of volunteers. These activities “are appear to stick much to the original content, as supported by the use of cloud-based translation required by TED’s style guidelines. Therefore, platforms to provide lay translators with a user- a word-for-word rendering is likely to happen friendly translation environment” and even though another agent reviews them. translators are aided by “resources such as Because of a very faithful translation, subtitling glossaries” and they have “access to machine reading speeds are usually high, and viewers translation in some cases” (O’Hagan, 2020, p. may need to pause the program or play back

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some sequences to grasp the content TED, is 21 characters per second. More thoroughly. In TED subtitling guidelines, the importantly, the TED translators are simply subtitlers are required to keep as much meaning volunteer translators and are not paid for their as possible, and as mentioned above, the work, but they are credited with their name. maximum reading speed, as recommend by

Figure 7 Example of Commission-Oriented Subtitling in Persian for TED

3.2. Subtitling for the d/Deaf and Hard of quality is concerned. The reasons for this trend Hearing (SDH) are probably commissioners’ unawareness of the professional requirements, financial 3.2.1. Quasi-Professional SDH pressure, or lack of SDH experts. Subtitling for people with hearing loss is a In Iran, subtitles produced for the d/Deaf and professional act when the final product is hard of hearing (DHH) have a short and received effectively by the intended users somewhat limited history because at the time of (Neves, 2008). As Neves (2008) states, this completing this article (April 2020), there is process, in order to come to the desired result, still no strict law enforced by the government requires someone who has in-depth knowledge that would make SDH obligatory in practice of the needs of the intended users, a clear (Shokoohmand & Khoshsaligheh, 2019). understanding of the composition, textual Furthermore, since Iran belongs to a dubbing conventions of the audiovisual content tradition where professional subtitling has (redundancy, relevance, adequacy, cohesion, never been used on national television, SDH and coherence), and “the ability to capture both has never been part of the audiovisual media sense and sensitivity when making difficult landscape. However, in recent years, due to the choices” (p. 172). Given the requirements growing awareness about media accessibility mentioned above and the findings of the local rights, audiovisual products, particularly film research (e.g., Shokoohmand & Khoshsaligheh, and TV shows, have been slightly more 2019; 2020) on the status of SDH in Iran, the accessible to DHH viewers. Although the total current practitioners of SDH are not mostly number of audiovisual programs with SDH specialists in SDH. The current trend –where hardly represents 1% of the market in Iran, this subtitling is exclusively aimed for deaf percentage is increasing steadily with promising viewers– is the recruitment of producers of prospects. This percentage barely includes TV regular subtitles whose products are hardly programs. A national channel, IRIB TV2, has considered professional as far as subtitling

66 Subtitling in the Iranian Mediascape: Towards a Culture-Specific Typology

provided an accessibility service for DHH, television series, Brain Games, since last year. which is a pre-recorded news program. The This program has been dubbed in Persian, and service includes short texts appear on the right the subtitles are the word- or-word transcription side of the screen (Figure 8). Slow reading of the Persian dubbing. Despite having lingual speed and lexically and structurally simplified complexities that may hinder immediate sentences are the distinguishing features of understanding of the content, the subtitles have these captions. the merit of conformity to the SDH conventions such as speaker identification, sound description, IRIB Salamat (Health Channel) has been and emotion indication (see Figure 9). providing subtitles for an American science

Figure 8 Figure 9 Scrolling Texts Appearing on the Right Corner of SDH Provided By Quasi-Professional Subtitlers for a the Screen Persian Dubbed Version of an American Science Series

As far as SDH in the film industry is concerned, (Szarkowska, Krejtz, Pilipczuk, Dutka, & such accessibility-improving subtitles can be Kruger, 2016), the edited forms of the dialogues found in just a few theaters in a few big cities reveal the subtitler’s knowledge of users’ in Iran and are only available as closed-captions possible cognitive deficits. Apart from the on DVDs and during special open-captioned simplified dialogue list, the SDH includes screenings (Shokoohmand & Khoshsaligheh, sound effects and song lyrics, but not 2019). The open-captioned screenings are paralinguistic and speaker identifying usually provided at the request of film information (Shokoohmand & Khoshsaligheh, producers and non-governmental associations 2019). of the Deaf. For the growing demand for SDH in Iran, an The limited SDH provided for feature films has Iranian SDH scholar began to practice SDH in distinguishing features proving the subtitler’s 2020. This action is exclusively taken to control awareness of the unique needs of the intended SDH practices on VOD and DVD markets. This audience. A good example is the SDH produced accessibility service, being hired by one of the for an Iranian film, The Bodyguard (2016), Iranian VOD services, has been the only one in whose textual features show the consideration the country that applies a certain stylistic that DHH mostly have to process subtitles in a guideline, and uses the findings of local SDH language that they do not ‘speak’ and as a studies. Since a national subtitling guideline has result, they need subtitles whose reading been unavailable, the Netflix Timed Text Style difficulties have been resolved (Shokoohmand Guide (2019) has been used (Figure 10) and & Khoshsaligheh, 2020). Even though in domesticated in some cases to apply the intralingual subtitles, noticing deviations from findings of the survey study conducted by original dialogues causes distraction and may Shokoohmand (2019). Subtitling background negatively affect viewers’ comprehension music, for instance, was not mentioned in the

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guideline; however, it has been included in participants requested the description of the these subtitles (see Figure 11 [Music becomes background music. soft and sweet]) since the majority of the

Figure 10 Figure 11 Speaker Identification by Hyphens and Verbalized Description of Background Music Sound Effects

As can be seen, the SDH provided so far does produced at the request of Owj Arts and Media not entirely have the necessities of the Organization for feature films The Bodyguard professional practice of SDH. Even the SDH and Damascus Time are by no means similar in that has followed professional standards cannot terms of observing SDH conventions. Although be considered professional since they are not there are some open-captioned screenings and based on national codes of good practice for DVDs carrying the option of SDH, SDH is by SDH. no means a common practice in Iran. Therefore, the existent amateur SDH shows some 3.2.2. Non-Professional SDH excellent potential for new progress. 3.2.2.1. Amateur SDH 3.2.2.2. Fan-SDH Due to the Iranian commissioners’ lack of There has also been a gradual movement knowledge in SDH and possibly economic towards audience engagement in the provision constraints imposed by them, SDH producers of audiovisual access services for the viewers mostly have firsthand experience of subtitling with special needs. The SDH produced by the for DHH viewers. As a result of this, the fansubbers is idiosyncratic and creative, aiming subtitles do not always embody the very at the free distribution of audiovisual products essence of SDH, which is making visible all over the Internet (Figure 12). The SDH relevant auditory information (Neves, 2008). provided on popular social networks, in For instance, the SDH produced for the open- particular, Instagram, is a telling example for captioned screening of an Iranian feature film, this newly emerged trend in Iran, which seems Che (2014), apart from falling short of general to surpass official efforts in this regard soon. subtitling standards, does not contain SDH This service is provided for a wide range of specific features. Moreover, users of amateur audiovisual programs such as TV series, talk SDH are often faced with diverse formats of shows, current affairs programs, and feature subtitles that do not always manage to transfer films. and is offered by some private initiatives the audiovisual content successfully. This led by DHH, referred to as “participatory inconsistency of formats is evident not only accessibility” by Di Giovanni (2018). The among different products, but also throughout Persian Telegram channel Free from Silence, the same product (Shokoohmand & administrated by DHH users, has produced Khoshsaligheh, 2019), and among the subtitles inter/intralingual subtitles for feature films, produced at the request of the same company. documentaries, entertainment, and educational To illustrate the latter, the intralingual subtitles

68 Subtitling in the Iranian Mediascape: Towards a Culture-Specific Typology

videos since 2017. The subtitles available on making local audiovisual products accessible to the channel have very different formats and, in DHH viewers in recent years. For instance, some cases, failed to adhere to the basic some users of Aparat.com have been producing standards of subtitling (e.g., subtitle placement, intralingual subtitles for audiovisual products, color, and line length) (Figure 13). The especially popular TV programs in the last few mentioned initiative is also supported by years. hearing fans of SDH. These groups have been

Figure 12 Figure 13 Use of Asterisks (Instead of Musical Notes) in a Fan- Fan-SDH Provided for a Feature Film

SDH to Show Background Music is Playing

These subtitles are transcriptions of the the prevalence of SDH provision for feature dialogue list and by no means conform to SDH films and TV programs. The subtitles have high standards. Another example for fan-SDH is the presentation rates. However, they adhere to a free service offered by the Iranian fansubbing handful number of the SDH conventions, such group, Avanegaran, which is available on the as sound description, tone/mood description, group’s website, Instagram page, and Telegram and speaker identification; among others (see channel. The sole purpose of this group, as Figure 14).

mentioned on its homepage, is to contribute to

Figure 14 SDH Provided by Non-Professional Subtitlers For Segments of a Series (on the Left) and a Talk Show (on the Right)

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Besides, some Iranian singers have distributed (see Figure 15). The one big drawback with their music videos with captioned lyrics, and these subtitles is the high presentation rates that even have persuaded some Instagram users to do not allow the viewers to follow them post their own witty and entertaining video comfortably. clips with intralingual subtitles on Instagram

Figure 15 SDH Provided for a Music Video (on the Left) and a Short Comic Video Clip (on the Right)

It may be concluded that the SDH produced by incapable of fulfilling the growing demands for amateur subtitlers, despite having many varied AVT services. formats and many technical drawbacks, has had the benefit of covering a variety of popular Besides professionals, subtitling can be and genres that may far outweigh the poor quality nowadays is being produced by non-expert from DHH’s viewpoints. The merit of covering individuals and groups who have not been a wide range of genres, including entertainment trained or are involved with the practice programs, has been supported by a survey unprofessionally. In an attempt to explore and conducted by Shokoohmand (2019) in which categorize the existing subtitling practice in the entertainment and lifestyle programs were Iranian mediascape, the four criteria of the DHH’s favorite programs. service fee, quality, relevant training, and availability of ethical codes were considered. In 4. Discussion the light of these defining conditions, barely any audiovisual translator in Iran can be This study was an attempt to go over the status considered a professional subtitler; that is, a quo of Persian subtitling in Iran and clarify the subtitler who is hired—consequently paid distinctive differences of quasi-professional, reasonably—and has been trained to deliver amateur, and fansubtitling in Persian. Figure 16 audiovisual translation services in line with the shows an illustrative summary of the existing commercial subtitling standards. Given the variety of subtitling in Iran. Iranian context, it barely happens because AVT training is far from perfect, as it is taught very Persian subtitlers’ job visibility has changed a unsystematically (Khoshsaligheh & Ameri, lot over the past few years and there exist 2017a). The Iranian undergraduate translation relevant requirements for high-quality and training programs have mainly focused on professional subtitlers to meet viewers’ needs written text translation, and marginally involve and expectations (Díaz Cintas, 2018), a few modules on the translation of multimedia especially where the dubbing industry is content.

70 Subtitling in the Iranian Mediascape: Towards a Culture-Specific Typology

More importantly, Iran has never been a guidelines. Consequently, the subtitlers do not subtitling country. Accordingly, there is no necessarily conform to a certain guideline and solid subtitling tradition there and no attempts only render the original content according to have been made to devise Iran/Persian-specific their personal decisions.

Subtitling in Iran

Regular Subtitling SDH

Quasi-professional Non-professional Quasi-professional Non-professional Subtitiling Subtitling SDH SDH

Commision- Amateur Subtitiling Fansubtitiling Funsubtitiling Activist Subtitiling Amateur SDH Fan-SDH oriented Subtitiling

Anti-government Pro-government Subtitle Avtivim Subtitle Avtivim

Figure 16 Subtitling Typology in the Iranian Mediascape

In general, since none of the Iranian subtitling Valdeón, 2015). Using non-professional services meet all the four aforementioned translation platforms in the classroom may criteria, especially the lack of a national set of suggest that the distinctions between non- professional subtitling codes and guidelines, professional and professional subtitling would professional subtitling is virtually non-existent. be being blurred in the future (Orrego- However, not all subtitles could be called Carmona, 2013). amateur accordingly. Iranian VOD service providers, as well as national Television This research holds far-reaching implications channels, which produce relatively good for the accessibility service of SDH as a whole. quality subtitles and observe a set of ideological What was discussed here revealed that whether principles regulated by the Ministry of Culture due to negligence, lack of knowledge or and Islamic Guidance, retain quasi-professional financial constraints, most of the existing SDH subtitling services. Nevertheless, unauthorized does not meet the principle of ‘relevance’ for video-sharing websites and individuals who DHH users with their special needs, and only a produce subtitles without maintaining the minimal number of subtitles conform to ideological regulations, fall into the category of international SDH conventions. Given this amateur subtitling, which typically endures service is fledgling in the context of Iran, it is questionable quality in terms of translation and crucial to establish standardized context- technical issues. One of the cautions emerging specific guidelines to ensure the adequacy of from this categorization is that Iranian the service in Persian. To achieve this, SDH researchers, especially graduate students who scholars, target users, service providers, SDH do research on non-professional subtitling, practitioners, deaf associations could collaborate should attend to the difference between the two in formulating such guidelines. Local empirical varieties of subtitling. Moreover, comparing studies are also needed to study subjective and students’ subtitles with the existent non- objective data on SDH users’ experiences while professional subtitles could enhance the quality using quasi-professional and non-professional of the students’ translations and raise their subtitles, informing the national guideline on pragmatic awareness (Lakarnchua, 2017; SDH. Moreover, descriptive studies analyzing

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implemented strategies in actual subtitled practitioners, and to set service fees. Oversee programs are useful in providing SDH training is also crucial to pave the way for the practitioners with educational resources, which emergence of the sustainable profession of would help develop their critical thinking in the subtitling into Persian (see also Díaz Cintas & professional context. Remael, 2007, pp. 39-41). Facilitating the communication among the amateur and quasi- The other implication arises from fansubbers’ professional subtitlers could also be a actions and refers to the fact that in order to contributing factor since it helps create a satisfy the DHH audience, the decision on nation-wide virtual community, the same as audiovisual content needs to be made based on what the subtitlers benefit from in Finland their viewing preferences. To this end, as (Tuominen, 2015). advocated by Neves (2008), SDH trainees should have direct interaction with DHH people By way of conclusion, it is worth commenting to get insight into the expectations and needs. that although the present work tries to be National surveys are also crucial to generate exhaustive and comprehensive, it is evident that data on the audience profile and preferences. new forms of subtitling will emerge in the Since the reaction of DHH viewers is unknown future, and consequently, more research is of to the various types of SDH strategies, necessity to explore the subtitling landscape in reception studies could be used to this end. The Iran. accessibility service of SDH is in its infancy in Iran; however, there is an auspicious outlook References for the future development despite numerous looming challenges ahead. Since to date, no live Abdi, Z., & Khoshsaligheh, M. (2018). subtitling has been provided for live programs Applying multimodal transcription to on Iranian national television or live events like Persian subtitling. Studies about conferences and operas, the significance and Languages, 32, 21-38. applications of respeaking and live subtitling Ameri, S. (2020). An empirical study of (Romero Fresco, 2011) are likely to play amateur subtitling reception in Iran essential roles in the development and research (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). of this practice over the next years in Iran. Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran. Given the map of subtitling typology in the Ameri, S., & Ghodrati, M. (2019). Jayegah Iranian context, devising specific and mahsoolat sinamaie khareji dar yadgiri consistently agreed-upon guidelines and zaban englisi dar kharej kelas dar manuals for Persian subtitling is of paramount [Watching foreign audiovisual programs importance, which can serve to promote the and out-of-class language learning]. production of objective and consistent subtitles Journal of Language and Translation across the different platforms. As emphasized Studies, 52(2), 127-156. by Khoshsaligheh and Ameri (2017a), teaching Ameri, S., & Khoshsaligheh, M. (2019). Iranian and training future translators for the AVT amateur subtitling apparatus: A qualitative industry needs to be regularized and organized investigation. Mutatis Mutandis: Revista more rigorously. This is understandable that not Latinoamericana de Traducción, 12(2), all universities across Iran may be able to 431-451. provide AVT training and pedagogy; however, Ameri, S., & Khoshsaligheh, M. (2021). Insights seminars and workshops could be organized by into Iranian younger audiences of leading universities to fill the gap. Moreover, Persian amateur subtitling. Onomázein. intensive train-the-trainer programs should be doi:10.7764/onomazein.56.07 developed to enhance the teaching competencies Antonini, R., Cirillo, L., Rossato, L., & Torresi, of trainers. I. (2017). Introducing NPIT studies. In R. Finally, given the sheer necessity of Antonini, L. Cirillo, L. Rossato, & I. professional subtitling for the future of Iranian Torresi (Eds.), Non-professional mediascape, more research and practice are interpreting and translation: State of the needed to help establish professional art and future of an emerging field of associations and national guidelines, to control research (pp. 2–26). Amsterdam, and regulate the performance of new Netherlands: John Benjamins.

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