Jan Buts, Ph.D., Trinity College, Dublin

Targeted Individuals: Product Placement and the Future of Translated Media

Today, most translation activity takes place online and is performed automatically for ephemeral use. Flawed but functional translation software is freely available and remarkably fast. Many web browsers and social media platforms now offer instant content translation, sometimes without explicitly asking the user whether this is required. Indeed, the user's language is known to various internet applications, which keep track of this information along with numerous other settings and preferences. A common effect of having one's data tracked is targeted advertising: we regularly receive commercial information about products we are likely to be interested in. This article argues that translation studies should proactively aim to understand the consequences of the merger of those two online phenomena: targeted advertising and instant translation. If text can instantly be altered according to a user's linguistic preferences, it can also instantly be altered according to a user's other preferences, be they aesthetic, commercial, or political. Widespread personalised product placement may become the norm, as may the complete commodification of linguistic artefacts in a capitalist system of global communication. This presentation discusses some technological, theoretical and ideological aspects of this ongoing evolution, and argues for an integrated approach to the study of culture, communication, and commerce.

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIrdOCtrzMrGNwATN7VmAtykOp3mj0_b0cc