READING, IGNORING, OR NOT HAVING TO DEAL WITH SUBTITLES

READING, IGNORING, OR NOT HAVING TO DEAL WITH SUBTITLES

In much of the world a considerable amount of television is imported from some place where a different language is spoken. Thus, the program is either dubbed or subtitled in the local language. Dubbing allows one to hear one’s own language, even though it does not match the lips of the characters on the screen. However, reading subtitles, while simultaneously processing the visual content and ignoring the sound track in an unfamiliar language, involves a set of cognitive skills that requires some practice to do effectively. Belgian psychologist Gery d’Ydewalle and his colleagues (e.g., d’Ydewalle, Praet, Verfaillie, & Van Rensbergen, 1991) did a series of studies measuring eye movements as indicators of people’s relative attention to subtitles and visual content. They found that people look at subtitles in their own language and may find them distracting in cases where they know both the languages involved. Belgians are familiar with reading subtitles; most of their movies and much television is foreign and subtitled, sometimes bilin- gually in two subtitled parallel lines in French and Dutch (the country’s two languages).

Movies and TV shows with subtitles can even be used to learn a language. For example, the Italian newsmagazine L’Espresso promoted itself by giving away “MovieTalk” CD-ROMS of old Beverly Hills 90210 and Columbo episodes to use for English lessons. In addition to the original voicing, users had the option of pressing another button to hear a slower, less slurred precise voiceover (Stanley, 2000).

Subtitling, dubbing, and the original language can interact in some interesting ways in the mind of a multilingual viewer. For example, I remember once in Brazil seeing a Bergman film with lips moving in Swedish but dubbed in English and subtitled in Portuguese! On other occasions, I saw French Films subtitled in Portuguese; intermediate-level knowledge of both languages allowed me to pick up most of the story from simultaneously processing the French sound track and the Portuguese subtitles, although my mind was pretty exhausted after two hours!

The United States is unusual among nations in having virtually no subtitled television available Presumably because so much domestic

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programming, virtually all in English, is available, US audiences have never had to become used to reading subtitles. Subtitled foreign films are shown, but only as art films to highly restricted audiences. The conventional industry wisdom, accurate or not, is that American audiences will not watch foreign language subtitled films or television. This largely untested assumption may exclude much high-quality and potentially popular television from U.S. screens.

New Technologies Changes in Television. Changing technology is accelerating fundamental

structural changes in television and other media. The slow but sure decline in the audience percentage for network TV, which accounted for over 90% of the audience as recently as 1978, and proliferating cable channels and satellite technology are vastly increasing the number of offerings available. The psychological impact of all these choices is less clear; it is not obvious how receiving 100 or even 500 channels will change one’s TV viewing. VCRs have greatly increased audience control in program selection and timing, as well as introducing the option of at least partially avoiding commercials (Lindlof & Shatzer, 1990; Mares, 1998). Although the days of the mass audience are not over (top-rated network TV shows are still a very widely shared experience), the movement in the direction of more precisely targeted audiences is probably unstoppable.

Pay-per-view television is beginning to catch on, especially for major events like boxing matches, although growth has been slower that its proponents had hoped. High-definition television (HDTV) is on the horizon, promising a whole new level of digital technology for television, if it can pass the legislative and manufacturing hurdles. Machines like TiVo attach to the TV and VCR and can be programmed to record programs of interest to the viewer on whatever channel, although it sometimes runs into problems of space and difficulties in telling it exactly what to and what not to record.

Interactive TV projects allow viewers, for example, to press one button to see the original live feed and another to call up additional background information during newscasts or sports events. Pressing yet another button can bring up a close-up shot of an athlete during a ball game, whereas another can provide an instant replay. Although around in some form since the 1970s, interactive TV has not yet fully captured the public’s interest, or more to the point its willingness to pay for it. That will likely change with improved technology and decreasing costs, however.

The opportunities for connecting one’s computer, television, and music system together will change the face of mass communication, and further

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blur its distinctions from personal media and entertainment. For example, you will be able to order a movie over the Internet and have it played on your television at your convenience. The required trip to the video store to rent a video or DVD may seem like a thing of the past in a few years. Writeable CDs and DVDs will become cheaper and more usable.

Computer-mediated communication will be affecting video in new ways no one would have thought possible years ago. For example, editing devices may be installed that will “clean up” the language or content of movies you watch, although these are artistically controversial (Box 12.2).

BOX 12.2