Autobahn subtitles
and ghost subtitles:
Can everyone handle current
and future reading speeds?
Jan Pedersen
Stockholm University
The speed at which subtitles need to be read have increased steadily for decades, and are now reaching speeds where some viewer groups may not be able to keep up – at least if they also want to look at the images, which is after all what audiovisual entertainment is all about. In some areas, maximum reading speeds have even been abolished, as producers aim for verbatim subtitles, which can be produced using AI.
This talk discusses whether current maximum speeds are being adhered to, or if the situation is going towards completely free speed for subtitles, like for the cars on the German Autobahn. I will also talk about subtitles with very low exposure times, which disappear before you get the chance to read them: the elusive “ghost subtitles”. The urgent question that needs to be answered is whether diverse groups of viewers can keep up with current and future reading speeds. Are we facing a future where only a viewer “élite” can hope to read the subtitles while also enjoying the visual images of audiovisual content? Or do we want a future where subtitles can be enjoyed by everybody?
Keywords: subtitles; reading speeds; reception studies; guidelines; inclusion
Associate Professor Jan Pedersen received his Ph.D. in 2007, with a dissertation entitled Scandinavian Subtitles. He is co-editor of Benjamins Translation Library (BTL) and Journal of Audiovisual Translation (JAT), which he co-founded. He is a frequent presenter at international conferences, and his publications include the 2011 monograph Subtitling Norms for Television, and a new monograph entitled Metaphors in Audiovisual Translation. He is the former Director and Chairman of The Institute of Interpreting and Translation Studies at Stockholm University, where he still teaches and researches audiovisual translation. He also worked as a television subtitler for many years, and has received the Danish subtitling award Teksterprisen.
