The reception of Persian dubbing: a survey on preferences and perception of quality standards in Iran

ABSTRACT

Dubbing is Iran’s main modality for translating audiovisual content. There has been, however, relatively limited research on public recipients of dubbing in Iran. This article reports the results of a mixed-methods study that uses qualitative data to create a quantitative instrument to survey the reception of Persian dubbing among a selection of Iranian lay viewers (n = 477). In the qualitative phase, using focus group interviews (n = 5), a pool of items on dubbing reception is generated and used to design an original questionnaire. The quantitative survey results indicate that the reception of Persian dubbing could be manifested in six broad dimensions: technicality, agents, faithfulness, censorship, domestication and preferences. Most notably, technicality, including character synchrony and isochrony, is the highest-rated and most valued quality standard by participants. It is also revealed that dubbing reception does not vary significantly across gender, or with regard to different fields of study as a factor, except for two dimensions – technicality and domestication.

KEYWORDS:

• dubbing
• audiovisual translation
• reception
• quality standards
• lay viewers
• Iran

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Saeed Ameri is a PhD student in translation studies at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. He holds a BA in English translation from Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman and an MA in translation studies from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. His research interests are audiovisual translation.

Masood Khoshsaligheh is the program coordinator for the MA and PhD in translation studies at the Department of English Language and Literature, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. With varied publications in several sub-areas of translation studies, his research currently focuses on audiovisual translation in Iran. He is on the editorial board of a number of peer-reviewed journals, including SKASE Journal of Translation and Interpretation and International Journal of Society, Culture and Language.

Ali Khazaee Farid is an associate professor in translation studies at the Department of English Language and Literature at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. He teaches translation theory at master’s and PhD levels, and supervises theses in translation studies. He is the founder and chief editor of the 26-year-old Iranian journal Motarjem (The Translator).

ORCID

Saeed Ameri http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7706-0552

Masood Khoshsaligheh http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6508-1986

Notes

1 The authors did not include translation and language students in the study. This is because, based on our experiences in the context of Iran, language and translation students are mainly interested in watching original or subtitled films and TV series. The other point is that their linguistic consciousness can affect their responses and they can thus not be taken as lay viewers. Thus, the humanities group included students from majors such as geography, social sciences, history, management, accounting and so forth.