Translating AV Health Communication The Three Amigos and beyond

1. Translating AV Health CommunicationThe Three Amigos and beyond

2. AV Translation • 1. Film translation : from talkies (1930s) onward • - dubbing/synchronization (Chaume/Spain; Gambier/Finland) • - subtitling (Diaz-Cintas/UK) • - oral translation/ Japan (1940s/50s: Nornes/USA) and Soviet Union/East Bloc • 2. Documentaries , TV, Interviews, Cartoons: • - voice-over (York/Canada) • 3. Accessibility: Blind and Hard-of-hearing • - audiodescription (Benecke/Germany) • - close captioning Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

3. Work pending… • - Company videos: International firms such as McDonald’s, IBM, Siemens • - Promotional Videos: • - Music Videos: • - Fansubbing: • - Health Communications: Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

4. Studying ‘international’ PSAs • Public Service Announcements: • - on health issues – cancer risks, SARS, West Nile virus • - behavioural issues – smoking, drinking and driving, compulsive gambling, unprotected sex • - issued by governments, or • - NGOs and other private sector interests • History: • - first used as war propaganda in WWII • - also by certain religious groups over 20th C USA • Purpose: • - to raise public awareness • - change people`s attitudes and behaviour Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

5. PSAs in the media • Close ties to the media – often radio and television – but also public information noticeboards, screens at bus stops, tram stops, in public transport stations; • - the media disseminates (not without risk), • - thereby also fulfilling requirements for “broadcasting in the public interest”, i.e. Canadian Broadcasting Act: Para 3. states: • the programming provided by the Canadian broadcasting system should […] • (iii) include educational and community programs […] Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

6. PSAs as Health and Risk Communication • PSAs are part of larger ”Health and Risk Communication” • Communications approaches: • - identifying the issues • - planning how to deal with them • - taking action • - monitoring results • - managing external (often media) relations. • Most important: defining the audience and communicating WITH rather than AT them. (Bennett et al., 1999) Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

7. Challenges/Solutions • - often a paternalistic tone where those who ‘know’ disseminate the right message for the masses; • - masses regarded as ‘ apathetic or ignorant, resistant to change, “hard to reach” (Camacho, et al. 2005). • - Such attitudes/perceptions reproduce and reinforce social inequities… • - Can be mitigated through ‘communities direct involvement in mutual exchange of information” (Camacho et al. 2005) – i.e. local focus (localization?), collaborative community efforts, etc. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

8. Communicating WITH people and not AT them • reach people on an emotional level as well as a rational level • relate to people’s social or ‘life’ contexts • tailor communications for effective, specific messages rather than generic messages (Diane Berry, 2004, 74) Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

9. The Three Amigos as Health Communication • - the issue: promote condom use worldwide to curtail the spread of HIV AIDS; i.e. raise awareness, change attitudes and behaviours in an area that “has been plagued by silence … and is a huge communication problem” (Kharas 2007) • - the plan: create and disseminate a series of 15, 30 or 60 second spots, using animation and humour – for broadcast on TV, in schools, public transport, hospitals, barracks, etc. • - the action: joint project between an international team: South African designer, a Canadian producer and Indian animators; and hundreds of amateur translators and voice-over speakers in Ottawa. Massive distribution from December 1, 2003. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

10. The Three Amigos • - the audience: 15-24 year-olds (worldwide), some of the most endangered in regard to HIV Aids infection; • - communication strategy : to communicate WITH young people on very touchy, culturally complicated, and deadly topic: • Animation • Humour • Repetition • Translation (for worldwide distribution) • See CD Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

11. Humour in Three Amigos • - sexual allusions and innuendo • - wordplay that references local slang and implies complicity • - situational humour: involves wordplay and innuendo • - self-deprecation: carried by language, comments, remarks, etc. • - gender???? Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

12. Theoretical Bases • Recap: to help the world’s disenfranchized, to address a major health crisis: • - use children’s animation • - thereby escape real-life images • - and real censorship • - cartoons are more universal • - these messages can travel • Use abstractions to address the ‘universal,’ the ‘non-national,’ and simply adapt linguistically to specific locales. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

13. Questions: • Are standardized images as strong as the details of language??? • Check the translations: • 1. Three Amigos: German/other • 2. Buzz and Bite: English – and others? (cf. 15 dialects from Mozambique) • 3. No Excuses: English – and others? • http://www.noexcusescampaign.org/ • 4. Other ‘public health’ text: Our Bodies, Ourselves Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

14. Three Amigos: Translating Humour and Wordplay • Anyone can get burnt. • Jeder kann sich verbrennen; Tout le monde peut se faire brûler. • Better keep on trucking. Don`t get too friendly with the locals. • Lass uns weiterfahren. Il vaut mieux continuer la route. • No condom. No blast off. Untranslated in German and French. • You just can`t score without a condom. • Kein Kondom, kein Treffer; Sans capote vous ne pouvez pas marquer le but. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

15. Humour 2 • Dynamite comes in small packages. Don`t play with fire. • Je kleinerdestogemeiner; Le bon vin vientdans les petites bouteilles • It`s a jungle out there. • Da draussenisteswieimDschungel. C’est la jungle. • Get lucky. Watch me blow. Don`t blow it. Untranslated in German and French. • Aren`t we supposed to rise to the occasion? I can`t get it up! Untranslated in German and French. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

16. Translation Problems: Three Amigos • - often wan, un-energetic text • - humourless, dry language • - very little wordplay retained. • - 3/8 not-translated at all. • WHY? • - lack of funding (promoting abstinence over technical prevention) – no one source text/culture promotion; • - translators are amateurs and volunteers; • - sexual terms, topics, innuendo; • - wordplay! Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

17. No Excuses: to prevent domestic violence • Another type of discourse: • Black humour; • Focus on situations, not linguistic finesse; • Different, but clearly trans-national, audience? • Again: universal, trans-national communication where the source text is tailored (?) for translation, with translation in mind. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer