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Freelance subtitlers in a subtitle production network in the OTT industry in Thailand: a longitudinal study

Pidchamook, Wichaya (2022) Freelance subtitlers in a subtitle production network in the OTT industry in Thailand: a longitudinal study. PhD thesis, Dublin City University.

Abstract
The present study sets out to investigate a subtitle production network in the over-the-top (OTT) industry in Thailand through the perspective of freelance subtitlers. A qualitative longitudinal research design was adopted to gain insights into (1) the way the work practices of freelance subtitlers are influenced by both human and non-human actors in the network, (2) the evolution of the network, and (3) how the freelance subtitlers’ perception of quality is influenced by changes occurring in the network. Eleven subtitlers were interviewed every six months over a period of two years, contributing to over 60 hours of interview data. The data analysis was informed by selected concepts from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Law 1992, 2009; Latour 1996, 2005; Mol 2010), and complemented by the three-dimensional quality model proposed by Abdallah (2016, 2017). Reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2019a, 2020b) was used to generate themes and sub-themes which address the research questions and tell compelling stories about the actor-network. It was found that from July 2017 to September 2019, the subtitle production network, which was sustained by complex interrelationships between actors, underwent a number of changes. The changes affected the work practices of freelance subtitlers in a more negative than positive way, demonstrating their precarious position in an industry that has widely adopted the vendor model (Moorkens 2017). Moreover, as perceived by the research participants, under increasingly undesirable working conditions, it became more challenging to maintain a quality process and to produce quality subtitles. Finally, translation technology and tools, including machine translation, were found to be key non-human actors that catalyse the changes in the network under study.
Metadata
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Date of Award:February 2022
Refereed:No
Supervisor(s):Moorkens, Joss and Kenny, Dorothy
Uncontrolled Keywords:subtitle production network; freelance subtitlers; precarious work; three-dimensional quality model
Subjects:Business > Employee attitudes
Humanities > Translating and interpreting
Humanities > Culture
Social Sciences > Communication
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies
Research Initiatives and Centres > Centre for Translation and Textual Studies (CTTS)
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. View License
Funders:Division of Academic Administration, Thailand, Faculty of Liberal Arts at Thammasat University
ID Code:26484
Deposited On:15 Feb 2022 14:41 by Joss Moorkens . Last Modified 15 Feb 2022 14:41
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