USER-GENERATED CONTENT AND ITS IMPACT ON WRITTEN TRANSLATION
Keywords:
User-generated content; written translation; Web 2.0; social media; digital translationAbstract
: The rapid growth of Web 2.0 technologies has led to an unprecedented increase in user-generated content (UGC), including blogs, social media posts, online reviews, forums, and multimedia platforms. This shift has significantly influenced the field of written translation by introducing new text types, communicative purposes, and linguistic challenges. Unlike traditional source texts, user-generated content is often informal, dynamic, and culturally embedded, requiring translators to adopt flexible strategies and heightened cultural awareness. This article examines the characteristics of user-generated content, its implications for written translation practices, and the challenges it poses in terms of quality, consistency, and speed. It also discusses how the rise of UGC has transformed the role of translators and highlights the skills required to effectively translate user-generated texts in contemporary digital environments.
References
Cronin, M. (2013). Translation in the digital age. Routledge.
O’Hagan, M. (2011). Community translation: Translation as a social activity and its possible consequences in the advent of Web 2.0 and beyond. Linguistica Antverpiensia, 10, 14–25.
Pym, A. (2011). What technology does to translating. Translation & Interpreting, 3(1), 1–10.
Jiménez-Crespo, M. A. (2017). Crowdsourcing and online collaborative translations. John Benjamins.