Study Of Netizenized Translators Based On Observation And Investigation

The emergence of the Internet has changed the traditional translation pattern,with the open Web 2.0 enabling the public to participate in the information production and dissemination.Thus,netizenized translators have emerged.Previous studies have already paid attention to translation activities happening on the Internet,but the translators involved in those exercises have received little attention and have not yet been studied systematically.With netizenized translators as the focus of research,this study adopts the concepts from translation ethics and communications,uses the data collected from observation and questionnaires to discuss the meaning of netizenized translators,and explores their translation strategies and preferences for translation ethics which are different from those of traditional translators.By introducing the ethics highlighting open source and idea sharing and exploring the dissemination pattern of Web-mediated translation,this paper attempts to analyze the identity features of the participants in those translation activities and their behaviors in terms of selection and translation strategies,and then looks into their attitudes toward certain translation ethics further.Netizenized translators are those who translate and disseminate translations on the Internet.In addition to producing translations as an information producer,they also have the ability to disseminate translations.At the same time,they are consumers of the content.Therefore,they are the “unity of information producer and consumer”.Decentralization is the essence of this group.Netizenized translators can be divided into two categories: individual translators and group translators,who are mostly driven by their hobbies to finish the selection from a wide range of materials.While translating,they are freer,which means that they can change the original text drastically or ignore censorship to keep sensitive translations.Meanwhile,it can be seen from the translation strategies and interactions with readers that translators become visible when they conduct Web-mediated translation activities.In terms of their attitudes toward translation ethics,netizenized translators do not think highly of the ethics of fidelity and representation;they value the ethics of communication,and think interacting with readers is important;and they embody the ethics of open source and idea sharing.This study is part of translator studies.It proposes the new term of netizenized translators,combines observation and questionnaires to define the term,makes an endeavor to present the unique features of this group,and discusses their ethical preferences,which has rarely been studied.