http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/jul/19/subtitling-risk-racially-offensive
Being originally from Birmingham I'm trying to imagine if I'd be offended if the BBC subtitled those with 'thick' brummie accents.
I'd be offended if the BBC subtitled those with 'thick' brummie accents.
Is there any other kind of Brummie?
Wait, so if I talk like a Jamaican, I become a Jamaican? Beer can!
I felt shock and unease, as if the iPlayer had accidentally thrown up a show made by the South African Broadcasting Corporation circa 1985.
WHAT. A. COCK.
I get annoyed when American TV subtitles British English speakers.
Cheeky gits.
I get annoyed when American TV subtitles English speakers.
FTFY
Its a rod broadcasters make for their own back. Its not often you hear strong regional accents on TV (and I mean properly strong, not just distinctive) and because people don't hear them often they find them difficult to understand. That would mean you'd have to subtitle people, but subtitling british people with british accents for a british audience comes across as offensive.
So rather than [i]appear[/i] offensive, broadcasters do something much more offensive, which is deny those people any voice at all.
Repeatedly I've heard commissioning editors refuse to screen someone because of their accent, even regional broadcasters. - BBC Scotland, for instance, won't feature someone they feel sounds too scottish regardless of whether a program is regional or network wide.
Pardon? 😉
They subtitle foreigners speaking English all the time on TV. Is this somehow only racist because it's Jamaicans?