ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on audiovisual translation as an act of communication which is necessarily mediated by such tools and consequently shaped by the particular characteristics that define each media form. It aims to help promote a greater awareness of mediality in audiovisual translation studies and demonstrates its rich potential as a productive angle of enquiry with which to proceed within this field. The chapter discusses Marshall McLuhan's influential work on media as environments and the ways in which these shape our experience of the world. The explanatory power of his philosophy of technology will be illustrated with a pertinent example drawn from Karen Littau's more recent work on media-induced transformations in reading, writing and translation practices. The chapter explains the shifting contours of the technological landscape in which audiovisual translation activity has been situated, examining the specific constraints and possibilities opened up by each new environment, from film and television to the networked digital technologies of the twenty-first century.
