ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the growing interrelationship between media fandom and audiovisual translation (AVT) practices, focusing on fansubbing, and extending the discussion towards the less established fields of fandubbing and video game translation hacking. It explains the origins of fan AVT, exploring anime fandom in the US and beyond. The chapter provides the predominant ways in which fan AVT discourse tends to be framed today, interrogating notions of 'participatory culture' and 'prosumer' intervention before examining how fan AVT is proximately placed in relation to the fast-developing phenomenon of crowdsourced translation. It considers emergent trajectories, presenting a case study of atypical fansubbing through global TV site Viki, suggesting that this example requires many assumptions about fan AVT to be rethought. The ways in which Viki pushes and stretches definitions of fansubbing indicates an emergent trajectory in the field, as the blurring of commercial and community interests characteristic of much crowdsourcing becomes increasingly prevalent within media industry practices.
