THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
RESHAPING LANGUAGES IN THE MEDIA
'The Fourth Industrial Revolution – Reshaping Languages in the Media' is the overriding theme of 'Languages and the Media', which will be held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Berlin from 3rd – 5th October 2018. In its sessions and workshops, the conference will examine in detail the various developments, innovations and changes that are setting the framework for the future of the audiovisual media industry and the role of languages in it.
We are in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution, an age in which the physical, digital and biological worlds are increasingly interlinked by new technologies. This revolution is already having a profound impact on almost all industries and economies.
What will its effect be on the media? How will it transform the use of languages? How will technological innovation lead to change that is "empowering" and "human-centred"?
'Languages and the Media,' the 12th International Conference on Audiovisual Language Transfer in the Media, will examine the ways in which innovative technologies are changing the globalised provision of audiovisual media and the ways we consume it across and within languages. It will consider how audiovisual media is produced, accessed and made accessible to diverse international, national and regional user groups. And it will ask how, to increase their revenue, proliferating transnational distribution channels are able to target diverse multilingual populations with language and accessibility services that are both immediate and disparate.
With an increasing demand for both universal design and personalised user experience, as well as a growing need for trained language professionals, how will the rapidly evolving audiovisual media industry rise to the challenge of the 21st century? As providers of education and entertainment, such as universities, museums and theatres, seek to offer more for their sight and hearing impaired audiences and multilingual patrons, the emergence of new technologies and the breadth of available content are giving rise to increased demands for greater inclusion and accessibility. They are also spurring novel and often spontaneous crowd responses, quick to meet the needs of specific audiences and to exploit the interaction inherent in the new technologies. As machine-to-machine interfaces gain in importance, human and machine interplay within the audiovisual language industry is also set to become a critical factor. How will it affect work processes, training and research?
The need for collaboration between industry, practitioners, researchers and educators is greater than ever before. It is essential if we are to master the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution and understand the importance of the role that languages and accessibility will play in the coming years.
Share your experience or your best practice on how to thrive in today's dynamic mediascape and submit your proposal related to the main conference themes.
Proposals that do not fall under the themes but are related to current trends and issues within the sector will also be passed on to the reviewing committee.
You are invited to submit proposals for any of the following:
To hold a pre-conference workshop on October 3To give a presentation in one of the parallel sessions during the main conferenceTo suggest a topic for a panel discussion during the main conference
For details on this year's conference formats please refer to Formats
To submit your proposal, please use the online Form.
The deadline for receipt of all proposals is March 31, 2018.
Accepted papers by registered speakers will be included in the Conference Book of Abstracts
(ISBN: 978-3-941055-50-6).
Full details: http://www.languages-media.com/conference.php
Call for PapersSpecial Issue of The Translator and Interpreter Trainer (2028)Theme: (Re)Conceptualising User Agency in Audiovisual Translation Education.Editors: Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Lisi Liang, Hui Wang and Serenella Massidda. Topics may include:the (re)conceptualisation of “user agency” in the context of non-professional and/or fanbased AVT training;online users’ motivations for exerting agency in AI-powered AVT and its impact on the theory and practice of AVT training;online users’ creativity in specific domains of AVT, such as danmu subtitling, fansubbing/fandubbing, game localisation, access services, and voice synthesis technologies for media localisation and its impact on the theory and practice of AVT training;empirical studies focusing on the activation of user agency through verbal and/or nonverbal channels in online and offline AVT training, supported by robust research methods and with high potential for innovation in AVT pedagogy;the negotiation of agency between AI platform developers, users and educators in AVT training;the extent to which the exercise of user agency bridges or extends the boundaries between professional and non-professional, human and AI translation in AVT training;pedagogical, technological, and ethical implications of user agency for AVT training;the impact of AI-based AVT paradigm and user agency on the established translation training paradigm in AVTSubmission informationSubmission of proposals: 1 July 2026 (title and abstract of approx. 500 words, references included)Acceptance of submitted abstracts: 1 August 2026.Submission of full manuscripts: 1 February 2027 (up to 8,000 words, including references and notes).Acceptance of papers: October 2027Publication: Late Autumn/Winter 2028.More details: https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/reconceptualising-user-agency-in-audiovisual-translation-education/
Call for Papers:Symposium: Translating Conflict: Language, Power, and the City.Location: Utrecht University — Languages in the City Series.Date: 22–23 April 2027Topics: Political and institutional translation: invisibility, neutrality, strategic mistranslation, asymmetrical communication.Conflict, post-conflict, humanitarian settings: diplomacy, peace negotiations, legal processes, ethics and positionality of translators, reconciliation.Resistance and public space: translation as activism, urban linguistic landscapes, social-media wars of meaning.Limits and exclusions: untranslatability, silencing, exclusion.Technology: AI-assisted translation in high-stakes settings.Exile and migration: translation, memory, and cultural continuity.Key dates:Submission deadline: 30/06/2026Notification: ~30/09/2026Symposium: 22–23 April 2027More details: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7451657930900361216-SP6Q?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAADAHFiwBi8jC4KbsaPPxHxBkCAx_UoukeoQ
Call for PapersEvent: the 16th International Symposium on Bilingualism.Place and date: University of Saskatchewan, Canada, June 14-18, 2027. Thems and topics:Bi-multilingual speech and communicationCognitive, neuro- and psycholinguisticsChild and adolescent bi-multilingual developmentAdult bi-multilingual developmentEducation and pedagogy HJHeritage, immigrant, regional and other minority languagesIndigenous languagesTranslation and InterpretingSociolinguistics and Sociology of languageSpeech-language pathology; Health CommunicationAbstract submission deadline: 1 October 2026. More details: https://conferences.usask.ca/isb16/
Call for Abstracts This is a call for an edited volume on 'Translators at Work in Periodicals: Agency, Mediation, and Cultural Power'. Edited by Ivana Hostová and Eva SpišiakováSuggested topics:• periodicals as infrastructures of literary, cultural, and intellectual mediation• translators, editors, reviewers, and other mediators shaping periodical cultures• translators’ multiple roles, including editing, curating, annotating, and framing• distributed, relational, or contested agency in periodical cultures• translator agency, editorial strategy, and activism• translation in peripheral, semi-peripheral, or politically unstable ecologies• periodicals as spaces of cultural resistance, ideological struggle, or symbolic negotiation• paratextual framing, editorial positioning, and the politics of selection• material and medial conditions of translation, including format, layout, page space, seriality, and multimodality• circulation of minoritized, marginalized, or non-canonical literatures• periodicals and the transfer of theory, philosophy, science, or political ideas• translation in periodicals and the making of national, regional, or transnational cultures• microhistorical or biographical studies of translators and editors• actor-network, social-network, bibliographic, or database-driven approaches• methodological reflections on blending close reading with large-scale or digitally assisted analysisDeadline for abstracts: 31 December 2026Deadline for full chapters: 31 July 2028Expected publication: 2029Full info: https://ktr.ff.ukf.sk/en/research/call-for-abstracts-translators-at-work-in-periodicals-agency-mediation-and-cultural-power/
Call for Papers:Conference: Global North and Global South Perspectives on Literature, Linguistics, and Translation.Organised by the Research Centre for Irish Studies (RCIS).Date: 7-8 June 2026. Main themes: Literature;Irish Studies;Linguistics;Translation, Power and Knowledge Circulation. Submission deadline: 30 April 2026More info: https://old.bue.edu.eg/global-north-and-global-south-perspectives-on-literature-linguistics-and-translation-conference-7-8-june-2026/
