The Role of Fansubbing in the Digital Age: Italian Fansubbers and their Audience

This article focuses on the latest developments of fansubbing, a phenomenon which occurs within the broader movement of non-professional translation, a wide range of activities in which communities of volunteers produce and share their translations on the web. Fansubbing, the activity of fans subtitling for other fans, has played a vital role in the audiovisual translation (AVT) landscape in the first two decades of the 21st century, challenging AVT practices, influencing its norms and contributing to the expansion of participatory culture. However, the digital age has brought about enormous changes in the mediascape which have affected fansubbing practices as well. The aim of this article is therefore to inve- stigate the new role of fansubbers in the digital age, focusing in particular on the dynamics established with their audience.