Backstage conditions and interpreter’s performance in live television interpreting: quality, visibility and exposure

摘要

Live television interpreting has increased in recent years and is commonly seen as one ofthe most difficult and stressing forms of interpreting. However, both the actual difficultyand stress involved highly depend on the physical and technical conditions the interpreterhas to face in every particular situation. The main goal of the present paper is to examinea corpus – which partly draws on the author’s professional experience in variousinternational events broadcast in the media – of digital video recordings of liveinterpretations from Spanish and international TV channels to discuss the backstageconditions of the interpreting assignments. Backstage conditions (a new conceptintroduced in this paper) are understood as a factor affecting quality according to twosalient variables: visibility and exposure. Since they will determine the quality standardsachievable in each particular case, and the quality of the interpreter’s performance willthus be negotiated and assessed accordingly, awareness of all actors involved in the processshall be raised with regard to their relevance. Further stages of the current project willexpand the corpus into a more comprehensive one that will eventually become STICor(Spanish Television Interpreting Corpus).