Negotiation, power and ethics in online collaborative translation: translation of “COVID-19” by Wikipedia translator-editors

ABSTRACT

The online encyclopaedic translation of Wikipedia articles has garnered heightened scholarly interest as an inherently collaborative endeavour that has opened new avenues for exploring the ethical intricacies of self-organised negotiation processes and hierarchical power dynamics among online translator-editors. Nevertheless, the ethical terrain of the irreconcilable conflicts between individual translators with discordant voices and divergent motivations in online practices remains relatively uncharted. By investigating the translator-editors’ adopted cooperative behaviour as anchorage fraught with intersubjective conflicts and ethical defences, this article uses the collaborative translation of the Chinese-language Wikipedia ‘COVID-19’ article to explore what (dis)enables ethical cooperation in the digital space. Special attention is given to instances in which collaboration is ensnared by peril, thereby necessitating the imperative preservation of negotiations. The influence of Wikipedia’s environmental characteristics on translational activities is analysed with regard to the confluence of the disruptive and centrifugal social forces at play, which ultimately shape the negotiations and community maintenance of the online translation collaborations.

KEYWORDS:

• Online collaborative translation
• Wikipedia translation
• translator ethics
• ethics of cooperation
• trust

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Wikipedia’s talk page data are entirely accessible to the public. However, I omit Wikipedians’ chosen pseudonyms because directly quoting online participants’ accounts without anonymisation might raise ethical concerns of consent and privacy of digital data use, particularly regarding such a relatively sensitive topic of analysis as that in this study. To protect the analysed digital users as much as possible, I report Wikipedia profiles only when necessary, such as when a Wikipedian’s digital profile might explicitly affect negotiation dynamics.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National University of Singapore [HSSCR-P08].

Notes on contributors

Bei Hu

Bei Hu is an assistant professor of translation and interpreting studies in the Department of Chinese Studies at the National University of Singapore. Her research area revolves around reception research on translation and interpreting, focusing on ethical issues in high-stakes intercultural communication.