Maori TV Delivers Maori News With English Titles

10 August 2005

Maori Television Delivers Maori News With English Sub-Titles

Maori Television has successfully launched an initiative to widen the channel’s Maori news and current affairs coverage and accessibility to all audiences.

TE KAEA – the channel’s flagship news programme – is being broadcast with English language sub-titles during its late edition at 11.00 PM daily.

Maori Television head of reo Kingi Ihaka says sub-titling is more than a simple process of translating the earlier news bulletin at 7.30 PM.

“Sub-titling is looking more at the contextual relevance of the dialogue, to give the non-Maori viewer an appreciation of what is being said on screen. Te reo Maori is a language that encourages the use of ‘images’. The sub-titler’s task is to understand those images and transfer them into everyday language,” he says.

The three-person sub-titling team comprises fluent writers and speakers of te reo Maori and English.

The process begins before 3.30 PM when the sub-titlers arrive at Maori Television and begin translating introductions to stories and scripts. In total, a half-hour news bulletin takes approximately five hours to completely sub-title.

Grammar, punctuation, spelling and attention to detail are critical, says Mr Ihaka: “One of the main challenges for the team is having to encourage the reporters to talk ‘simply’. This makes the sub-titlers’ job easier without having to contact the reporter later for clarification of an obscure Maori word or phrase,” he says.

Maori Television chief executive officer Jim Mather says: “The sub-titled edition of Te Kaea is an important component of Maori Television being an inclusive broadcaster. We can now offer every New Zealander access to the ‘Maori perspective’ on important news issues relevant to us all.”
“The sub-titling of our flagship news programme, Te Kaea, reinforces our commitment to ensuring that 100 per cent of our prime time programming is accessible to non-Maori speakers and those learning the language,” he adds.

TE KAEA broadcasts daily at 7.30 PM and is repeated with English language sub-titles at 11.00 PM.

ENDS

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