Verbalizing visual characterizations of race in the audio description of Netflix

Abstract

This article examines the description of race in the audio description (AD) of Netflix through the lens of political correctness to determine any bias, whether intentional or not. It analyzes the wording of English AD incidents where characters are described in several series and films available on Netflix. Passing, Kipo, and Squid Game were selected because their cast and characters were diverse or consisted mainly of minorities. The findings showed that although Netflix aims to minimize bias in the AD provided on its platform, some subtle biases are still present; some of these may even be unintentional. When it comes to labels, no offensive terms were ever used; however, some efforts to avoid offensive language resulted in the descriptions being too ambiguous. The study concludes that since language cannot be separated from its pragmatics, the choice in wording can create a problematic area for the scriptwriter.