Apart together in extremis: an exploratory study of online social media discourse on the emergency shift to distance interpreting

Abstract

This paper reports on an exploratory study of online social media (OSM) discourse on the emergency shift to distance/remote interpreting practices that occurred due to the unprecedented social distancing measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper aims to highlight the challenges interpreters faced, and the new skills they had to acquire in the adaptation process, which was greatly facilitated by networking in the informal online communities