Online Eduatinment Videos - Recontextualizing and Reconceptualizing Expert Discourse in a Participatory Web-culture

The online world is becoming more and more edutainment, where learning, getting informed and entertained seem to be part of one and the same activity. As a result of this current fascination, people are drawn increasingly towards a new genre, i.e. free online 20-minute long lectures that borrow from film and storytelling techniques, that are offering an engaging series of speeches and even courses in many different scientific subjects. Though English as a lingua franca is still the dominant language of the internet, as a result of a growing new trend, namely crowdsourcing translation, knowledge dissemination is further enhanced and is now reaching further into many different cultures, allowing even the so-called minor languages to regain dignity and circulate, by engaging native speakers from different cultural backgrounds. This paper offers an overview on the phenomenon of online edutainment considering the role played by collaborative users who not only enjoy but also create and translate content. In addition, a case study focused on TED Talks allows a more in depth analysis of the new genre and the increasing need for subtitling scripts.