Chapter 3 Research Methodology
3.2 Subjects
Two Chinese keywords, “口譯” (“interpretation” or “interpreter”) and “同傳”
(“simultaneous interpretation” or “conference interpreters”), were used to search on
Sine Weibo to find subjects. By searching “口譯”, 2140 users were found. By searching
“同傳”, 5882 users were found. They were then ranked in terms of fans numbers. For
the purpose of this study, users whose main jobs were not interpreters, such as
interpretation teachers and master of ceremonies, and who were not based in Mainland
China were excluded. Some interpreters with a lot of fans have not posted for a long
time. According to the 33rd China Statistical Report on Internet Development, a large
amount of users left Weibo since 2013, so it might be safe to suggest that these
interpreters stopped using Sina Weibo. Since they stopped managing their online images
on Sina Weibo, interpreters who had not posted for more than six months were not
included in the sample. To conduct analysis in a premise way, interpreters whose
working language pairs were not Chinese-English were not selected. According to the
abovementioned criteria, five interpreters with the most followers were chosen as
subjects, due to the limitation on time and resources. Each of them was assigned a letter
according to the chronological order in which their posts were analyzed.
The background information and working status of the five subjects are
summarized in Table 3.1 and 3.2 respectively.
Table 3.1 Background information of the subjects
Subject Age Gender Education
(Bachelor; Master) Location
Table 3.2 Working status of the subjects
Subject Total working days
Sina Weibo Fans
Number Other job Other active
social media
A 38,058 Lecturer Zhihu; Wechat
B 26,393 Translator; Wechat
group Wechat
Messages were sent to invite the five subjects to take interviews. Unexpectedly,
subject C replied that she did not brand herself on Sina Weibo and she refused to be
interviewed. Subject A and D also claimed that they do not intend to promote
themselves on social media. They loved interpretation, so they posted their ideas and
thoughts and shared things related to interpretation. Consequently, they attracted many
fans who also love interpretation on Sina Weibo. They were willing to share views on
such phenomenon. Subject B and D were too busy to spend 45 minutes on interviews,
so they briefly wrote their views and sent them to the researcher by email.
3.2.1 Adjustment
To invite more interpreters who adopted personal branding strategies on social media, the author turned to the thesis instructor and other interpreters in mainland China for help. Four interpreters who were thought to brand themselves successfully on social media, were recommended. Interestingly, only two of them claimed to do so: one branded himself on Zhihu (a question-and-answer social media where questions are asked, answered, edited and organized by the community of its users), the other on Linkedin (a business and employment-oriented social networking service, allowing members to create profiles and make connections to each other). They both agreed to be
interpreters’ personal branding strategies on one social media could be applied to others.
To better comprehend the context under which Mainland Chinese interpreters branded themselves, interpreters who did not brand themselves on social media were also invited to share their views on interpreters’ personal branding.
3.2.2 Background information and working status of the subjects
Six of the subjects were male and five were female. Two of the eleven subjects were under 30 and one was 40 years old. The remaining eight were between 31 to 39.
Two of the four subjects who built their personal brands on social media had master degrees (one was underway), while all the seven subjects who did not brand themselves had master degrees, one of which even had two master degrees, one in Beijing, the other in the USA. The four subjects who received their master degrees in China were based in the cities where they got master degrees while three of the four subjects who received their master degrees in the UK were based in Shanghai and the other one chose to work mainly in Guangzhou.
Subjects had worked as freelance interpreters for different years. Two were under five years, five were between five to nine years, and four were over nine years. Their total working days varied greatly due to different working years, from 90 days to 2175 days. Subject D did not give an exact number, but he reported that he worked more than 150 days annually since 2011. Considering the fact that he had worked as freelance interpreters for 12.5 years, it was estimated that his total working days may exceed 1500
Five subjects had in-house jobs before working as freelance interpreters. Subject A still had a day job, lecturer teaching interpretation in a renowned university in China.
Subject B, F, J, and L also worked as translators. Subject B managed an English learning Wechat Group and L taught English. Subject H had another identity, fashion Sina Weibo blogger.
In terms of social media usage, four subjects were also active on Zhihu, five on Moments of Wechat, one on Linkedin, and two of them had Wechat Official Accounts.
The background information and working status of subject F, G, H, I, J, K and L are summarized in Table 3.3 and 3.4 respectively.
Table 3.3 Background information of the subjects
Subject Age Gender Education
(Bachelor; Master) Location
Table 3.4 Working status of the subjects Subject Total working
days
Sina Weibo
Fans Number Other job Other active social media
F ca. 400 434 Translator Zhihu
G more than 1000 9,679 No Linkedin; Wechat
H ca 600 10,527 Fashion Sina
Weibo blogger Zhihu; Wechat
I 2175 941 No Zhihu
J ca. 800 818 Translator No
K ca. 1200 919 No Wechat
Eventually, four subjects, B, E, F, and G, who established personal brands on social media, were invited to talk about their strategies. Seven subjects, A, D, H, I, J, K, and L, were interviewed to reveal how they see interpreters’ personal branding. The interviews were conducted during April 11th to April 29th in 2017.