Hear Me Out – Embrace Subtitles and Turn Up the Volume on Your Viewing Experience
Subtitles have been around for over a century – although not as we currently know them. Back in 1903, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the first silent movie to use intertitles.
Intertitles in silent movies were the subtitles of their generation, adding on-screen captions to help the audience understand what was happening in the absence of dialogue.
Understandably, captions such as these were no longer relevant once sound films (colloquially known as the ‘talkies’) were introduced, starting with The Jazz Singer in 1927 – the first feature-length film to feature sound sequences – and rising to prominence in the 1930s.
However, with the dawn of the streaming era came a resurgence in the popularity of subtitles. In 2022, Netflix reported that 40% of global users always have subtitles on, and 80% use them at least once a month.
Subtitles are readily available on both terrestrial television and on streaming services like Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime.
Whilst the option to add subtitles is welcomed by many viewers, it is not always popular, including amongst film-makers and critics. In 2019, Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron lambasted a decision to subtitle his Spanish-language film Roma for Spanish audiences, calling the move ‘ignorant and offensive’.
In his 2023 article, Stop the subtitles: It’s a movie, not a book, journalist George Schroeder lamented that subtitles ‘detract from the little details that make [shows] great’, and urged viewers, ‘Respect the process. Don’t use subtitles unless absolutely necessary’.
Subtitles are obviously invaluable for accessibility purposes – for instance, in enabling deaf viewers and audiences with hearing loss to watch programmes without sign language.
But why are they so popular among hearing viewers?
One of the main reasons is that subtitles can help us comprehend what we are seeing.
Cast your mind back to classic films like It’s a Wonderful Life, Casablanca and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
From the early days of ‘talkies’ until the 1960s, it was customary for Hollywood actors and American broadcasters to speak in a Transatlantic or Mid-Atlantic accent, as adopted by actors such as Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Bette Davis.
Back on our side of the Atlantic, the preferred spoken accent was Received Pronunciation (RP), otherwise known as ‘the Queen’s English’, which heavily influenced the Transatlantic or Mid-Atlantic accent. The BBC adopted RP as their standard accent in 1922, and it was the prevalent accent until after the Second World War.
Now we have more diversity in films and television shows, which also brings a range of more authentically diverse accents. This can be difficult for non-native English speakers, or even to those who speak English as their first language, if an accent is particularly broad.
American viewers commented on their struggles when viewing Peaky Blinders, Derry Girls and Game of Thrones, with 55% of Americans lamenting ‘it is harder to hear dialogue in shows and movies than it used to be’ in a 2024 study by language learning platform Preply.
In the same study, 78% of respondents alluded to audio mixing issues, saying that ‘background music makes it hard to hear dialogue’. 44% also said, ‘the visuals of recent productions are not as well-lit as they used to be’, making it harder for viewers to follow the action. The dark and brooding The Batman film and Ozark TV series are prime examples of this trend. Subtitles can assist in all these situations. It could therefore be argued that rather than diluting a director’s vision, subtitles strengthen it.
Subtitles have enabled viewers for years to enjoy foreign language films and series, such as The Killing (Norwegian) and Squid Game (Korean), which were enjoyed by English-speaking audiences with the benefit of subtitles – rather than more costly dubbing, which would have also weakened the bond between these shows and their respective Nordic and South Korean settings.
In 2020, South Korean director Bong Joon Ho used his Golden Globe award acceptance speech as an opportunity to encourage audiences to embrace subtitled foreign language films, adding, ‘we use only one language: the cinema’.
Subtitles expand the range of videos that we can view, and this in turn helps to broaden our cultural awareness and understanding.
They are also situationally beneficial – for instance, in sound sensitive environments. Many parents will identify with watching the television on a low volume or with the sound completely muted, so as not to wake a sleeping child, and most people will recognise the desire not to disturb neighbours or another member of their household e.g. if they are sleeping, reading, working, or studying.
Furthermore, subtitles can allow people to watch content in public settings, even without headphones, and can help viewers (children and adults alike) who are learning to read and improve their language skills.
Preply observes that subtitles are ‘one of the effective methods to understand different accents or learn another language in a fun way’.
In an age when we are used to fast content, and captioned reels and videos on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and other social media channels, subtitles can assist in keeping audience members engaged with what they are viewing, and focused on the plot.
Recent studies (including Stagetext’s 2021 study) show that younger viewers prefer to watch content with subtitles on – 80% of viewers aged 18-25 used subtitles ‘all or part of the time’, compared to less than a quarter of those aged 56-75. This could be attributed to a crossover in viewing habits from devices to big screens.
Some children like subtitles as it feels like reading at the same time as watching, and assists if sounds cannot be heard very well – for example, if travelling in a car without headphones, or in another noisy environment.
Whilst screentime is often criticised, the preference of younger viewers to watch subtitled content is actually supported by organisations including the National Literacy Trust and World Literacy Foundation, who founded the Turn on the Subtitles (TOTS) campaign in 2021. The TOTS website references over 400 research studies that show a positive correlation between subtitled content and improved literacy in children, and the TOTS campaign is endorsed by celebrities including Jack Black and Stephen Fry.
Research has also proven that subtitles help viewers remember and retain the information that they have seen. Dr Melissa Baese Berk, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Chicago, states, ‘having subtitles on the screen can help a watcher better understand the content’ and ‘reinforce the auditory information’. This accords with the psychological Dual Coding Theory, which states that ‘information is better retained when it is presented in both visual and verbal formats’.
Furthermore, subtitles improve speech comprehension as audiences associate sounds with written words. They also make it easier to associate the words said in a scene with the person who is saying them (as audio description names the speaker).
Subtitles increase accessibility for neurodivergent viewers, too. Researcher and author Judith Garman noted that some people on the autistic spectrum can struggle with audio processing, but subtitles allow them to filter out different sounds and distinguish between what is and is not relevant. This reduces the possibility of audio overload.
Notwithstanding all the benefits, most would concede that subtitles can be distracting. Audience members can be so focused on reading the dialogue that they miss the action occurring elsewhere on the screen.
It can also be frustrating when subtitles are inaccurate – for instance, if dialogue is shortened in such a way that it does not accurately reflect the film-maker’s intentions, or if it is factually wrong. Additionally, the placement of subtitles can lead to important scenes being covered by text. This really highlights the importance of the size of subtitles – they need to be large enough to be easily read, but not so large that they overshadow the visuals on screen.
Subtitles can also encourage viewers to multitask, and not fully immerse themselves in the viewing experience – e.g. by reading a book or scrolling on their phones whilst watching a film or show.
All of these mean that viewers can miss visual elements or nuances to scenes that are important to a director’s vision.
Nevertheless, one could argue that the positives of subtitles outweigh the negatives and, whilst they continue to be an optional extra on viewing platforms, it is ultimately ‘viewer’s choice’.
Written by Michelle Peet
Michelle Peet is a parent, lawyer and aspiring writer.
She founded Cuddly Cactus Books in 2021, and published her first children’s book Molly and Moo last year, following a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2022. As well as writing for children, Michelle enjoys writing short stories and magazine articles. Some of Michelle’s favourite things (besides festivals) are pizza, Las Vegas, and Christmastime.
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