Translating Cultures: Multimodal Literacy in Representing Indonesian Culture in Netflix Series Of Street Food Asia

This paper examines the role of multimodal literacy in translation studies, focusing on how digital narratives bridge cultural gaps through the interplay of textual, visual, and auditory elements. Using Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s multimodal literacy theory as a foundation, the study analyses Netflix’s Street Food Asia (Episode Yogyakarta, Indonesia) to explore the challenges and strategies of preserving cultural authenticity in subtitles and narrative voice overs. The study emphasises the significance of multimodal coherence in translation through examining the ways in which various modes interact to communicate Indonesian cuisine and cultural identity to a worldwide audience. The results show that maintaining synchronisation across modes while striking a balance between linguistic accuracy and readability is essential in ensuring effective cultural translation. This study contributes to the understanding of cultural translation in audiovisual media and emphasizes the value of multimodal literacy in global storytelling.