The article offers open definitions of translation on the basis of insights into the role and function of translation in contemporary (media) worlds. The author argues that 'sameness' or 'symmetry' is incompatible with communication. Translation in the new media age becomes a socio-cultural activity that may vary according to socio-cultural parameters. It can never be a totally individual matter, nor can it be limited to strictly verbal communication. Media translation has revealed continuous interactions between verbal and non-verbal sign systems, as well as between orality and literacy. Differences between 'national languages' are therefore no longer the key difficulty of media communication. Moreover, in contemporary business and media life, the foreign origin of messages is often concealed and the label 'translation' can no longer be reserved for entire, autonomous texts but has to include all sorts of text fragments that my contain non-translated words, patterns and structures. This means that the classical descriptivist definition of translation is no longer satisfactory, since it sidelines an enormous quantity of texts that may not be called 'translation' while sitll fulfilling important cross-linguistic and cross-cultural functions in contemporary societies.