News Media Translation

247 Pages·2021·1.959 MB·English

by  Federico Zanettin

News Media Translation
As digital convergence marks the transition from print to screen culture,
translationplaysanincreasinglyimportantroleintheproductionanddissem-
ination of the news. The translation of information in the news media is a
pervasivesetofpracticesthataffectsthedailyconsumptionofthenewsanda
topicofrelevancetoscholarsinseveralareasofthehumanitiesandthesocial
sciences. This book provides a wide-ranging and accessible introduction to
research in news media translation practices, products, and processes, illus-
trating and discussing historical, theoretical, and descriptive perspectives.
Inter-andmultidisciplinaryresearchspansfieldssuchastranslationstudies,
linguistics, journalism, and media studies and includes approaches from
critical discourse analysis and narrative theory to systemic functional
linguisticsandcorpuslinguistics.Thebookalsooffersfirsthandanalysesof
news texts in English and Italian, approaching news translation from an
ethnomethodologicalperspective.
federico zanettin is Associate Professor of English Language and
TranslationatUniversityofPerugia Hisresearchinterestsincludecorpus-based
translationstudies,andthestudyofthetranslationofgraphicnarratives.Hehas
publishedextensivelyinpeer-reviewedjournals,istheauthorofTranslation-
DrivenCorpora(2012)andtheeditorofComicsinTranslation(2008).

News Media Translation
Federico Zanettin
UniversityofPerugia
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108470704
DOI:10.1017/9781108568364
©FedericoZanettin2021
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noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2021
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Zanettin,Federico,author.
Title:Newsmediatranslation/FedericoZanettin.
Description:Cambridge;NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2021.|Includes
bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2021019849(print)|LCCN2021019850(ebook)|ISBN
9781108470704(hardback)|ISBN9781108456401(paperback)|ISBN
9781108568364(epub)
Subjects:LCSH:Journalism– Translating.|
Journalism– Translating –Casestudies.|Translatingand
interpreting.|Massmediaandlanguage.|BISAC:LANGUAGEARTS&
DISCIPLINES/Linguistics/General
Classification:LCCPN4784.T72Z352021(print)|LCCPN4784.T72(ebook)|
DDC418/.0307 –dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021019849
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021019850
ISBN978-1-108-47070-4Hardback
ISBN978-1-108-45640-1Paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy
ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication
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accurateorappropriate.
Contents
List of Figures and Table pagevii
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
1 Putting News Media Translation into Perspective 8
1.1 Introduction 8
1.2 GeographyandHistoryofTranslation 9
1.2.1 MetaphorsofTranslation 10
1.2.2 TranslationbeforeTranslation 11
1.2.3 ModernTranslation 16
1.2.4 TranslationandNation 20
1.3 TranslationintheTwentiethCentury 24
1.3.1 TranslationProper 24
1.3.2 TurnsofTranslationStudies 25
1.3.3 TheTranslationalTurn 31
1.3.4 EnglishinandoutofTranslation 34
1.4 TranslationandTechnology 35
1.41 TranslationandScreenCulture 36
1.42 TranslationandLocalization 39
2 Translation as News 43
2.1 Introduction 43
2.2 TranslationandtheNews 43
2.2.1 TheNews,TranslatedandPrinted 44
2.2.2 TranslationandNewsAgencies 47
2.2.3 TranslationandNew(s)Media 51
2.3 NewsGatheringandDissemination 55
2.3.1 TranslationandNewsGathering 56
2.3.2 TranslationandNewsDissemination 60
2.4 IssuesandConceptsinNewsMediaTranslationResearch 69
2.4.1 SourceText’s(In)Stability 71
2.4.2 Translation(In)Visibility 74
2.5 KeyTerms 76
2.5.1 Domestication 77
2.5.2 Transediting 81
2.5.3 Gatekeeping 83
2.5.4 Localization 84
v
vi Contents
3 Approaches toNews Media Translation 86
3.1 Introduction 86
3.2 Process-OrientedResearch 89
3.2.1 EthnographicApproaches 90
32.2 ProcessResearch 94
33 Product-OrientedResearch 96
331 CriticalDiscourseAnalysis 98
332 SystemicFunctionalLinguistics 99
333 NarrativesandFrames 101
3.3.4 Corpus-BasedStudies 103
3.4 Culture-OrientedResearch 105
3.5 OtherApproachesandMethods 107
3.6 CaseStudies 108
3.6.1 Spanish 109
3.6.2 Italian 111
3.6.3 Arabic 114
3.6.4 Russian 117
3.6.5 Chinese 120
3.6.6 Korean 126
3.6.7 OtherLanguages 128
4 Ethnomethodology andNewsMedia Translation 133
4.1 Introduction 133
4.2 Ethnomethodology 134
4.2.1 ConversationAnalysisandNewsMediaInterpreting 139
4.2.2 MembershipCategorizationAnalysis 148
4.3 MCAandtheNewsMedia 152
4.4 NewsMedia,Translation,andMCA 158
4.4.1 CaseStudy1:JournalistorWoman? 158
4.4.2 Categorization,Corpora,andTranslation 167
4.4.3 CaseStudy2:ThePalestinianManandtheIsraeliBulldozer 172
Conclusion 185
Appendix 188
References 198
Subject andName Index 233
Figures and Table
Figures
4.1 The Observer page 160
4.2 Internazionale 160
4.3 Translation and source text 165
Table
4.1 Source text and translation page 159
vii
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Enrico Caniglia, Patrick Leech, Chris Rundle, and
Dominic Stewart who, at various stages, read parts or all of the manuscript
and who provided valuable feedback. I also wish to thank Marco Ficarra for
drawingthe cover image.
viii
Introduction
Thebookaimstoofferanaccessibleintroductiontonewsmediatranslationas
an important area of translation studies, a relatively new discipline that has
witnessed an exponential growth since it first became established some fifty
years ago. While initial research dedicated to translation was produced by
scholarsfromthefieldsoflinguisticsandliterarystudies,astranslationstudies
begantoemergeasadisciplineinitsownright,itwasalsoinfluencedbyideas
andconceptualizationsfromother disciplinaryareas. Thescope oftranslation
studies hasincreasinglywidened toinclude notonly all types ofwrittentexts
but also audiovisual and multimedia products, as well as all types of
interpreted communication.
Translation in the news media was included in the remit of translation
researchonlyaroundthebeginningofthetwenty-firstcentury,anditwaseven
later that scholars in communication and journalism studies started to pay
attention to the pervading relevance of translation practices in the field.
News media translation went mostly unnoticed, not least because it obeys
norms and configures practices that are different from those traditionally
associated with translation, where there is by and large the expectation
ofalinear correspondencebetweenasourceandatargettext Theconceptof
“translation proper” held by the lay population and sometimes even unques
tioninglyadoptedbyscholarsischallengedbynewsmediatranslation–whose
practices and products have often been conceptualized as something different
from “translation” and that have, in fact, sometimes been referred to with
differentterms.Conversely,translationactivitieshavebeenlargelyoverlooked
bynewsproducersandhaveremainedinvisibletoreadersofnewspapers,who
are mostly unaware ofwhat goes on during the news translationprocess.
Thisvolumefocusesonnews mediatranslation asarange ofpracticesthat
playacentralroleinthewaynewsisproducedanddisseminatedinthecurrent
technological context. News media translation is an area that overlaps with
news or journalistic translation, but it also intersects other areas – such as
audiovisualtranslation(AVT)andresearchontranslationandpolitics,conflict,
and war. It addresses not only professional journalistic practices by news
workers and media institutions and conglomerates, but also translation by
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