The Role of Translation in the Production of International Print News. Three Case Studies in the Language Direction Spanish to English

Abstract

Translation has become a key, albeit hidden factor in the success of international news as a marketable commodity and one that is not overtly recognised by journalists. However, despite the important socio-political role played by translation in the global circulation of news, general principles governing processes of translation in its production have received scant attention from both Media and Translation Studies researchers The core to this study is to explore the complex set of processes that occur in the translation of political news, and to discover what exactly happens at various points in regard to who translates, what is translated, where it is translated and by whom it is translated. A further goal is to ascertain the extent to which trained competent translators are involved, as opposed to linguistically competent journalists, or, if that is not the case, whether indeed the former should be involved in processes of news translation. From a translation perspective the study explores the practice of newswriters complying with common journalistic strategies such as simplification and reframing to suit the needs of their readership for the maintenance of dominant political or cultural ideologies. It also examines the extent to which disregard for, and removal from, original context, as well as over- or under-emphasis of particular terms or phrases actually happens in translated news texts in the Spanish-English context, and the effect that this may have at the point of reception by the new readership. By comparing three sub-corpora of journalistic source and target texts through critical discourse analysis, and by taking into account translation processes through ethnographic research in international news outlets, the ultimate goal is to identify the causes that can trigger textual manipulation. Using three case studies comprising political news events that were originally reported in Spanish at the source of the events, and which were subsequently reported in UK and US national newspapers, the study investigates the extent to which transformations occur through translation in the representation of political news events, how they might occur, who is involved in the process and what effect any transformations might have on readers.