Article published In:
BabelVol. 63:1 (2017) ► pp.89–108
The labyrinth of ethics in journalistic translated discourse
Given that both translation ethics and journalistic translation are still two under-explored areas in translation research, this study sets out to discover the ethical model of Iranian translators’ performance in a climate of conflict. To achieve the objective, the researchers monitored and collected the translated journalistic texts concerning the Iranian nuclear negotiations published by a state-run news agency from three days before the Almaty I nuclear talks to three days after the Almaty II negotiations. The monitoring phase resulted in 20 pairs of STs and TTs. The comparative textual analysis indicated patterned and motivated ideological interference in translations which could be accounted for by resorting to teleological models of ethics. Theoretical analysis revealed conceptual overlap between ethics and ideology that could explain the reduction of ethics into ideology in the news agency.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Ethics and translation
- 3.Method
- 3.1Theoretical framework
- 3.2Data collection and analysis
- 4.Results of the comparative textual analysis
- 4.1Foregrounding
- 4.2Different lexicalization
- 4.3Understatement
- 4.4Shift of polarity
- 4.5Addition
- 4.6Deletion
- 4.7Replacement
- 5.Discussion and conclusion
- Notes
-
References
This article is currently available as a sample article.
References (58)
References
Arrojo, Rosemary. 1994. “Fidelity and Gendered Translation”. TTR : Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction 7 (2): 147–163. 

Ayyad, Ahmad, and Anthony Pym. 2012. “Translator Interventions in Middle-East Peace Initiatives. Detours in the Roadmap?” In Discourses of Translation: Festschrift in Honour of Christina Schäffner, ed. by Beverly Adab, Peter A. Schmitt and Gregory Shreve, 83–100. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Baker, Mona. 2010a. “Narratives of Terrorism and Security: ‘Accurate’ Translations, Suspicious Frames”. Critical Studies on Terrorism 3 (3): 347–364.
.
Baker, Mona. 2010b. “Reframing Conflict in Translation”. In Critical Readings in Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, 113–129. London: Routledge.
Baker, Mona. 2011. In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation 2nd ed. London: Routledge. 

Baker, Mona. 2006. Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account. London and New York: Routledge. 

Baker, Mona, and Andrew Chesterman. 2008. “Ethics of Renarration: Mona Baker is Interviewed by Andrew Chesterman”. Cultus: The Journal of Intercultural Mediation and Communication 1 (1): 10–33.
Baker, Mona, and Carol Maier. 2011. “Ethics in Interpreter & Translator Training”. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 5 (1): 1–14.
.
Bani, Sara. 2006. “An Analysis of Press Translation Process.” In Translation in Global News: Proceedings of the Conference Held at the University of Warwick, 23 June 2006, ed. by Kyle Conway and Susan Bassnett, 35–46. Coventry: University of Warwick Center for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies.
Bassnett, Susan. 2014. Translation Studies. Fourth ed. Abingdon: Routledge.
Berman, Antoine. 1985, 2004. “Translation and the Trials of Foreign”. In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. by Lawrence Venuti, 276–289. London: Routledge.
Bielsa, Esperança, and Susan Bassnett. 2009. Translation in Global News. London: Routledge.
Brownlie, Sibohan. 2009. “Descriptive vs. Committed Approaches”. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha. London: Routledge.
Chen, Yamei. 2009. “Quotation as a Key to The Investigation of Ideological Manipulation in News Trans-Editing in the Taiwanese Press”. TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction 22 (2): 203–238. 

Chesterman, Andrew. 1997. “Ethics of Translation”. In Translation as Intercultural Communication, ed. by Mary Snell-Hornby, Zuzana Jettmarová and Klaus Kaindl, 147–157. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 

Chesterman, Andrew. 2001. “Proposal for a Hieronymic Oath”. The Translator 7 (2): 139–154.
.
Drugan, Joanna, and Chris Megone. 2011. “Bringing Ethics into Translator Training”. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 5 (1): 183–211.
.
Farahzad, Farzaneh. 2012. “Translation Criticism: A Three-Dimensional Model Based on CDA”. Iranian Journal of Translation Studies 91: 27–44.
Floros, Georgios. 2011. “‘Ethics-less’ Theories and ‘Ethical’ Practices”. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 5 (1): 65–92.
.
Floros, Georgios. 2012. “News Translation and Translation Ethics In The Cypriot Context”. Meta: Translators’ Journal 57 (4): 924–942.
.
Halliday, Michael A. K., and Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen. 2004. An Introduction to Functional Grammar 3rd ed. London: Arnold.
Hatim, Basil, and Ian Mason. 1997. The Translator as Communicator. London: Routledge.
Hermans, Theo. 2009. “Translation, Ethics, Politics”. In Routledge Companion To Translation Studies, ed. by Jeremy Munday, 93–105. Abingdon: Routledge.
Inghilleri, Moira. 2008. “The Ethical Task of the Translator in the Geo-Political Arena”. Translation Studies 1 (2): 212–223.
.
Inghilleri, Moira. 2009. “Translators in War Zones: Ethics under Fire in Iraq”. In Globalization, Political Violence and Translation, ed. by Esperança Bielsa and Christopher W. Hughes, 207–221. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Inghilleri, Moira. 2010. “You Don’t Make War Without Knowing Why”. The Translator 16 (2): 175–196.
.
Inghilleri, Moira, and Carol Maier. 2009. “Ethics”. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha. London: Routledge.
Izadi, Foad, and Hakimeh Saghaye-Biria. 2007. “A Discourse Analysis of Elite American Newspaper Editorials: The Case of Iran’s Nuclear Program”. Journal of Communication Inquiry 31 (2): 140–165.
.
Kang, JiHae. 2007. “Recontextualization of News Discourse”. The Translator 13 (2): 219–242.
.
Kang, JiHae. 2009. “Institutional Translation”. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha, 141–145. London: Routledge.
Kbaroğlu, Mustafa. 2006. “Good for the Shah, Banned for the Mullahs: The West and Iran’s Quest for Nuclear Power”. The Middle East Journal 60 (2): 207–232. 

Kbaroğlu, Mustafa. 2007. “Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions from a Historical Perspective and the Attitude of the West.” Middle Eastern Studies 43 (2): 223–245.
.
Koosha, Mansoor, and Mohammad Reza Shams. 2005. “A Critical Study of News Discourse: Iran’s Nuclear Issue in the British Newspapers.” Iranian Journal of Applied Linguistics 8 (2): 107–142.
Koskinen, Kaisa. 2000. Beyond Ambivalence: Postmodernity and Ethics in Translation. Tampere: University of Tampere.
Kuo, SaiHua, and Mari Nakamura. 2005. “Translation or Transformation? A Case Study of Language and Ideology in the Taiwanese Press”. Discourse & Society 16 (3): 393–417.
.
Mossop, Brian. 1988. “Translating Institutions: A Missing Factor in Translation Theory”. TTR : Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction 1 (2): 65–71.
.
Mossop, Brian. 1990. “Translating Institutions and “Idiomatic” Translation”. Meta: Translators’ Journal 35 (2): 342–355.
.
Nord, Christiane. 2001. “Loyalty Revisited”. The Translator 7 (2): 185–202.
.
Nord, Christiane. 2002. “Manipulation and Loyalty in Functional Translation”. Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa 14 (2): 32–44.
.
Orengo, Alberto. 2005. “Localising News: Translation and the ‘Global-National’ Dichotomy”. Language and Intercultural Communication 5 (2): 168–187.
.
Pan, Li. 2014. “Investigating Institutional Practice in News Translation: An Empirical Study of a Chinese Agency Translating Discourse on China”. Perspectives 22 (4): 547–565.
.
Rasti, Alireza, and Rahman Sahragard. 2012. “Actor Analysis and Action Delegitimation of the Participants Involved in Iran’s Nuclear Power Contention: A Case Study of the Economist”. Discourse & Society 23 (6): 729–748.
.
Schäffner, Christina. 2007. “Politics and Translation”. In A Companion to Translation Studies, ed. by Piotr Kuhiwczak and Karin Littau. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 

Tsai, Claire. 2005. “Inside the Television Newsroom: An Insider’s View of International News Translation in Taiwan”. Language and Intercultural Communication 5 (2): 145–153.
.
Tsai, Claire. 2012. “Television News Translation in the Era of Market-Driven Journalism”. Meta: Translators’ Journal 57 (4): 1060–1080.
.
Tymoczko, Maria. 2009. “Translation, Ethics And Ideology in a Violent Globalizing World”. In Globalization, Political Violence and Translation, ed. by Esperança Bielsa and Christopher W. Hughes, 171–194. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Tymoczko, Maria. 2010. “Ideology and Position of the Translator: In What Sense Is a Translator ‘in Between’?” In Critical Readings in Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, 213–228. London: Routledge.
Valdeón, Roberto A. 2007. “Ideological Independence or Negative Mediation: BBC Mundo and CNN en Español’s (Translated) Reporting of Madrid’s Terrorist Attacks”. In Translating and Interpreting Conflict, ed. by Myriam Salama-Carr. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 

Valdeón, Roberto A. 2011. “Embedding Anglocentric Perceptions of the World: The Falklands-Malvinas Binomial in the News”. Meta: Translators’ Journal 56 (1): 63–80.
.
van Dijk, Teun A. 1988. News as Discourse. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
van Dijk, Teun A. 1995a. “Discourse Analysis as Ideology Analysis”. In Language and Peace, ed. by Christina Schäffner and Anita L. Wenden, 17–33. Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing.
van Dijk, Teun A. 1995b. “Discourse Semantics and Ideology”. Discourse & Society 6 (2): 243–289.
.
van Dijk, Teun A. 1998. “Opinions and Ideologies in the Press”. In Approaches to Media Discourse, ed. by Allan Bell and Peter Garrett, 21–63. Oxford: Blackwell.
van Dijk, Teun A. n.d. “Ideology and Discourse: A Multidisciplinary Introduction”. [[URL]] consulted on 15 December 2013. 
van Wyke, Ben. 2010. “Ethics and Translation”; In Handbook of Translation Studies, ed; by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, 111–115. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 

Vermeer, Hans J. 1989, 2004. “Skopos and Commission in Translational Action”. In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. by Lawrence Venuti, 227–238. London: Routledge.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Zanettin, Federico
2021.
News Media Translation,

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.