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Article published In:
FORUM
Vol. 15:1 (2017) ► pp.85–105

The ideological role of selective translation in reconfiguration of news frames

| Sheikhbahaee University
| Shahreza Branch, Islamic Azad University

Drawing on social and cognitive models of news frame theory and argumentative approach to political discourse analysis, we studied how a declaration made by an Iranian general about revoking the citizenship of Bahrain uprising movement’s leader was selectively translated and reframed in 7 English news websites. The findings revealed that the reframed texts, on the one hand, suppressed the values and circumstantial premises of the declaration, and on the other hand, reframed the text in such a way that portrayed Iran as an interventionist seeking sectarianism in Bahrain. This study indicated that what underwent shift were not just arbitrary words and phrases; rather, the whole frame was reconfigured according to the interests of the news websites. In this process, selective translations were merely used as incontrovertible proof to support the frame buttressed by the target news websites.

Keywords: selective translation, frame theory, manipulation, argumentative discourse analysis, ideology
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework
  • 3.Procedure
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1The original statement
    • 4.2The reframed texts
      • 4.2.1Selective appropriation
      • 4.2.2Overstatement
      • 4.2.3Labels
      • 4.2.4Temporal framing
      • 4.2.5Inclusion of temporary narrators
  • 5.Conclusion and discussion
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 4 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.15.1.05sha
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Valdeón, Roberto A.
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