Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics: Online-First Articles

Unveiling ideological shifts in news trans‑editing

A critical narrative analysis of English and Chinese narratives on the 2014 Hong Kong protests

ORCID logo | Beijing Foreign Studies University | Hangzhou Dianzi University
| Beijing Foreign Studies University

This article expands on previous research on news trans-editing by examining the relationship between ideology and language. Using a conceptual framework that combines critical discourse analysis with narrative analysis, the study analyses a corpus of trans-edited news articles on the 2014 Hong Kong protests. These articles were collected from Reference News, along with their source texts from various English-language international media. Narrative analysis was conducted using NVivo computer-assisted tools, including cluster analysis, word frequency and matrix coding. The findings reveal significant shifts in the narratives between the original and trans-edited versions, indicating that the trans-editors recontextualised the news narratives by determining the narrators, retroversions and frequency of the narrative texts. These results suggest that news trans-editing is not a neutral process, but is rather influenced by the ideological stance of the news outlet.

Keywords: critical narrative analysis, critical discourse analysis, news narrative, Hong Kong protests, Reference News , ideological shift
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework
  • 3.A case study of English and Chinese narratives on the 2014 Hong Kong protests
    • 3.1Data and methods
      • 3.1.1Data
      • 3.1.2Methods
    • 3.2Findings
      • 3.2.1Narrators of news narratives
      • 3.2.2External retroversions
      • 3.2.3Frequency of internal retroversions
    • 3.3Summary
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
  • Appendix: News articles
Published online: 26 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.22114.pin
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Appendix: News articles

Chiu, Joanna
2014 “Hong Kong Protesters Try to Win over Tourists.” Associated Press, October 2, 2014. [URL]
Harris, Peter
2014 “Putting Hong Kong in Historical Context.” The Diplomat, October 11, 2014. [URL]
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2014 “Hong Kong’s Protests Don’t Impress Mainland Chinese Visitors.” Quartz, October 2, 2014. [URL]
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2014 “A Turning Point in the Fight for Hong Kong.” Foreign Policy, September 28, 2014. [URL]
Nian, Yifeng
2014a 内地游客在香港冷对“占中”[Mainland tourists indifferent to “Occupy Central” in Hong Kong]. Reference News, October 3, 2014.Google Scholar
2014b 美试图通过香港“引爆”中国 [US tries to “detonate” China through Hong Kong]. Reference News, October 7, 2014.Google Scholar
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2014 “Business Groups, John Tsang Urge End to Protests, Citing Harm to Economy.” South China Morning Post, October 4, 2014. [URL]
Pomfret, James, and Clare Baldwin
2014 “Hong Kong Leader Indicates Possible Concession ahead of Talks.” Reuters, October 21, 2014. [URL]
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2014 谈香港问题不能脱离历史背景 [Hong Kong issue cannot be separated from the historical background]. Reference News, October 14, 2014.Google Scholar
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2014a “占中”破坏香港稳定不得民心 [Unpopular “Occupy Central” destroys Hong Kong’s stability]. Reference News, September 30, 2014.Google Scholar
2014b 香港民众反对“占中”声浪高涨 [Hong Kong residents strongly oppose “Occupy Central”]. Reference News, October 5, 2014.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yan
2014 香港社会对“占中”耐心快耗尽 [Hong Kong society’s patience for “Occupying Central” is running out]. Reference News, October 23, 2014.Google Scholar