Chapter 10
Impact of power relations on news translation in China
A critical discourse analysis perspective
Global news transmission relies on language and particularly
on the services of translation. Decision making exists in every step of the
translation process, for instance, from the text selection to the discursive
expression, and from information transference to culture communication. This study
examines the translation practice of news in Cankao Xiaoxi
(Chinese: 参考消息), the most read Chinese daily run by the Chinese
government that collects various news or information from international media,
translates and reprints them in Chinese. This study outlines various powers that
underline text manipulation in this state news agency and explores the impact of
power relations on both the process and the product of news translation. Combining
an ethnographic approach with a critical discourse analysis of news translation,
this study investigates the institutional contexts and human agencies involved in
the news making process, which lead to the manipulation of the news production.
This study reveals that various powers determine how to shape the already shaped
news via translating and that network of power relations underlying news
translation in China is hierarchical. This hierarchy of power relations affords
both macro and micro-analytical perspectives on the realisation of manipulation in
news translation in China.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Background of this study
- Method and data collection
- Analysis
- Power relations in news translation
- Immediate power
- Direct power
- Indirect power
- Conclusion
-
Notes
-
References
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