Article published in:
Fair MT: Towards ethical, sustainable Machine TranslationEdited by Joss Moorkens, Dorothy Kenny and Félix do Carmo
[Translation Spaces 9:1] 2020
► pp. 98–122
Machine translation in the news
A framing analysis of the written press
Lucas Nunes Vieira | University of Bristol
Machine translation (MT) is now firmly in the public eye. The media can reflect and influence the public
perception of MT and, by extension, of translation itself, but the news coverage of MT has to date remained largely unexplored.
This study draws on the news framing literature to present an analysis of how MT is described in the written press. Based on a
sample of 284 MT-focused newspaper articles, the news reporting on MT was found to be significantly more positive than negative.
This positive framing was unrelated to the launch of neural MT. Furthermore, the portrayal of MT in the press tended to lack
nuance, with few instances that raised awareness of the technology’s use implications. The study calls for higher standards in the
public discussion and promotion of MT and for more research on non-professional conceptualisations of translation technologies and
their role in communication.
Keywords: machine translation, news coverage, news framing, content analysis, translation technology
Published online: 17 August 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.00023.nun
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.00023.nun
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