This article starts by examining existing research on the role of translation in media news production. An examination of this role leads inevitably to a critical view of the use of “translation” and the difficulties that Translation Studies encounters as a discipline in asserting and distributing broader definitions of the term in the context of media news production. In the specific context of news translation, an extension of definitions not only involves target-related issues, but also the disintegration of the status of source texts in such multi-source situations. Selection and de-selection principles guide journalistic text production processes including translation. The influence of national images and their imagesetting effects are analyzed from this point of view. To that end, imagology is used as an added value for this kind of research in the way it combines selection principles and national image construction.