Translation in global news successfully brings together two diverse yet related strands of research—globalization studies and translation studies—to investigate, from the perspective of sociology and textual analysis, the role that translation plays in the international transmission of news. The book is the first of its kind, addressing key issues relating to the new challenges faced by translation as a result of globalization. The authors analyze texts in various languages collected during ethnographic fieldwork in major traditional and alternative global news agencies such as Reuters, Agence France Press (AFP), and Inter Press Service (IPS). The book substantially contributes to our understanding of global communication through the lens of translation.
The opening chapter provides a synopsis of the multidisciplinary field of translation. It presents conceptualizations of news translation as an underdeveloped but increasingly important area of research and of news translators as recreaters involved in constant negotiation and selection processes. Ch. 2 theorizes a place for translation in globalization theory, which has long disregarded language issues. The authors postulate that the focus of the globalization theory on the instant communication and circulation of information has erroneously led to the invisibility of translation in global communication. Translation, however, is key to global communication because it helps local and global communities connect; thus, the authors conceptualize the analytical place of translation in globalization theory as a borderland where the local and global meet. Ch. 3 provides a history of news agencies from the advent of the telegraph to the internet.
Chs. 4, 5, and 6 provide a textual analysis of news translation and a description of current practices in news agencies. In Ch. 4, news agencies are conceptualized as translation agencies, built to attain fast but accurate translations of large amounts of news. Regardless of the news agencies' implementation of strategies that immensely decrease the need for translation, translation is demonstrated to still be a crucial part of news production. Chs. 5 and 6 examine existing translation practices in more detail, from traditional news agencies to alternative ones. The analysis draws on fieldwork conducted in 2004 at AFP and IPS regional headquarters for Latin America in Montevideo.
Translation in global news fills in a current gap in globalization research, which has long ignored translation, and in translation studies, which has focused mainly on questions of linguistic equivalence and untranslatability. By building bridges between the two fields in an age where intercultural communication is ever more important, the book challenges the established definitions of translation itself. It does so by demonstrating the manipulative nature of translation; it questions the concept of faithfulness of news reports and the existence of source text and linguistic equivalence. It also provides a basis for further research into global communication strategies. These far-reaching implications make Translation in global news a must-read not just for students of globalization and translation studies, but also for students of media, journalism, sociolinguistics, and sociology. This is a book for anyone interested in the workings of global communication and the transfer of information.
