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Article published In: APTIF 9 - Reality vs. Illusion: From Morse code to machine translation
Edited by Frans De Laet, In-kyoung Ahn and Joong-chol Kwak
[Babel 66:4/5] 2020
► pp. 847–866

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Reframing news by different agencies

A case study of translations of news on the US-China trade dispute

 | University of Macau and Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai
Published online: 22 July 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00172.zen
Abstract
This study aims to investigate how news reports are reframed and how a stance is in turn mediated in the process of translation by news agencies in the Chinese mainland and Taiwan when they cover the same news event. A database is built from 50 reports on the US-China trade dispute, half from Reference News (RN), a news agency based in Chinese mainland and the other half from Liberty Times (LT), a media outlet in Chinese Taiwan, as well as their corresponding source texts from foreign news agencies. The results show that the reframing practices in the two agencies vary from each other in framing the US-China trade dispute and the image of China and America. The overall pattern of stance shift in the translation by RN is towards a pro-China/anti-US direction while in the translation by LT towards a more anti-China/pro-US direction. These might be caused by the political stance of the news agency, the media environment and the relationship with the United States.
Résumé
Cette étude a pour but d’examiner comment les informations parues dans la presse sont remaniées et comment un point de vue, dans le processus de traduction, est à son tour véhiculé par les agences de presse en Chine continentale et à Taïwan, lorsqu’elles couvrent le même sujet d’actualité. Une base de données a été constituée à partir de cinquante rapports sur le différend commercial entre les États-Unis et la Chine, la moitié provenant de Reference News (RN), une agence de presse publique chinoise, et l’autre moitié de Liberty Times (LT), un organe de presse taïwanais, ainsi que de leurs textes sources correspondants, provenant d’agences de presse étrangères. Les résultats montrent que les pratiques de reformulation dans les deux agences varient l’une par rapport à l’autre lorsqu’elles réinterprètent le différend commercial entre les États-Unis et la Chine et l’image de la Chine et de l’Amérique. Le schéma général de la prise de position dans la traduction par RN va dans le sens prochinois/antiaméricain, alors que la traduction de LT va davantage dans le sens antichinois/proaméricain. Ces changements pourraient être dus à la position politique de l’agence de presse, à l’environnement médiatique et aux relations avec les États-Unis.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Reframing and stance in news translation
  • 3.Data and analytical parameters
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Analytical parameters
  • 4.Data analysis: Reframing practices in Reference News and Liberty Times
    • 4.1Reframing in Reference News
      • 4.1.1Framing by labeling in RN
      • 4.1.2Framing ambiguity in RN
      • 4.1.3Selective appropriation in RN
      • 4.1.4Mistranslation in RN
    • 4.2Reframing in Liberty Times
      • 4.2.1Framing by labeling in LT
      • 4.2.2Framing ambiguity in LT
      • 4.2.3Selective appropriation in LT
      • 4.2.4Mistranslation in LT
  • 5.Discussion: Possible factors causing differences
    • 5.1The nature of the agencies
    • 5.2Media environment
    • 5.3Relationship with the United States
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
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