A mixed-methods analysis of the translation of quotations in international news dispatches

Léa Huotari and Mairi McLaughlin
University of Turku | University of California, Berkeley

This article builds on the dynamic field of research on news translation. It presents a mixed-methods analysis of a parallel corpus of news agency dispatches to further our understanding of how news is translated and the factors influencing the translation strategies which are used. It focuses on the translation of quotations in news agency dispatches that are translated from English into French. The results of quantitative and qualitative analyses of a parallel corpus of source and translated dispatches underscore the importance of quotations in news agency dispatches. However, they also show that quotations can be cut as news is translated and what determines whether quotations will be lost or retained in the translation process. The study emphasizes the need for mixed-methods approaches and calls for more comparative research on news translation.

Publication history

Date received: 24 June 2024

Date accepted: 11 August 2025

Published online: 16 September 2025

Table of contents

The first scholarly research on the translation of news dates from the 2000s with early works by scholars such as Conway and Bassnett (2006), Bielsa and Bassnett (2009), and Hernández Guerrero (2009). Since then, news translation research has developed into a lively field, as illustrated by the recent publication of Valdeón’s (2020b) retrospective study. Scholarship has emphasized the pervasive influence of translation, and more particularly of the translation done by international news agencies, on the production and dissemination of news. The country of origin of news agencies and the languages that they use have been shown to influence the process (Bielsa and Bassnett 2009), the choice of topic (Van Doorslaer 2009; Gottlieb 2010), geographical coverage (Van Doorslaer 2009), and language itself (McLaughlin 2011, 2013, 2015). Scholars have identified four different types of work on news translation: research that has a didactic perspective, research on translation problems or strategies, research that focuses on the definition of translation, and ethnographic research (Davier 2014, 54–55; Haapanen and Perrin 2019, 15). The present study contributes to the second area by exploring the strategies used to translate quotations in the press.

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