PASE CONFERENCE 2015PASE CONFERENCE 2015

Translatio Doctoral ForumTranslatio Doctoral ForumUniversity of WroclawUniversity of Wroclaw

PhD Candidate: Jessica MarianiPhD Candidate: Jessica MarianiUniversity of VeronaUniversity of Verona

JESSICA MARIANI

PhD in English Language and TranslationUniversity of Verona

Research ProjectNews Translation in European Context:Building a European Perspective

Master Degree in Publishing and JournalismJournalist @ Hotpress Magazine

Press Intern @ European Parliament Press UnitDG Communication Brussels

Contacts:jessica.mariani@univr.it

Twitter: @MarianiJS

Mediating Languages and Cultures

New Approaches to Research in Translation Studies

Translating “loaded” language in the EU Political Discourse Analysis meets

News Translation

Research Study OverviewResearch Study Overview

Intro: The Evolution of TS as a discipline

News Translation: the emergence of translated news

The EU Context and its multilingual framework

Investigating Translated News through CDA

Case StudyMEPs Political Statements in TranslationThe EP Press Service Politics of Translation

Translation StudiesTranslation Studies

Interdisciplinarity

Translation Studies emerged as an academic Translation Studies emerged as an academic discipline in the discipline in the

second half of the 20second half of the 20thth century century

Why?Why?

Growing necessity for translation and Growing necessity for translation and interpreting in a variety of domainsinterpreting in a variety of domains

Globalization EU growing importanceGlobalization EU growing importance

Translationlinguistic discipline

a process of meaning transfer via linguistic transcoding

Science of Translation?

Nida 1964

Linguistic theory of T.? Catford 1965 Equivalence between signs and combinations in the ST and TT

Hatim and Mason: “The Translator as Communicator”

Translation as a purposeful activity and a communicative action

Functionalist ApproachVermeer (1978), Nord (1997) Skopos Theory

TRANSLATIONTRANSLATION

PragmaticsPragmatics

Text LinguisticsText Linguistics

Discourse AnalysisDiscourse Analysis

SociolinguisticsSociolinguistics

Communication StudiesCommunication Studies

Three ApproachesThree Approaches

Theoretical Ts = product-orientedTheoretical Ts = product-orientedDescriptive TS = function-orientedDescriptive TS = function-oriented

Applied TS = process-orientedApplied TS = process-oriented

1970

Susan BassnettTranslation Studies

(2013)

““TS has reached a cross-roads and needs to reach out to TS has reached a cross-roads and needs to reach out to other disciplines, taking advantage of what is being other disciplines, taking advantage of what is being hailed by some as a translational turn within the hailed by some as a translational turn within the humanities in general. I believe we inside translation humanities in general. I believe we inside translation studies need to look outwards, to promote some of the studies need to look outwards, to promote some of the excellent research in translation studies more effectively excellent research in translation studies more effectively to our colleagues, to engage more in interdisciplinary, to our colleagues, to engage more in interdisciplinary, collaborative projects”.collaborative projects”.

News Translation: are we well informed?

News Translation: are we well informedNews Translation: are we well informed?

TS and Journalism Studies

Major academic productMajor academic productBielsa & BassnettBielsa & Bassnett

““Translation in Global News”Translation in Global News”(2008)(2008)

International Conference at International Conference at University of Warwick University of Warwick

(23(23rdrd June 2006) June 2006)

News Translation is identified as a collective effort (Kang-2007) made by media professionals

Three-phase Information Flow Process

Institution/Organization Press ServicePress Service Media Media Readership

Who is the News Translator?

Journalists do not define themselves as translators

They usually identify themselves as INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISTSMULTILINGUAL JOURNALISTS

Translator's activity:invisible practice in newsrooms

hardly ever reportedautomatic practice in reporting the news

Linguistic News Practices

Interaction between journalists, checkers, editors

Academics have defined News Translators as

Trans-editors (Stetting - 1989)

Trans-reporters (Caimotto)

What about moving towards...

Journalinguists? Strong Linguistics Skills

+ News-Sense

Practices and Strategies in News Translation

Filtering Selection Addition Omission Adaptation Neutralisation Explicitation Focalisation Recontextualization

Why Researching News Translation?

Translation strategies might mitigate or reinforce political or ideological tensions

Influenced by ideologies and values upheld by Media Institutions

Translation takes place across linguistic and socio-cultural patterns that can alter the semantics

of words and provoke fact distortion

Sapir (1956) Theory about linguistic difference:

“No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The

words in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached”

Translation Politics and Politics of Translation Politics and Politics of TranslationsTranslations

The EU Context: the EP Press The EU Context: the EP Press ServiceService

DG COMMUNICATION

PRESS SERVICE MEDIA MONITORING UNIT WEB COMM

AUDIOVISUAL UNIT

HEAD OF THE PRESS UNIT

COORDINATOR

4 SPOKESPERSONS

1 ASSISTANT

Coordinator

ECON (2)ENVIITREEMPLIMCO

Coordinator

AGRIPECHREGICULTTRAN

Coordinator

AFCOLIBE (2)JURIPETI (2)FEMM

Coordinator

AFETINTASEDEDROIDEVE

BUDGETCONT

2 EnglishEditors Language Assistants

Stagiaires (every 5 months)

23 Official Languages

One Press Officer per Language

A Press Officer writes and translates Press Releases from English into his/her own mother tongue

Text TypesPress Releases: Committee meetings, Plenary

SessionsNewsletters: before Plenary Sessions

Press Kit: constantly updated

Two main EU working languages: English and French

Legislative Texts and Documents are translated by professional translators working for

EP DG TRANSLATIONat least in

English and French

Why?

At the moment there are not enough economic resources to translate all legislative documents in all

23 EU languages

Newsletters

Before Plenary Sessions N. are ALWAYS translated by the EP Press Officers in all 23 EU Languages

N. are published on the EP website and N. are sent to journalists

Supporting roles for translations:

Language Assistants (not for all)Stagiaires with strong linguistic background

Employers of the Web Communication Department

Press Releases

Plenary Session: translated in all 23 EU languages

Committee Meetings Newsworthiness

Top Priority PR: published on the EP website

Secondary PR: Sent to Journalists

No PR? Tweets

Source Texts (PR and Newsletters)

ALWAYS in the ENGLISH VERSION

WRITTEN BY NON-NATIVE PRESS OFFICERS

ALWAYS checked by 2 ENGLISH EDITORSChanges are transparent and visible

And then re-translated in all 23 EU languages (NS)More than one translator for the same text to check

The EP Press Unit translation system relies on ENGLISH NATIVE EDITORS

Writing a Press Release

How to choose the right terminology?

Consulting with the English and French versions of Legislative Texts and Amendments sent by

Parties Secretariats to Press Officers

Translated by PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATORS

How to speed up the Process?

Google Translate

News Translation in the EP goes through multiple steps

Equivalence is essential

Mistakes are not tolerated

Does it happen in newsrooms too??

WE NEED MORE INVESTIGATIONS TO UNVEIL TRANSLATION PROCESSES IN NEWSROOMS

Investigating EU translated news texts through CDA/PDA

Possible? Yes.

Bielsa (2009:14) observes:

“The important role played by translation in the production and circulation of global information

flows has been fundamentally neglected, and this has led to the assumption that information can circulate unaltered across different linguistic

communities and cultures”

The application of CDA to translated news texts

1. The translation is considered as part of the production process

2. The discursive and social practices of the Source and Target Texts are linked to their respective texts

3. The analysis is based on the analytical tools provided by Translation Studies

Forerunner: FAIRCLOUGH

Texts explicitly or implicitly recontextualize elements from previous texts

EXTERNAL

Relationship between a textAnd other texts

INTERNAL

Referring to the semantic,Grammatical and Lexical features within the a text

Centrality of INTERTEXTUALITY

LIBE (Civil Liberties) Commitee

In the Chair: British MEP Claude Moraes 

Press release - Fundamental rights - 12-03-2014 – 12:51

LINK: http://bit.ly/1iA2YYa

EN US NSA: stop mass surveillance now or face consequences,

MEPs say

ITNSA: stop immediato alla sorveglianza di massa o

conseguenze, affermano i deputati

ESEE.UU. debe poner fin al espionaje masivo o afrontar las

consecuencias, advierte el PE

Political Statements

Who translates political statements quoted in PRs?

MEPs express themselves in English/French or in their own EU language

Press Officers take notes on what It's being said during the meeting

The statement can go through interpretation

How can Press Officers be sure that they won't misunderstand what MEPs say?

MEPs Secretariats send statements perfectly translated by professional translators to Press Officers

EU Journalists tend to report the exact quotes

Moraes statement in the English, Italian and Spanish version of the EP Press Release

"The Snowden revelations gave us a chance to react. I hope we will turn those reactions into something positive and lasting into the next mandate of this Parliament, a data protection bill of rights that we can all be proud of", said Civil Liberties inquiry rapporteur Claude Moraes (S&D, UK).

"Le rivelazioni di Snowden ci hanno dato la possibilità di reagire. Spero che trasformeremo quelle reazioni in qualcosa di positivo e duraturo nel prossimo mandato del Parlamento, in una legislazione sulla protezione dei dati di cui tutti possiamo essere orgogliosi", ha detto il relatore Claude Moraes (S&D, UK).

"Las revelaciones de Edward Snowden nos han dado la oportunidad de reaccionar. Espero que convirtamos esta reacción en algo positivo y duradero para el próximo mandato del Parlamento: una carta de derechos para la privacidad de la que podamos estar orgullosos", recalcó el ponente del texto, el laborista británico Claude Moraes.

Recalcar (ES) = stress (EN) = sottolineare (IT) vs Say (EN), dire (it), DECIR (ES)

Slight change in choosing the verb BUT no change in meaning

What did the Media do in this case?

EN The Inquirer: same quote http://bit.ly/1gm13DjNew Europe: same quote http://bit.ly/1Ev6Wuy

ITEuractiv.it: same quote http://bit.ly/1qw4Yla

ESConfirmasistemas.es same quote http://bit.ly/1FGOdOe

These are THE ONLY MEDIA who kept the same quote

The others did not cover the topic or implemented news translation strategies

Topic is quite sensitive

Conclusive Remarks

The EP translation systemCDA/PDA is very useful to investigate News Translation and

unveil processes behind translation practices

The European Parliament News Translation system strives for EQUIVALENCE and PRECISION

NEWSROOMS, due to the fast workload and the decreasing economic resources, do not GENERALLY employ professional translators or language assistants

MULTILINGUAL JOURNALISTS must rely on their skills

The risk? Biased information, imprecisions, misinformation

Dziękuję za uwagę!Thank you for your attention!