Translation Strategies in Global News

Book excerpt: This book analyses the translation strategies employed by journalists when reporting foreign news events to home audiences. Using English-language press coverage of inflammatory comments made by Nicolas Sarkozy in his role as French interior minister in 2005 as a case study, the author illustrates the secondary level of mediation that occurs when news crosses linguistic and cultural borders. This critical analysis examines the norm for ‘domesticating’ news translation practices and explores the potential for introducing a degree of ‘foreignisation’ as a means to facilitating cross-cultural engagement and understanding. The book places emphasis on foreign-language quotation and culture-specific concepts as two key sites of translation in the news, and addresses a need for research that clarifies where translation, as a distinct part of the newswriting process, occurs. The interdisciplinary nature of this book will appeal to a broad range of readers, in particular scholars and students in the fields of translation, media, culture and journalism studies.