Journalistic translation in Turkey : a critical approach to the concepts of “Transediting” and “Journalator”

Abstract

This study explores the role of translation in foreign news reporting and journalistic practices from a Translation Studies perspective and aims at demonstrating to what extent the most frequently employed concepts of “transediting” (Stetting, 1989) and “journalator” (van Doorslaer, 2012) shed light on the journalistic translation practices in Turkey. This thesis consists of two parts that combine process-oriented and product-oriented research. The first part provides the findings of the interviews conducted with two groups of journalist- translators who have an educational background in Translation Studies and journalism-related fields respectively and work at the foreign news departments of the news agencies in Turkey. These findings evaluate the impact of educational background on whether the journalist-translators define their daily tasks as a translational activity. In the second part of this thesis, journalistic translation examples created by the interviewees are analyzed to determine the journalistic translation strategies exercised by the journalist-translators and discuss whether these findings overlap with the analyses of interview results. This thesis reveals the influence of educational background in Translation Studies on the description of journalist-translators in each group about their daily tasks and also examines whether the terms “transediting” and “journalator” are more explanatory than “translation” and “translators” in explaining journalistic translation processes and practices.