How language and (non-)translation impact on media newsrooms: the case of newspapers in Belgium

Abstract

In Translation Studies, research on media and translation is dominated by questions of audiovisual translation such as dubbing or subtitling. The larger field of the position of translation in the media in general, the awareness of the use of translation in newsrooms, is much less present in research (with the important exception of the Warwick project on ‘Translation in Global News’). Earlier research has shown that translation as such is hardly problematized in media newsrooms, but conceived as an integral part of the transediting process. This article presents a case study of newspapers in Belgium (both in Dutch and in French), in particular regarding the selection of international news and the role of language and translation in the selection process. It is shown not only that the countries dealt with in the international news differ greatly in the Dutch-language and the French-language daily newspapers (which can be seen as a political statement in Belgium), but also that there are striking correlations between the countries covered and the linguistic origin of the main press agencies used. On the basis of these findings, one can assume that the role of language and (the absence of) translation in the information selection process seem to be important framing and agenda-setting factors in newsrooms.