Ideological manipulation in political news translation: An actor-network perspective

Abstract

News translation, and particularly political news translation, is part of a complex recontextualization process in which the target text is often manipulated ideologically to meet the socio-political norms and dominant ideologies of the target society. Many studies have addressed this phenomenon using different textual and discursive approaches, including critical discourse analysis. However, these studies have mostly tackled the ideological manipulation in news translation as an end-product, and the process—particularly from a sociological perspective, including the interactions among human and non-human actants within their networks in news agencies—has remained largely under-researched. The present study is an attempt to shed light on this less-researched part of the phenomenon and analyze the actants and their interactions in political news translation in the Iranian news agencies in light of Actor-Network Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis. The data are gathered through in-depth interviews as well as observation of practices in newsrooms. The results reveal that the manipulation process consists of different stages, each of which involves human and non-human actants, forming a complicated hierarchical but circular network. The ideological manipulation is practiced in line with the socio-political requirements of the Iranian context which directly or indirectly influences the involved actants.