Journalistic Transcreation of News Agency Articles from English into Serbian: Associated Press and Reuters Articles in Blic and N1 Online Portals

Abstract

Transcreation refers to adapting translated content to suit the target audience’s context, culture, and expectations. Predominantly researched in marketing, this phenomenon has recently come under scrutiny as a method of transferring foreign news to local readership. This paper explores journalistic transcreation in Blic and N1, the two most visited Serbian online news portals, considered to be on opposing ideological and political spectrums. As a point of comparison, articles in English are taken from web portals of the two leading news agencies globally – the Associated Press and Reuters – as their reporting practices are regarded as more factual and less biased compared to non-agency media. The findings reveal transcreation’s much greater presence in the Blic portal, as illustrated in two selected examples, which might stem from the portal’s pro-government reporting and reader base who predominantly have absolute trust in the government or support it in the hopes of gaining employment via political affiliation.