O przekładzie tekstów medialnych (prasowych) – krytycznie

Abstract

On the Translation of Press Texts from the Critical Perspective Researchers concentrating on the media discourse observe the need to approach translated press texts from the critical perspective, also taking into consideration their status and criteria of reliable evaluation. From the point of view of the specificity and degree of translation difficulty, these texts seem interesting and difficult due to linguistic factors. Besides, they are generally diverse and, in the translation process, they may undergo significant changes (not necessarily because of the translator’s interpretation). However, they are infrequently subjected to critical evaluation, being placed on the peripheries of translation studies. The difficulties which researchers investigating the press discourse must (or would have to) face are therefore considerable. Like translators, researchers encounter problems of message condensation (imposed by editors), the media reality presented in the text and the points of view. Researchers must also analyze the function of the translated text, taking into consideration the reader’s perspective, which, as a rule, governs the translator’s decisions. Researchers should also assess the aesthetic values of the text, taking into account its multimodality. All these issues are discussed on the basis of Polish translations of Russian press texts. The case study of selected texts and their translations illustrates problems resulting from the lack of clearly established criteria for translation criticism and the rapid ageing of information contained in press texts. Translation criticism facilitates reflection on the quality and value of translated press texts and appreciation of rendering meanings.