Yeni Medyada Çeviri Aracılığıyla Popülerleştirme: Düşünbil Örneği

Abstract

This study aims to explore the opportunities the new media present for the popularization of scientific knowledge through translation, based on the case study of a Turkish website called Düşünbil (www.dusunbil.com). The article will touch upon debates on science popularization, new media, and the translation of social sciences texts, highlighting the role of online translation projects in circulating new and hybrid genres. The contribution combines two under-researched topics in translation studies: popularization, and the translation of social sciences and humanities texts. On the other hand, TS research on popularization has so far mainly focused on natural sciences whereas this study concerns social sciences and humanities texts. Düşünbil Portal relies on non-professional volunteer translators for the translation of popular texts. In this respect, the translational action undertaken may be considered a case of “community translation.” These texts, translated almost exclusively from English, represent a mix of social sciences and journalism, some leaning towards self-help in terms of content and style. It is the convergent aspect of digital media that make them particularly amenable for popularization: the functions of information and entertainment converge on the internet. The translation of social sciences and humanities texts, hitherto largely confined to conventional print media, helps extend knowledge in these fields thanks to projects like Düşünbil. After a conceptual discussion, the paper will elaborate on strategies of knowledge mediation through examples drawn from translated texts, their source texts as well as texts written originally in Turkish and published on Düşünbil. Proximity, regarded to be the distinctive feature of popular science texts, will be addressed not only as a textual-linguistic feature but also in terms of the wider strategies of presenting information. Aspects such as interactivity and conceptual clarification will also be illustrated, followed by an examination of translation strategies employed on texts originally written in Turkish.