Ali Darwish Thesis
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Queensland University of Technology Translation and News Making: A Study of Contemporary Arabic Television Aljazeera Case Study By Ali Darwish A Thesis Submitted In Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology March, 2009 Queensland University of Technology Candidate’s Certificate I certify that the thesis entitled Translation and News Making: A Study of Contemporary Arabic Television submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is the result of my own research, conducted during the period 2005-2008, except where otherwise acknowledged. Signed ________________________________________________ Name Ali Darwish ___ ______ Date 21 March 2009________ ___ © Copyright by Ali Darwish, 2009 All Rights Reserved. iii Contents Tables and Figures viii Acknowledgements x Abstract xi Notes on Illustrations, Translations and Typographical Conventions xiii Abbreviations xiv Publications from the Research xv Preface Mediated Realities: The Twilight Zone 16 Chapter 1 Why Contemporary Arabic Television? 20 Overview ........................................................................... 20 Media effects .............................................................. 21 Mediated reality in Arab satellite television .............. 23 The case of Aljazeera ................................................. 26 Statement of the Problem .................................................. 28 Language choices ....................................................... 29 Translation mediation ................................................ 30 Television presentation as multimodal mediated social transaction .................................................................. 32 Purpose of the Study ......................................................... 34 Significance of the Study .................................................. 35 Showcasing Aljazeera ................................................ 37 Limitations of the Research .............................................. 37 Research Questions and hypotheses ................................. 39 Research objectives .................................................... 39 Special Definitions ............................................................ 41 Thesis Structure and Organization.................................... 42 Chapter 2 Mediating Cultural Change 46 Aims .................................................................................. 47 Overview ........................................................................... 48 Satellite television ...................................................... 48 Aljazeera: the taboo-breaker ...................................... 52 The Showcase ................................................................... 53 Translation, Culture and Television ................................. 54 Mediating Cultural Change ............................................... 56 Contents iv Cultural change or acculturation? .............................. 58 Framing Aljazeera ............................................................ 61 How Aljazeera scooped the world ............................. 67 The Aljazeera phenomenon ....................................... 70 Losing Arab hearts and minds ................................... 72 Aljazeera challenges the world .................................. 75 Media under pressure ................................................. 76 Voices from the void: the new Arab public .............. 79 Fourth Estate or Fifth Column .......................................... 81 Out of control: the taming of the shrew ..................... 84 Mission Aljazeera ............................................................. 86 News, Language, Translation and Culture ....................... 88 Translation mediation and downstream reporting ..... 90 The making of Arab news .......................................... 93 The Role of Translation in the Media ............................. 100 Translating memes and mismemes .......................... 101 Conclusion ...................................................................... 105 Gaps in the literature ................................................ 106 Chapter 3 Conceptual Framework and Research Model 111 Aims ................................................................................ 112 Overview ......................................................................... 113 A Multimodal Conceptual Framework ........................... 115 Multimodality and multimodal analysis .................. 117 Methods .......................................................................... 119 Philosophical assumptions ....................................... 121 Design of the Study ........................................................ 123 The case study .......................................................... 124 Data Collection ............................................................... 125 Coding of programs ................................................. 127 Sampling Procedure ........................................................ 128 Data Analysis .................................................................. 129 Analysis methods ..................................................... 129 Mediated discourse analysis .................................... 130 Sources and Logistics ..................................................... 131 Research Model .............................................................. 132 Translation analysis model ...................................... 132 Rationale and assumptions ....................................... 133 Elements of the model ............................................. 137 Implications ............................................................. 137 Using the research model ......................................... 137 How the Model Works .................................................... 138 Model Categories ............................................................ 139 Direct matching translation ...................................... 141 Identitive and equative translation ........................... 142 Interventional techniques ......................................... 144 Contents v Compensatory techniques ........................................ 145 Supplemental techniques ......................................... 151 Types of appositive translation ................................ 153 Modulatory Techniques .................................................. 155 Reductive and expansive techniques ....................... 156 Explicatory techniques ............................................. 157 How These Translation Techniques Interact .................. 159 Conclusion ...................................................................... 160 Chapter 4 Translating the News 162 Aims ................................................................................ 163 Overview ......................................................................... 164 The role of translation in mediated realities ............ 166 Translation in the News .................................................. 166 Situationality and affinities ...................................... 172 Translating the News ...................................................... 176 Information Sources ........................................................ 180 News Translation as Reframing ...................................... 183 Ethics of Mediating News .............................................. 186 Translation-mediated framing .................................. 190 Language of the News and the Illusion of Modernity ....................................................................... 190 Reframing the Already Framed ...................................... 192 Framing Reality .............................................................. 194 News Frames and Translation Frames ............................ 195 Semantic framing ..................................................... 197 Truth in News Translation .............................................. 198 Applying the three-tier model .................................. 200 Conclusion ...................................................................... 204 Chapter 5 Framing Realities in Arabic News 207 Aims ................................................................................ 208 Overview ......................................................................... 209 Epistemic Knowledge versus Linguistic Knowledge ...................................................................... 210 Translation-induced metaphoric shift ...................... 211 Waking the dead and dormant metaphors ................ 213 Metaphoric imperialism ........................................... 219 Metaphor, collocation and the clash of domains ..... 225 Metaphor and genitives ............................................ 227 Reductive and Summative Metaphors ............................ 230 Euphemism, dysphemism and socio-cultural circumlocution ......................................................... 232 Verticality ................................................................ 234 Sensory-perceptual epistemic inference .................. 236 Contents vi Deictic inference ...................................................... 237 Sources of Influence and Normalization ........................ 238 Framing through Quotatives ........................................... 239 Conclusion .....................................................................