The Department of Translation and Interpreting cordially invites you to a talk by Dr. Esmaeil Kalantari, entitled “Journalistic Translation: An Interdisciplinary Research Perspective”.
We hope to see many of you there.
Title : Journalistic Translation: An Interdisciplinary Research Perspective
Speaker : Esmaeil Kalantari
Date : Thursday, April 10, 2025
Time : 15:30-17:00
Place : LD4 (LC Building, ground floor)
Abstract: Translation is often an integral part of journalistic work, enabling the flow of news across linguistic and national borders. When writing news stories about international issues, journalists rely on sources available in foreign languages (e.g., reports from foreign news outlets), a process that inevitably involves translation. The role of translation in the news media, however, goes far beyond merely transferring information from one language to another: it often involves accentuating, excluding, or altering parts of information sources, thereby reframing reported issues to promote a particular evaluation or interpretation. Indeed, the power of the news media to shape public perception of social, political, and economic realities is in part exercised through translating information in particular ways. Despite this reality, media scholars often overlook the role of translation when theorizing about how news is crafted and conveyed. Also, in the discipline of Translation Studies, journalistic translation research is still a field in the making, and key questions such as how to approach translation in journalistic settings have often been partially addressed. In this context, my research extends media gatekeeping theory, proposed by communication and journalism studies scholars Shoemaker and Vos (2009), by incorporating translation as an additional gatekeeping mechanism. I argue that studying journalistic translation through the lens of gatekeeping theory allows translation scholars to effectively describe the causal constraints and the ultimate sociopolitical effects of journalists’ translation practices. Additionally, I contend that incorporating the concept of translation into gatekeeping theory can contribute to journalism scholarship by providing a more comprehensive understanding of the various processes involved in news production. Finally, following Valdeón (2018; 2020), I call for collaboration between the fields of translation studies and journalism studies to enhance knowledge of how news is produced and disseminated.
Bio: Esmaeil Kalantari has experience working as a researcher at the Department of Human Sciences, Arts and Communication at TÉLUQ University, Montréal, Canada. His research focuses on the intersections of journalism and translation, and in particular, on news translation. His work has appeared in such journals as Meta: Translators’ Journal, The Translator, and Journalism. His research interests include journalistic translation, media translation and public opinion in electoral contexts, citizen journalism and activism in translation practice, and political discourse in translation.