Fifteen years of journalistic translation research and more

• Published in: Perspectives, studies in translatology studies in translatology, 2015-10, Vol.23 (4), p.634-662
• Main Author: Valdeón, Roberto A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: communication; information; journalistic translation; Literary translation; news translation
• ISSN: 0907-676X; 1747-6623
• DOI: 10.1080/0907676X.2015.1057187

This paper surveys the emergence and development of journalistic translation research (JTR), focusing on the publications of the past 15 years. Journalistic translation has managed to establish itself as a subarea of research within Translation Studies, as the entries in the major encyclopedias and handbooks attest. Translation contributed to the birth of journalism in seventeenth-century Europe through a number of weekely and monthly pamphlets and bulletins. Additionally it was (and remains) a cornerstone in news agencies and forged independence movements in the Americas. Academic interest in news translation began in the late 1980s and 1990s, particularly in Europe, where Stetting coined a much-used term, transediting, to refer to translation in the news. In the twenty-first century, JTR grew exponentially, as researchers have carried out empirical research on translated texts, have analyzed translation processes, have begun to study reception issues, and so on. The article also looks at some conceptual issues, notably as translation and communication studies meet.