Linguistic analysis of translated news: an insight into the concept of news value

Shahidi, Pegah; Ehteshami, Samar

doi:10.22077/ali.2025.9278.1139

Linguistic analysis of translated news: an insight into the concept of news value

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Pegah Shahidi ¹

Samar Ehteshami ²

¹ M.A. in Translation Studies, English Translation Department, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

² Assistant professor of Translation Studies, English Translation Department, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran.

10.22077/ali.2025.9278.1139

Abstract

As the aftermath of globalization and the increased demand for localized information, translation assumed a significant position in the world of news. Due to this close connection, in recent years, journalistic concepts such as gatekeeping and framing contributed towards much interdisciplinary research in the field of translation studies. Nevertheless, many other topics have remained untouched by translation scholars, one of which is the seminal concept of news value manifested in the linguistic and semiotic dimensions of news products. Exploring news values and their relation to translation offers potentials for a better grasp on the nature of translated news and the process of news translation in newsrooms worldwide. Consequently, the headlines of 120 translated news pieces related to two international conferences were analyzed using Bednarek and Caple’s (2017) discursive news value analysis framework. These news headlines were published on four renowned Iranian news websites from 2021 to 2023. The results revealed that these websites construct similar patterns of news values and establish eliteness, negativity, and superlativeness more than other news values in their translated headlines. This was an indication of the lack of originality among news websites in reporting international events and also their orientation toward following a predetermined ideological positioning. As a whole, the present research is a true interdisciplinary one attempting to learn about the construction of news values in the context of Iran and translation discourse and unveil news agencies’ motivation in linguistically constructing and establishing these values.

Keywords

Iranian news websites

journalism

language of news

news values

translation

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