Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English

This study attempts to describe the main media translation techniques foregrounding the concept and translation practice of introducing false friends and its impact on the linguistic quality of news items and semantic communication across audience. The analysis covers the approaches adopted by editors/translators in translating world news, examining randomly-chosen samples from pan-Arab media outlets on economic, political, community, and technical topics. Neologisms and newly acquired structures are center-staged both on the micro-linguistic and macro-linguistic levels in addition to investigating the methods, techniques and transfer strategies used in the process of the translation. In other words, it aspires to highlight the need for alternatives to common false friends in Arabic media hand in hand with proposing solutions to some vague expressions and phrases, using an eclectic approach of linguistic and cultural tools. This study raises the following questions: Which is the most common strategy adopted by media in translating news stories? To what extent is the Arabic media translator/editor a successful mediator between two cultures? In other words, to what extent foreignizing strategies are an instrument of cultural innovation? To what extent does the receiver of the target text (TT) need to go back to the ST to get exactly what the original composer means? What are the solutions or strategies that the translator/editor should adopt to achieve a successful conveyance of the message of the source text (ST)? The larger objective is to fill in the gap concerning the relationship between media studies and translation studies through providing criteria for translating new and fixed expressions that can easily be used by deskmen and editors at foreign desks at newspapers and news agencies in keeping with their policies and speed of production

Issued also as CD