Whose voice is it? Evaluations of journalistic voices in news translation about the 2014 Hong Kong protests

Abstract

Abstract Drawing on the notion of voice, this study examines both textual and contextual voices of translated news narratives relating to the 2014 Hong Kong protests. It analyses narrative voices, including those of primary, secondary and tertiary narrators, comparing the original and translated news texts and discusses the socio-cultural context in which these narrative voices are produced. The analysis draws on translated news reports published between 28 September and 16 December 2014 from three media outlets: Reference News, BBC Chinese and New York Times Chinese, together with their source texts from a range of mainstream global media. The findings show how the media outlets employ a complex interplay of narrative voices in their translated news texts and the extent to which the narrative voices of certain groups have been emphasised or suppressed. This sheds light on the shifts in voice within and between media outlets and the contextual factors which might have contributed to them.