Framing the Hijab: Online news media translation as a subsystem and the role of (active) readers: A four-layered conceptual framework

Abstract

The thesis is primarily driven by a threefold purpose. First, it examines the representations of the Hijab in bilingual Arabic and English digital texts from BBC Arabic and Qantara. Second, it suggests that online news translation functions as a subsystem, mediating between the news organisation system and the readership system, when distributing news through the translated texts and their hypertexts. Third, the research explores the responses of a group of Saudi female readers to the framing of the Hijab in the two online news outlets, and the possible implications of their responses on the future news translations made on the Hijab. To answer the research questions, a methodology of a four-layered conceptual framework was applied to the corpora of selected news translation articles and their hypertexts, containing 308,811 words of 262 digital news articles. The conceptual framework combines two analytical approaches: corpus linguistics and framing analysis of Mona Baker. In addition, it incorporates two synthetic approaches: Tyulenev's approach of translation as a subsystem and Derrida's 'Différance' and 'Afterlife' aspects in translation.
Accordingly, automatic (collocational, concordance) and manual text analysis were applied. The methodology also includes the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the readers' responses to three online surveys, which were administered to bring forth the readers' views about the framing of the Hijab through BBC News in Arabic and Qantara as digital news outlets. Findings suggest that the hijab's representations were found to be framed differently through the two news outlets. Conflict and particularly secularism were prevailing frames across the corpora of both outlets, with some variations in the semantic frames of each and the amount of embeddedness of hyperlinked items adopted by each outlet. The hyperlinked items of Qantara were richer in quality and used more contextually in their translations than those of BBC News, which linked articles primarily by regional coverage rather than topic relevance. However, BBC News in Arabic has been shown to be more adept at reframing hijab within a conflict frame in and outside of its news translation, whilst Qantara excelled more at using hyperlinks to fulfil its purpose of cultural mediation. Given that both news outlets deployed hyperlinks to reframe the hijab within and outside their translations, the premise of online news media translation as a subsystem is valid for both outlets. Nevertheless, the hypothesis of online news translation as a subsystem requires further investigation from a variety of perspectives. Finally, both the qualitative and quantitative results of the readers' surveys revealed that the Hijab was framed differently in both news outlets based on their topical preferences. However, the readers generally believed that there was no difference in the framing of TTs and HTs on both news sites, except that hypertexts were more thorough and had a less negative tone. They also believed that their views and feedback would have an impact on future translations of both news outlets.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Malak Faisal Al Sharif: orcid.org/0000-0001-7746-0513

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