Translingual quoting in journalism : Behind the scenes of Swiss television newsrooms

Abstract

This chapter focuses on translingual quoting (TQ), i.e. the subprocess of news-writing by which utterances from sources are both quoted and translated. Analyses of journalists’ mental and material activities suggest conceptualizing TQ as a complex and dynamic activity in which journalists’ individual and collective (e.g., institutional) language awareness, knowledge, and practices interact with multi-layered contexts of text production. Based on this empirically and theoretically grounded concept of TQ, the chapter presents a two-part typology of TQ: In sequential TQ, ready-made media items or interview materials are translated into another language; in parallel TQ, interviews and/or texts for media items are produced in different languages by one and the same journalist.