| Translation practice has long been compared to "dancing in fetters",which gives a hint on the common question perplexing almost all translators:how close,both literally and figuratively,should a translated text stay to the original one?In other words,to what extent should translators demonstrate freedom in their translation practice?From a professional perspective.translators do enjoy freedom during work but cannot overstep certain boundaries.They are required to demonstrate freedom with responsibility,which means they act in line with translation ethics and professional codes on their own initiative,so as to better navigate the distance between the two textsClassified as non-literary translators,news trans-editors are held accountable to three parties:news media,news writers and participants in the incidents covered.as well as news readers in the target-language community.Online social news,other than online political and financial news,covers a wider range of topics and is more closely related to people's daily life.This particular type of news may contain not only factual accounts,but also colored information subjected to personal emotion,resulting in exaggerated or even distorted facts,thus making it harder for readers to tell right from wrong.To some extent,trans-editors of online social news are confronted with three main ethical challenges:balancing the need for speed with the duty to verify facts,achieving target readers' expectations for fluent and almost instantaneous translation while remaining detached observers of the incidents covered,and pondering over the propriety of providing supportive content to target readers.In light of Gene Foreman's journalism ethics,Andrew Chesterman's translation ethics,as well as steps of news translation dissected by Esperanca Bielsa and Susan Bassnett,the present thesis will discuss work ethics based on professional commitment for Chinese-English trans-editors of online social news,and bring forward a trust-and-truth-oriented approach based on deontology to synthesis of stories collected from the source culture.in parallel with a clarity-and-understanding-oriented approach based on teleology to rewriting of these synthesized stories.Cases of Chinese-English trans-editing of online social news collected during the author's Summer Internship Program at Global Times will be analyzed so as to illustrate the application of this work ethics and the two associated approaches when dealing with ethical issues throughout the trans-editing process The aim of the thesis is to better assist Chinese-English trans-editors of online social news in their endeavor to address the three main ethical challenges and achieve freedom with responsibility. |
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