Impact of power and ideology on news translation in Korea: a quantitative analysis of foreign news gatekeeping~*

摘要

News translation is a social practice and as such is bound by social factors including power and ideology, both of which are closely linked with the manipulation and distortion of news. This begs the question: what happens when in-house journalists translate foreign news on sensitive issues with the potential to impact their organization? This study is an attempt to demonstrate how power and ideology can affect the process and products of news translation through a quantitative analysis of gatekeeping and translation of foreign news in South Korea. It briefly examines the unique history and landscape of South Korea’s news institutions and compares the differences between South Korea’s private newspapers and Yonhap News Agency, a de-facto state news agency in an unequal power relationship with the government, in the selection of New York Times articles (source texts) regarding the Korean government/leader, as well as in the selection of translated articles (target texts) for republication. The study found Yonhap to be less likely to select source texts that take a negative stance toward the government, and that there is a correlation between source-text stance and target-text selection, suggesting that power is indeed an important factor in news translation in South Korea.