Refraining humor in TV news translation

摘要

The increasing entertainment-oriented tendency of the news engages audiences' emotions more readily. This trend has triggered my interest in studying the humorous aspects of international news on TV and how different varieties of humor in the TV newsroom are represented and mediated by news translators. The issue of humor in TV news, particularly in relation to its translation and translator mediation, has rarely been addressed in the literature. Because TV news translators are increasingly playing the role of journalists, it is imperative to produce interdisciplinary research on this topic. This paper draws on the news frame theory to examine the mediating role of TV news translators in working with humorous elements. The paper argues that TV news translation is a process in which news stories that have been framed by previous news workers are refrained. The paper explores the implications of different forms of humor for TV news translation strategies and seeks to optimize translation and communication effectiveness. By analyzing authentic news texts and their translated versions from five major commercial TV news stations in Taiwan, this paper aims to unveil how news frames interact with the translation of humor and how these interactions produce new meanings.