adaptations in translating global news in fars and ilna news agencies: the case of covid-19

This study was conducted to investigate the approach of two iranian news agencies,namely fars and ilna, in selecting news sources, choosing the general content to becovered, and strategies used to reframe the source news. in so doing, thoseinternational translated news stories were retrieved which were on issues pertainingto both covid-19 and who, and were published from april 20 to july 21, 2020.the findings revealed that although the two news agencies had differing tendenciesin the selection of major sources feeding their coverage, the general content theycovered was almost the same. however, the most striking difference was observedin the framing strategies they opted for. while ilna resorted majorly to summarizing,fars used a multitude of devices to adapt and reframe the source news. among themwere the purposeful (de)selection of the source content, relocating the content, andadding background information particularly to the ending of the news story toreframe it. other strategies included generalization and particularization. this marksthe tendency of fars to thematic frames which are much more active in shaping andaffecting the recipients compared with episodic frames which typify news storiesmerely reporting concrete events. overall, the study suggests that the general contentof the news and even the source feeding it are not as powerful devices as the type offraming in fulfilling the expectations of the recipients and incorporating ideologies.