Translation In Communication

Media translation workers spend a lot of time talking about "doing the right thing." Nevertheless, it is not rare that we, as readers or viewers of these disseminators of news, information, and entertainment find that there is something wrong with the "ethics" of their actions. Why do mass communication purveyors believe or act the way they do? Are they morally bound to observe special ethical norms that the rest of us are not, or, in fact, they feel free to cross over the basic moral principles the ordinary citizens have to adhere to so that they are allowed to a "free marketplace of ideas"? These are the questions we must ask ourselves if we are to be moral agents of the mass media.

This series of articles has the task to equip bilingual professionals with the tools they need to make objective and moral decisions how to use mass media, both as consumers of the “output” of the media and as creators of media products in the field of journalism and other media. In our opinion new Chinese Translation to English workers, Polish Translation and Arabic Translation workers who will be dealing with such matters as Medical Translation and Legal Translation will find this article most useful. We have to state from the very beginning that the purpose of this article is not to rule what is "right" to do when handling situations. Instead, we will try to provide some suggestions of what seems to be "most appropriate" for a given situation. in doing so, our main concern is to concentrate both on the subject and on why the suggested action might be the most appropriate. We have gone to great lengths to answer many questions that the readers on our blog have asked. In addition we try to give a full and detailed explanation of each of them.

As one Vietnamese to English Translation worker who was a contributor in this article said, it will finally be your responsibility to draw your own conclusions as regards the answers that you find acceptable. We anticipate that you will gain a greater understanding for the difficulties of making a moral decision. At the very least, you will be required to construct a personal benchmark by which to measure your decisions.

Thus, this series of articles will cover news media, advertising, and public relations. Although entertainment media, such as television and movie industry, are the fields that mainly attract the interest of translation workers, the above three are most popular among the college graduates who have majors both in Translation studies and Journalism or Communication. What translation and interpretation workers who operate in these three fields have learned can be applied to other forms of communication, information based or otherwise. In addition, one of our Polish Translator workers has contributed with a heap of information about the entertainment industry and its cultural impact worldwide. And, of course, in different societies volumes have been written in opposition to the condition state of modern journalism. Here we have to mention that advertising and, public relations in particular, are often paid little attention or, worse, are compared with journalism, taking for granted that the moral norms of the one are the same as of the other. That is rarely the case, and this book is designed to point out the differences that exist among these three practices in hopes that reasonable and specific guidelines can be developed by which they may be analyzed and, if need be, judged according to their specialized functions within our society. Ultimately, the dicta of truth and minimizing harm should apply to all mass media, but in differing doses and for decidedly different reasons.