Organizational Control of International News in Taiwan’s Newspapers: Translator''s Professional Autonomy and Response against Control
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Lo, Yen-Chieh
Abstract
International news departments of Taiwan’s newspapers were theoretically supposed to be the unit in which organizational control exists much less. Considering the characteristics that the translators’ work belongs to the one-man show and depends on news agency’s data, the author thinks they enjoy higher professional autonomy than news reporter. In real situations, however, translators face organizational control, including formal control from the newspaper owners and informal ones from the bureaucracy and the news-making process, just like reporters. With the trends of international news, which are being localized, the work distinction between translators and reporters has been blurring, and the owners think translators and reporters both are their protégés. But unlike reporters, translators, who are limited to the facts that international news secondary to national ones and the bosses play the role of agent between owners and translators, suffer more from the bureaucracy and the news-making process. As a result, this research attempts to outline the international news bureaucracy and making process in Taiwan newspapers, and to define translators’ professional autonomy and factors which influence their autonomy, by in-depth interviews of international news directors and staff at four newspapers in Taiwan. Then, the author highlights that how translators are controlled by the news organizations and what is the best strategy to response against control.
Subjects
bureaucracy
news-making process
organizational control
professional autonomy
international news
translator
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