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NARRATIVE PARADIGM ON BBC ONLINE NEWS TRANSLATION

Rizki Gunawan

Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia

rizki6unawan@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper describes narrative in BBC News translation that informs Hamas leader killed as

the main cause of the war between Israel and Palestine begin since November 14th

2012. The

data were focused on the structural coherence from the original into the translation, such as

the number of paragraphs, sentences, and words. The researcher also analyze how the

translator rewrites and reorganizes the composition of paragraph into one article and examine

how far the news text to be separated and combine with other relevant text, instead, it flows

smoothly. It was found that although the translator changes the formation of sentence,

structural coherence stills flows smoothly, even better than the original. Furthermore,

narrative style of International Journalist (IJ) is different with Local Journalist (LJ). The LJ

provide news to be concentrated. While the IJ make the idea spread in some part.

Keywords: news translation, narrative, journalism

Introduction

Many people agree that translation has been important and useful element in the life. By

translation, people may communicate with other from different language. The communication

can be conducted through direct conversation or written expression. By translation, people

also have a chance to know other culture in order to enrich the knowledge. Moreover,

translation is also a media to students that need information and study from other country. It

has contributed in transffering information from one country to another country through

news. Many foreign news has been accessed by people through a journalism translation.

However, translating journalism works is not easy matters because the translator

should fulfill the code of conduct of journalism and the textconsists of figurative language,

cultural words, sentences, text coherences and cohesions that require continuous compromise

and readjustment. In the case of coherence, the translator has to maintain and preserves the

continuation topic arranged in well structure.In writing news translation, coherence is

important element to be regarded, therefore, all journalistshave to write news considering the

element. Even so, not every journalist does the same way in applying coherence. There is

difference character between news presented in paper, news showed in television, and news

displayed in online media.

The differences between the translation of broadcasted news and written news

(newspaper or online news) is the content. Broadcasting news translation should present an

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information that is short, simple, and clear, so that, the content is only the main point, less

detail explanation. While, written news translation is an information that should be clearly

provided, especially in online news in which people are able to read it everytime and

everywhere.As Lee (2006) stated, ―lead reduction is characteristic of broadcasting translation,

lead expansion figures more prominently in newspaper translation‖.

Actually, news in online media is the most dynamic of all. It means one topic from a

source or event can be divided into some news in different angle. The news about Maroon 5

concert in Jakarta, for example. A Journalist may write in point of view of the personeel that

includes how is the preparation and what they feel about Jakarta, etc. Journalist also can write

news in point of view of the fans such as what the opinion about Maroon 5 and what they feel

when they watch the concert. In addition, a journalist can also provide news about the t-shirt

seller of Maroon 5, such as how much money they earn after selling t-shirt in the concert.

Every piece of idea can be written in every single news.

Different matter happens in translated news where source structural coherence can be

changed in the translation. Whenever the content of the source consists of some point of

view, the translator often rewrites news in only one angle. The rest of angle will be re-writed

in another news of other angle. By this reason, it can be said that there will be much different

of structural coherence between the source and the target. There will be different narrative

between journalist of SL and the translator that plays role as TL journalist. Therefore, this

paper will highlight how much the different and what the effect of the change for the reader.

Essentially, narrative paradigm is the study about how people tell the story in

communication. ―We are thus all storytellers who ―creatively read and evaluate the text of

life and literature‖ (Fisher, 1985, p. 86). Beside narrator, people also act as audience who

listen and evaluate the story from another.All of the case, matter, or the part of life that

people tell is narrative. As Fisher (1987, p. 49) points out ―No matter how strictly a case is

argued – scientifically, philosphically, or legally – it will always be a story...,‖. Whatever

people tell, both science and social phenomena, is story.

As both storytellers and audience, people make decisions on the principle that Fisher

names ―good reason‖ determined by the history, culture, experience and the stories we come

to ultimately believe about the world (Baker, 2006, p. 142). According to Fisher (1987, p.

48), good reason is ―elements that provide warrants for accepting or adhering to the advice

fostered by any form of communication that can be considered rhetorical‖. It is used as the

parameter to decide whether the narration is good or bad. Warrants is the realization of good

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reason. In short, good reason is concept used to determine, while warrant is action that

―...authorizes, sanctions, or justifies belief, or action – the being the usual forms of rethorical

advice‖ (Fisher, 1987, p.107).However, good reason here does not mean the best ideology

compared with other. It is probably not always good for another. Sometimes, it is only good

for itself. It ―only signifies that whatever is takes as a basis for adopting a rhetotical messages

is inextricably bound to a value – to a conception of the good‖. Thus, the good reason

concept can be describes as value-laden, a personal value that may not be true in the strictest

sense but based on personal opinion values.

Then, Baker (2006) adopts this notion in communication between two language that is

mediated by translation. She adopts the Fisher‘s notion to assess the narrative of the

translation work compared with the original narrative. There are two principles that define

narrative rationality and embody the concept of good reasons in Fisher‘s paradigm, namely

coherence and fidelity.

Fisher‘s narrative coherence concerns the internal consistency and integrity of a

narrative (Baker, 2006, p. 143). To produce a good narrative, a writer should be consistent in

the work and related each other. It is, essentially, about how well structural coherence hangs

together as a story. Assessing coherence narrative consists of three elements; they are

structural coherence, material coherence, and characterogical coherence. Regarding that there

are so many structural change in news translation, I focus my study on structural coherence,

because it is the most explicit element in narrative.

Structural coherence or may be called as argumentative coherence refers to ―the

internal consistency of a narrative – whether or not it reveals contradictions within itself in

‗form of reasoning‘ (Fisher, 1997, p. 315). Baker (2006, p. 144-145) suggests two element

that create structural incoherence, namely inconsistency argument or the contradictive

occurence between the previous and the next idea and different syntactic choices or structural

change.

Structural change can be seen in an article published in Liputan6.comon October 9th

,

2012, a journalist - Tanti Yulianingsih tells Leeteuk Super Junior (SuJu), a Korean boyband,

asks people to keep smiling althought he will go in fulfilling army enlishment. Even so, there

is lack of structural coherence in Tanti‘s explanation as follows:

Leeteuk Super Junior mengajak fans agar selalu tersenyum. Ajakan itu disampaikan

Leeteuk kepada para penggemarnya di saat-saat terakhir menjelang kepergiannya

untuk menunaikan wajib militer.

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Laman global.mnet me edisi Senin (8/10) memberitakan bahwa Leeteuk kini

lebih optimistis menjalani kehidupannya. Seperti ceritanya melalui situs

Microblogging Twitter.

"Apakah kau bersenang-senang kemarin? ^_^ Setiap hari telah menjadi

sangat istimewa bagi saya. ~ Menghabiskan hari yang baik hari ini! Have a nice day!

^ ^, " tulisnya.(http://showbiz.liputan6.com/read/443336/leeteuk-ajak-dunia-dan-fans-

tersenyum, Retrieved November 17th

2012)

What I underline is a paragraph that sounds lack of coherence, in which the sentence

Leeuteuk kini lebih optimis menjalani kehidupannya seems unrelevant with the context. She

reports that Leeteuk is optimistic without the reason why he feels like that, eventhough there

is statement in first paragraph that the SuJu personnel will take army enlistment later. It is

better to arrange the narrative as the primary original article published in mwave.interest.me

as follows.

With the days counting down until his army enlistment, Super Junior‘s Leeteuk is

taking this optimistically.

On October 8, the leader tweeted, ―Did you have fun yesterday? ^^ Every

single day has become very special to me~ Spend a good day today! Have a nice

day!! ^^‖

He later added, ―^_____^ The perspective of everything in the world depends

on me. If I‘m sad, then everything becomes sad. If I‘m happy, then everything

becomes happy. Let‘s spend the remaining time happily and to the fullest..!! Let‘s

smile!! (http://mwave.interest.me/enewsworld/en/article/16955, Retrieved November

17th

2012)

The sentence begins with the information that Leeteuk takes optimistically in facing his army

enlistment. Then, he is told to ask people to smile. Comparing this with the translation, it

shows that the journalist changed the paragraph formation. She had change the structure

coherence in which she moves the first sentence idea (optimistic) into the second sentence.

However, what she did make the article to be lack of structural coherence, because the

sentence Laman global.mnet me edisi Senin (8/10) memberitakan bahwa Leeteuk kini lebih

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optimistis menjalani kehidupannya. Seperti ceritanya melalui situs Microblogging Twitter

impress another interpretation of what the source imply.

Research Methodology

In this study, I analyzed one articleand the two translationson BBC News that tells about

Hamas leader is killed as the main cause of the war between Israel and Palestine since

November 14th

2012. Thesource is the article in English BBC―Israeli air strike kills Hamas

military chief Jabari‖ published in November 14th

2012 - last updated at 21.46 GMT, then it

is translated into two articles in Indonesian BBC, ―Israel bunuh pemimpin militer Hamas‖

published in November 14th

2012 - last updated at 22.32 WIB and ―Netanyahu : Israel siap

memperluas operasi‖ published in November15th

2012- last updated at 07.40 WIB.

What I analyze is the selected structural change from the original into the translation,

such as the number and formation of paragraphs, sentence, and words. I also analyze how the

translator rewrites and reorganizes the composition of paragraph into one article and examine

how easy the news text to be separated and combine with other relevant text. Instead, it flows

smoothly.

Results

In the first news translation ―Israeli air strike kills Hamas military chief Jabari‖ into ―Israel

bunuh pemimpin militer Hamas‖, I find some structural changes. In the beginning of the

transformation, it can be seen the differences between the author and the translator in

narrating the story (see table 1 below). Basicly, the first two sentence written by the author is

translated into three sentence. These change is the difference of structural coherence in

narrative between the author and the translator.

Table 1 –The selected data in the first translation

Source Text Target Text

1) The head of the military wing of the PalestinianIslamist

group Hamas has been killed during Israeli air and naval

strikes in the Gaza Strip.

1. Pemimpin militer kelompok militan Palestina Hamas, Ahmed Jabari,

tewas dalam serangan udara Israel di Gaza.

2) Ahmed Said Khalil al-Jabari and another Hamas official

died when the car they were in was hit in Gaza City.

2. Ahmed Jabari, 46, tewas ketika mobil yang dikendarainya dihantam

serangan udara Israel selagi melaju di pusat kota Gaza pada Rabu

(14/11).

3)It follows a wave of rocket attacks against Israel

from the territory.

3. Dia memegang jabatan sebagai kepala sayapmiliter

Hamas Ezz El Dine Al Qassam. (doesn‘t match with the

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line 3) in the left side)

17) Mr Jabari, who was 46, is the most senior Hamas official to be

killed in the Gaza Strip since the major Israeli offensive four

years ago.

4. Jabari merupakan pejabat Hamas paling senior yang dibunuh Israel

sejak Israel menyerbu Gaza empat tahun lalu. Dia sudah lama berada

dalam daftar orang yang paling diburu. (this line represent the line 17)

of the source text in the left side, while the line 4) until 16) in the source

are spread into another translation)

Specifically, in the first line, the translator does not mention the detail of the Hamas

leader. Compared with the source that provides the word wing, the translator does not put the

meaning sayapin the beginning line. The translator embedssayap in the third line and adds

the full name of the organization Hamas Ezz El Dine Al Qassam that does not exist in the

original.

The most interesting case is the translator‘s decisionintransferring the word Islamist in

the first sentence. He translate Islamist into militan. In my opinion, actually, the translator

knows a lot about the readers, Indonesian people that are mostly moslems. He chooses the

word militan to avoid racism element, since Indonesian hardly support Hamas rather than

Israel.

Furthermore, the translator provides different narrative in describing Gaza Strip. The

translator does not embed the meaning of strip, but only provides Gaza in the translation. It is

probably because Indonesian readers have already known what Gazais. In the second line, the

translator adds the age 46 as mentioned by author in the seventeenth line. Beside that, the

translator does not put the translation of another Hamas official eventhough the leader killed

with him. The translator has just explained the another official killed in the next seven

lineSerangan udara Israel kali ini juga menewaskan sedikitnya satu pejabat lain dari Hamas.

In addition, the translator adds the time Rabu (14/11) that refers to the day of the

leader killed instead the author has not mentioned this in the original article. As I mentioned

above, the third line contains the translation of wing existed in the first line of the original and

the detail explanation of the leader position that is not present in the original.

Next, the forth line of translation is equivalent with the author narrates in the

seventeenth line. What the translator puts in the forth lineJabari merupakan pejabat Hamas

paling senior yang dibunuh Israel sejak Israel menyerbu Gaza empat tahun lalu. Dia sudah

lama berada dalam daftar orang yang paling diburu is the rendition of Mr Jabari, who was

46, is the most senior Hamas official to be killed in the Gaza Strip since the major Israeli

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offensive four years ago. Even so, the translator does not embed the age 46, since he has

already put it in the second sentence.

Considering the structure coherence, the translation is seen flows smoothly. There is

no contradiction, inconsistency and the sentence that break connection between the previous

and the next sentence. For this reason, what the translator reorganizes doesnot break

structural coherence of the work, instead the formation of sentence is changed.

The second news translation, ―Israeli air strike kills Hamas military chief Jabari‖ into

―Netanyahu: Israel siap memperluas operasi‖is the continuation of the incident of the Hamas

leader killed (see table 2 below). That is, Israel Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu declares

that his troops will extend the invasion. What the translator embeds in the first line is what

the author put in the forth line of the original. It shows the differences of the narration

between the original and the translation where the sentence formation is different.

Table 2 – The selected data in the second translation

Sentence 1) ... 3) ,

4) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was

prepared to broaden its operation against Hamas targets in Gaza.

... 5) ... 15)

1. Perdana Menteri Israel Benjamin Netanyahu mengatakan militer

negaranya bersiap untuk memperluas operasi terhadap Hamas di Jalur

Gaza.

16) "Today we've sent a clear message to Hamas and to other terrorist

organisations. And if there is a need, the Israeli Defense Forces are

prepared to widen the operation. We will continue to do everything to

defend our citizens," Mr Netanyahu said in a televised address.

2. "Hari ini kami telah mengirimkan sebuah pesan yang jelas ke Hamas dan

organisasi teroris lainnya,'' kata Netanyahu dalam sebuah pidato yang

disiarkan di televisi.

3. "Dan jika dibutuhkan, Angkatan Bersenjata Israel tengah bersiap untuk

memperluas operasi. Kami akan terus melakukan apapun untuk

membela warga negara kami.'‖

Specifically, in the first line, the translator makes the meaning Gaza to be explicit,

that is Jalur Gaza. The choice is probably because the translator wants to provide the more

familiar word to Indonesian reader. Jalur Gaza is probably better known by them. Then, the

translator applies different structure in providing Netanyahu statement. In original article, the

statement existed in the sixth line fit in one set of quotation. That is, ―Today we've sent a

clear message to Hamas and to other terrorist organisations. And if there is a need, the

Israeli Defense Forces are prepared to widen the operation. We will continue to do

everything to defend our citizens," Mr Netanyahu said in a televised address. While, the

translator divides the statement into two part in the translation, namely 1) "Hari ini kami

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telah mengirimkan sebuah pesan yang jelas ke Hamas dan organisasi teroris lainnya,'' kata

Netanyahu dalam sebuah pidato yang disiarkan di televisi, and 2) "Dan jika dibutuhkan,

Angkatan Bersenjata Israel tengah bersiap untuk memperluas operasi. Kami akan terus

melakukan apapun untuk membela warga negara kami.‖Furthermore, the author embed Mr

Netanyahu said in a televised address after the statement end. While, the translator puts it

after the first line of what Netanyahu declare.

Moreover, this decision is probably conducted because the translator aims to shows

the news that is better-looking. Displaying two sentence in short form is better than providing

one sentence in long form. It is the translator‘s principle to render this paragraph. As the

previous analysis, what the translator had change is does not matter to the reader, even it

looks better.

Table 3 – The selected data in the second translation

4. Dia tewas saat mobilnya menjadi target serangan udara Israel di kawasan

tersebut.(the re-statement of the first translation)

5) At least nine people had been killed in Gaza by the Israeli strikes

and that number would probably rise, the Palestinian envoy to the

United Nations, Riyad Mansou, told reporters in New York.

5. Selain Jabari dan seorang pejabat Hamas lainnya, serangan itu juga

menewaskan sedikitnya sembilan orang di Gaza, angka ini kemungkinan

akan bertambah, demikian kata utusan Palestina di PBB, Riyad Mansou,

kepada wartawan di New York.

6) A number of injured civilians were seen being taken to hospital in

Gaza City.

6. Sejumlah korban luka dari warga sipil, termasuk anak-anak, terlihat

dibawa ke rumah sakit di Kota Gaza.

7. Jabari, 46, merupakan tokoh senior Hamas yang terbunuh di Jalur Gaza

sejak serangan besar Israel empat tahun lalu. (the re-statement of the first

translation)

The forth, fifth, and eight line in the second translation are restatement of the previous

translated news (see table 3 above). In other words, what the translator embeds in sentence 4,

5, and 8 is the translation of the first line of the original news entitled ―Israel bunuh

pemimpin militer Hamas‖. Then, they are retold again in ―Netanyahu: Israel siap memperluas

operasi‖. This decision is obliged to conduct because when the journalist narrate about

Netanyahu that declares Israel prepares to extense the invansion, he also should put the

background or the previous story. These changes shows the different narration done by

translator compared with the journalist and the change doesn‘t influence the structural

coherence. The translation is readable, understandble, even seems better.

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The interesting point can be seen in line 6 of the translation. The translator

addstermasuk anak-anak, as the way to produce the news translation to be more tragic and to

invite the reader to be sympathy or feel the pain of Palestine citizen. Again, the translator

realizes that the relationship between Indonesian and Palestine is so close. Every sadness of

Palestine will stimulate empathy to Indonesian.

Overall, the translator here decides so many changes in form of sentence formation. The

translator dividesone original article into two articles. The translator replaces the position in

which the sentence line in the translation is different with the source. The translator also gives

additional information that does not exist in the source. The translator puts subtitle to make

the reader more comfortable to read the article. By applying this, the reader has choice to

continue read the information until the end or not. The translator restates the sentence in the

second article that has been mentioned in the first article. Lastly, the translator decides to

divide one sentence into two sentences.

Conclusion

Despite many structural changes in the BBC online news translation, the coherence is

stillpresent. The idea flows smoothly from the beginning until the end of sentence. Baker‘s

opinion (2006, p. 145) that states structural coherence may be created by syntactic choice is

not proved here. In fact, althought the translator changes the formation of sentence, structural

coherence stills flows smoothly, even better than the original. Comparing English BBC news

and the Indonesian, it is going to say that narrative International Journalist (IJ) is different

with Local Journalist (LJ). The LJ provide a news to be concentrated. While the IJ make the

idea spread in some part.

References

Baker, M. (2006). Translation and conflict: Narrative account. New York:Routledge.

BBC Online News. Retrieved November 17th

2012,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-

middle-east-20328579

http://www.bbc.co.uk/indonesia/dunia/2012/11/121114_hamas_militaryleader.shtml,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/indonesia/dunia/2012/11/121115_israelhamas.shtml

Fisher, Walter R. (1985). The narrative paradigm: In the beginning. Journal of

Communication 35(4): 74-89.

Fisher, Walter R. (1987). Humman communication as Narration:Toward a phylosophy of

reason, value, and action. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.

Fisher, Walter R. (1997). Narration, reason, and community. In Lewis P. Hinchman and

Sandra K. Hinchman (Eds.), Memory, identity, community: The idea of narrative in the

human sciences. Albany: State University of New York Press.

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Lee, C. (2006). Differences in news translation between broadcasting and newspapers: A case

study of Korean-English translation. Meta : journal des traducteurs / Meta:

Translators' Journal, vol. 51, n° 2, p. 317-327.

Liputan6.com News Portal, Kreatif Media Karya (KMK) Online, SCTV. Retrieved

November 17th

2012,http://showbiz.liputan6.com/read/443336/leeteuk-ajak-dunia-dan-

fans-tersenyum

Rizki Gunawan