Risk Management in Media Translation: Watching America as a Case Study

Objectives: This paper analyzes risk management in a corpus of Arabic newspaper articles translated into English by the American-based news and translation website Watching America (WA) with the help of volunteer translators. Methods: The study conducts a qualitative and quantitative analysis of translational decisions made at multiple (macro and micro or institutional and individual) levels using a risk management framework. Results: The findings reveal an improved textual clarity and cultural acceptability, suggesting a strong tendency on the translators’ part to reduce the risk of not fulfilling the translations’ communicative function and losing trusting relationships with the other participants in the translation event (e.g. editors and readers). Conclusion: This risk-reduction orientation is likely motivated by the moral discourse adopted by WA. WA foregrounds the benefits of the Americans to understand the world and discursively portrays volunteer translation as a social and ethical act that can help Americans engage in intercultural dialogue. This discourse may have motivated volunteer translators to put more weight on clarity, comprehensibility and cultural appropriateness, than translation faithfulness or accuracy. Cooperation and mutual interests seem also to enhance the risk-reduction behavior. Whereas for example WA offers translators a chance to gain experience and build a professional portfolio, translators in turn maintain their credibility by avoiding giving any unclear and or unacceptable translations that do not help WA accomplish its mission toward American readers.