Analyzing Issues in the Arabic Subtitling of English Political Texts: A Case Study of Adel Al Jubeir’s Speeches

Abstract

This is a case study that will examine political and media theories and procedures and how to apply them in the translation of Adel Al Jubeir's speeches. One of the important fields of translation is political translation. The sensitivity and importance of this field have made a huge impact on translation procedures and theories. Nowadays, the existence of world wide web made communication easier and accessible, and political materials are available at any time. This research will analyze the subtitles of the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al Jubeir’s speeches. Then, this research will analyze the Arabic subtitling of these speeches by applying the theories mentioned by Schäffner and Bassnett in their book Political Discourse, Media and Translation (2010) and other theories written by other scholar in Adel Al Jubeir’s speeches. Moreover, the thesis will discuss the challenges and issues a translator may face while translating political texts and the procedures used to overcome these challenges. The subtitled videos are from different official news agencies' YouTube channels and from amateur translators’ channels. Furthermore, the thesis will examine the most common procedures to render the meaning and produce the same effect of the ST on the audience of the TL. Also, there will be a quantitative data collection which will analyze the feedback from a survey done on a focused group of translators and journalists regarding the mentioned issues. The findings of the research have shown variations between news agencies' subtitling and amateur subtitling including stylistic features such as addition, omission, paraphrasing…etc. These stylistic features affected the quality of the subtitling presented by both subtitlers. This thesis also has shown the opinion of the focus group who participated in a questionnaire to support the purpose of this research. Furthermore, this research paper would recommend further studies on subtitled political videos covering the technical issues faced by subtitlers. Also, I would recommend for an extensive questionnaire covering a wider range of subtitlers, translators and journalists as this study was applied only on a focus group of translators and journalists