T.C. DOĞUŞ UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES TRANSLATION STUDIES GATEKEEPERS AS A SHAPING FORCE IN TV INTERPRETING PhD DISSERTATION ÖZÜM ARZIK ERZURUMLU 2013189003 SUPERVISOR PROF. DR. IŞIN BENGİ-ÖNER JURY MEMBERS PROF. DR. AYŞE BANU KARADAĞ ASSOCIATE PROF. MİNE ÖZYURT KILIÇ ASSISTANT PROF. OYA BERK ASSISTANT PROF. NİLÜFER ALİMEN ISTANBUL, JUNE 2016   ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My gratitude goes first and foremost to my thesis supervisor Prof. Işın Bengi-Öner for confiding in me and making me believe that I could contribute to the field as a practisearcher. Secondly, I would like to thank Associate Prof. Yaman Ömer Erzurumlu for his endless support. It was thanks to his unwavering support that I decided to go into the PhD program. He believed in me, listened to me talk about the articles that I read endlessly. He never ceased to encourage me. I am so glad that I have you as a friend and a husband to lean on. My heartfelt thanks go to my family. I would like to thank mum for bearing with me and leaving me alone in order not to intervene in my studies. My heartfelt thanks go to my brother for his being part of my project, helping me with the deciphering. I would not have penned this thesis without their contribution, love and support. I extend heartfelt gratitude to all my professors in CETRA 2015, especially Franz Pöchhacker. You truly helped to clarify my mind. Last but not least, I would like to thank the person to whom I dedicate my thesis, my father. It took perseverance yet I never stopped following the path he paved for me. I cordially thank him for introducing me to the world of books, for imbuing me with the love of reading at all times no matter where I am. ii       ABSTRACT TV interpreting has recently been considered as significantly different from conference interpreting. TV interpreting is indeed an institutional practice with its own norms and constraints. As a consequence of the institutionalization of the process, TV interpreting has turned into one of the realms where a gatekeeping process might be exercised. However, little attention has been devoted to the gatekeepers shaping the field of TV interpreting. This thesis sets out to reveal the gates behind TV interpreting. Interviews conducted with interpreters, a cameraman, editors-in-chief, and correspondents were analyzed using a comprehensive theoretical framework defining gatekeeping and compared against real instances of TV interpreting. As a result of the analysis of the findings, it is suggested that the policies of media outlets covering translation and language policy, the perception of the interpreters regarding the profession and their role, and their work conditions all function as gatekeepers. Therefore, the target text has to go through all those gates to be able to reach the audience. The hypothesis also points to the interediting (interpreting and editing) nature of TV interpreting. Key Words: TV interpeting, transediting, gatekeeping, interpreter, ethos. iii       ÖZET TV’de sözlü çeviri, yakın zamanda konferans çevirmenliğinden ayrı değerlendirilmeye başlamıştır. TV’de sözlü çeviri, aslında, kendi normları ve kısıtlamaları olan kurumsal bir uygulamadır. Sürecin kurumsallaşmasının bir sonucu olarak TV’de yapılan sözlü çeviri, İngilizce gatekeeping olarak ifade edilen eşik tutuculuk sürecinin uygulanabildiği alanlardan birine dönüşmüştür. Bu tez, TV’da icra edilen sözlü çevirinin arkasındaki eşik tutucuları açığa çıkarmayı amaçlar. Haber kanallarında çalışan sözlü çevirmenler, kameraman, editörler ve muhabirler ile yapılan açık uçlu röportaj sonuçları televizyon kanallarında yayınlanan gerçek sözlü çeviri örnekleri ile bir araya getirilmiştir. Bulguların analiz edilmesi sonucunda, televizyon kanallarının çeviri ve dil politikası da dahil olmak üzere politikalarının, tercümanların mesleğe ve kendi rollerine ilişkin algılarının ve iş koşullarının eşik tutucu işlevi gördüğü tespit edilmiştir. Dolayısıyla, hedef metnin seyirciye ulaşabilmesi için tüm bu eşiklerden geçmesi gerekmektedir. Bu hipotez, eşik tutuculuğun meydana geldiği sözlü çeviri örnekleri incelenerek test de edilmiştir. Hipotez, aynı zamanda, televizyonda tercüme- düzenleme (tercüme ve düzenlemenin aynı anda yapıldığı) doğasına da dikkat çekmektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: TV’de sözlü çeviri, tercüme, sözlü çeviri, gatekeeping (eşik tutuculuk), etos. iv       TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................................................... ii   ABSTRACT ..............................................................................................................................iii   ÖZET......................................................................................................................................... iv   TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... v   LIST OF FIGURES.................................................................................................................viii   LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... ix   LIST OF ABBREVATIONS ..................................................................................................... x   INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................... 1   1   Overview of TV Interpreting................................................................................................ 4   1.1   TV Interpreting as a Profession..................................................................................... 4   1.1.1   Different Modes and Practices of TV Interpreting................................................. 5   1.2   Discussion of the Profession in Literature with Emphasis on Norms & Constraints ... 8   1.3   TV Interpreting in Turkey ........................................................................................... 20   1.3.1   History.................................................................................................................. 20   1.3.2   Modes ................................................................................................................... 21   2   Historical Overview of TI in News Outlet in Turkey ........................................................ 27   2.1   Review of the History of the Profession in Turkey..................................................... 27   2.2   Turkish TV Interpreting in News Outlets Today ........................................................ 30   2.3   TV Interpreter Training............................................................................................... 35   2.4   Conclusion: A Profession in the Making .................................................................... 37   3   Theoretical Framework ...................................................................................................... 39   3.1   Gatekeeping: Inter-Editing or Mere Interpreting? ...................................................... 39   3.1.1   Origins of Gatekeeping ........................................................................................ 39   3.1.2   Gatekeeping and News......................................................................................... 40   v       3.1.3   Gatekeeping and News Translation...................................................................... 44   3.2   Gatekeeping as Interediting......................................................................................... 52   3.2.1   Discussion of the Term Transediting ................................................................... 52   3.2.2   Interediting as a Term Encompassing Interpreting and Editing........................... 55   3.3   Gatekeeping as Translation Policy .............................................................................. 56   3.4   Gatekeeping as Policy Documents .............................................................................. 62   3.5   Gatekeeping as Exercising Agency/ Ethos.................................................................. 68   4   Data Collection Methodology ............................................................................................ 71   4.1   In- Depth Interviews.................................................................................................... 72   4.1.1   Selection of the Candidates .................................................................................. 73   4.1.2   Administering the Open- Ended Interview .......................................................... 78   4.1.3   Transcription Methods ......................................................................................... 86   4.1.4   Analyzing Interview Data .................................................................................... 89   4.1.5   Thematic Coding .................................................................................................. 89   4.2   Working with a Corpus ............................................................................................... 94   4.2.1   Collating the Corpus............................................................................................. 94   4.2.2   Subject Matter and Dates of the Corpus............................................................... 95   4.2.3   Transcription and Alignment ............................................................................. 101   5   Analysis of Data (Interviews and Corpus) ....................................................................... 103   5.1   Policies of Media Outlets as a Gate .......................................................................... 103   5.1.1   Ownership Structure........................................................................................... 107   5.1.2   Translation Policy .............................................................................................. 112   5.2   Interpreters’ Perception as a Gate ............................................................................. 127   5.2.1   Interpreters’ Role................................................................................................ 134   5.2.2   Their Working Conditions ................................................................................. 147   5.3   Instances of Interpreting as Gatekeepers................................................................... 160   5.3.1   Government’s Policy as a Gate .......................................................................... 161   vi       5.3.2   Interpreter’s Ethos as a Gate .............................................................................. 171   6   CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 178   APPENDICES........................................................................................................................ 198   APPENDIX A ........................................................................................................................ 198   APPENDIX B ........................................................................................................................ 200   APPENDIX C ........................................................................................................................ 204   vii       LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 The Three Levels of Interpreted Media Event (Source: Katan & Straniero Sergio, 2003)......................................................................................................................................... 51   Figure 4.1 MAXQDA screenshot of a coded fragment of interview with MO3 Interpreter 1. 91   Figure 4.2 MAXQDA screenshot: The number of the utterances related to a coding ............. 92   Figure 4.3 MAXQDA screenshot of a number of codes and sub codes assigned to the interview segments ................................................................................................................... 93   Figure 5.1 All sub codes gathered under 3 main codes.......................................................... 106   Figure 5.2 Breakdown of main codes pertaining to the policies of MOs............................... 112   Figure 5.3 Sub code breakdown of the code “subjects”......................................................... 121   Figure 5.4 Breakdown of the codes related to interpreter’s role ............................................ 134   Figure 5.5 Breakdown of the code lexical alterations ............................................................ 163   viii       LIST OF TABLES 4.1 Breakdown of the respondents according to their profession ............................................ 76   4.2 Breakdown of the respondents based on the media outlets................................................ 76   4.3 Demographics of the respondents joining the research...................................................... 76   4.4 Conventions used in interview transcripts (adapted from Duflou, 2015: 66) .................... 86   4.5 Subject matter list of MO1 ................................................................................................. 96   4.6 Subject breakdown of the corpus in MO1.......................................................................... 98   4.7 Subject matter list of MO2 ................................................................................................. 99   Table 5.1 Code list related to the policies of the media outlets ............................................. 103   Table 5.2 List of the news outlets in Turkey.......................................................................... 108   Table 5.3 Channel List of TRT .............................................................................................. 110   Table 5.4 Distribution of the interpreting examples of MO1................................................. 122   Table 5.5 Breakdown of the codes related to the interpreters’ perception............................. 127   Table 5.6 Three outstanding codes related to the working conditions of the interpreters and the number of their occurrences in the analysis tool.................................................................... 147   ix       LIST OF ABBREVATIONS MO Media Outlet x       INTRODUCTION “We are a part of this century. This century is a part of us,” said Eric Hobsbawm at the outset of the twentieth century, as Geert Mak informs us (Mak, 2009). Could the same thing be said regarding the profession of television interpreting? Could an interpreter say, “I am a part of TV interpreting, TV interpreting is a part of me” or else could it be put in the following way: “I am part of the media outlet I have been working for and the same media outlet is a part of me.” If this holds true for an interpreter, what kind of a relationship does it suggest between the media outlet and the interpreter? Moreover, does this relationship manifest itself in the interpreting produced? To put it differently, borrowing from Theo Hermans, whose language do we hear in interpreting? Hermans maintains that “We regard – or better: we are prepared, we have been conditioned in this regard – the interpreter’s voice as a carrier without a substance of its own, a virtually transparent vehicle” (1996: 282). However, is it purely the interpreter’s voice that we are hearing? Does the voice of the interpreter go through any gates until it reaches the audience? How do those gates mold the interpreting we hear on news channels? These questions are the ones that this thesis sets out to reveal. In this regard, the question of how gatekeepers shape TV interpreting in news outlets will be answered. The importance attached to TV interpreting has increased significantly in recent decades and it has come to be called a different form of interpreting in its own right, combining various interpreting modes. However, despite the fact that TV interpreting has become an institutionalized process, replete with its own gatekeeping mechanisms – as this thesis suggests – this has been highly overlooked in studies related to TV interpreting. Since what is deemed newsworthy needs to make its way into the gates/filters, TV interpreting has taken its share out of being a part of the gate keeping process. This thesis, drawing on data (interviews and corpora) taken from two public and two private news channels employing full time interpreters, reveals the gatekeepers guiding TV interpreting in Turkey. In this respect, it is suggested that TV interpreting itself is a process shaped by a number of gatekeepers. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses have been conducted with a view to laying bare the big picture underpinning the totality of TV interpreting. By drawing on data, the question as to which gates impinge on the interpreter-mediated interaction will be addressed. In this regard, open- ended interviews were conducted with a. The interpreters of the related media institutions 1       b. The editors who are in charge of the content selected and presented to the people c. The correspondents who either serve as interpreters or whose work is rendered by interpreters d. A cameraman who serves as an interpreter in an uncommon language pair. Moreover, those interviews are conflated with interpreting examples from those media outlets. The first chapter includes a general overview of TV interpreting. Accordingly, different modes and practices of TV interpreting are discussed. A critical review of the TV interpreting literature is then provided, followed by a general examination of TV interpreting in Turkey, detailing its history and various modes. The second chapter is a deeper historical overview of TV interpreting in news outlets in Turkey. The history of the profession and TV interpreting training are addressed. The third chapter is devoted to the theoretical framework grounding my research. The definitions of the key concepts gatekeeping and interediting (interpreting and editing perpetuated simultaneously) are offered. Furthermore, the relationship between gatekeeping and translation policy and agency/ethos is addressed. The policy documents that might serve as gatekeepers, AIIC guidelines and RTÜK –Radio and Television Supreme Council– guidelines, are discussed. Chapter four is a discussion of the study’s data collection methods. The ways that candidates were selected, interviews administered, and data transcribed and analyzed are all defined here. Beyond that, the method that was used to collate the corpus is also described. Following the theoretical framework and data collection methodology, the fifth chapter is devoted to an analysis of the data, that is, interviews and actual interpreting occurrences on TV. Accordingly, first the ownership structure of the news outlets in Turkey is considered, followed by an analysis of the translation policy and language policy of analyzed media outlets. Secondly, the interpreters’ perception of their profession, that is, how they manifest their ethos, is discussed. Their role as cultural agents, their inadvertent and deliberate acts, their stance as conformists and non-conformists in Toury’s sense (1995) are taken up. Moreover, how their working conditions (risk, dilemma, drawing attention to audience and 2       the profession of TV interpreting itself) operate as gatekeepers is examined. In the third part of this chapter, real interpreting instances are analyzed to illustrate the findings of the interviews. The analysis’ results, namely that the two most prominent gates are government policy and the interpreter’s ethos, confirm the findings of the open- ended interviews. The results are extensively discussed in the conclusion. It is suggested that TV interpreting goes through all the following gates: policy (translation policy incorporating language policy, policy documents, government’s/state’s policy, institutional policy), interpreter’s ethos (his/her understanding of the profession, and himself or herself), their working conditions and the roles they assume (all the interpreters hold dual titles and assume a journalistic title). It is believed that the present thesis, challenging the view, which considers interpreters solely as conduits of information, contributes to a large number of studies by revealing interpreter mediation and agency. The thesis, taking data from Turkey, demonstrates that gatekeeping is exercised in TV interpreting in Turkey- a point, which also holds true for TV interpreting universally. The appendix details the questions addressed in the questionnaire, along with the reasoning behind those questions, the number of occurrences of key terms in the tool employed to analyze the interviews, and the source texts of excerpts used. 3       1 Overview of TV Interpreting From time to time they invite an author who cannot speak French and they bring him or her into the French discussion by means of simultaneous interpretation. But they keep the same interpreter on the air throughout the program, and they choose the interpreter with care so that his or her voice matches the appearance and character of the guest. Their interpreters are always top class, and the result is very close to looking at a film, which has been dubbed. I would not want to generalize from this one program, but we may speculate that perhaps TV interpreting is going to develop some different norms from the established ones of conference interpreting. Brian Harris, 1990: 116. 1.1 TV Interpreting as a Profession TV Interpreting gained ground following the live interpreting of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon and it has come to cover conference interpreting, as well as broadcast or media interpreting, as mentioned by Kumiko Torikai in her study regarding the oral history of interpreters in Japan, focusing on their habitus1 in Bourdieu’s sense. Torikai puts those days as follows: It was the first and possibly only time ordinary people saw simultaneous interpreters at work on TV screen (broadcast interpreters today work in a booth, hidden from the audience) which had a tremendous impact on arousing their interest in simultaneous interpreting, resulting in increased visibility of interpreters in Japan (2009: 38). Based on this account it is clear that in 1969 TV stations displayed the interpreter. Torikai informs us that broadcast interpreting is becoming a profession on its own, distinct from other vocations; this is despite the fact that it is still commonplace to see conference interpreters working for the media (2009: 10). Tsuruta maintains that it was during the Gulf War that TV interpreting became more visible (2003: 30) (just as is the case in Turkey, to be discussed below). 1 For a discussion of the term habitus, please see section 3.5. 4       In France, TV interpreting started in the 1960s, as Bros-Brann informs us. In AIIC’s website Eliane Bros- Brann states that in that decade several unusual programs were being interpreted every week: "Les Dossiers de l'Ecran" (screen files), a program in which a fiction feature film was shown, followed by a live discussion between guests, including foreigners, having some relationship to the subject of the film”. The profession, in time, established different norms in different geographies and countries. On the Franco-German channel ARTE (Pöchhacker 2011; Andres/Fünfer 2011) and Japanese TV stations, to cite two examples, TV interpreting is perpetuated heavily. In analyzing the profession I will first look into the modes of TV Interpreting and then move on to a description of the different practices within the field. 1.1.1 Different Modes and Practices of TV Interpreting Bistra Alexieva (1999) groups interpreter mediated TV events under three headings: participant variables; the nature of TV text as a polysemiotic product and the communicative goals and negotiation strategies of the primary participants; and the choice of mode of delivering. Dal Fovo holds that “interpreters on television may work in various modes, depending on the broadcast profile and interaction type they perform in” (2011: 4). In her grouping of those modes, simultaneous and consecutive interpreting come to the fore. Castillo (2015: 281) groups mass media interpreting into liaison, simultaneous and simultaneous/liaison. He maintains: Live and recorded broadcast events related to the coverage of news (e.g. 24 hour news channels, such as the BBC World Service and Spanish State TV’s Canal 24 Horas of RTVE), news reports (e.g. world news reports on ARTE) and worldwide broadcast events (e.g. the Tour de France) typically involve simultaneous remote interpreting (though not always), as well as interpreting team planning and organization. From a technical point of view, these types of broadcast involve multilateral connections between different media institutions (2015: 282). As for Dal Fovo, this selection based on the type of event is described differently. Dal Fovo holds that simultaneous interpreting is selected mostly for the interpretation of institutional events (presidential debates, victory speeches, addresses to the nation), link-ups with foreign 5       broadcasting channels (breaking news, briefings, press conferences) and media events (funerals, wedding ceremonies), while consecutive interpreting is usually selected for face-to- face interactions (talk shows, interviews, press conferences) (2011: 4). Mack (2002) also maintains that there should be a major distinction between interpreting involving interpreters in a studio-based communicative event (with or without the presence of an audience), and the simultaneous interpreting of broadcast events in a remote location. Pöchhacker holds that “In the former case, interpreters may be “on the set”, facing the interactional challenges typical of dialogue interpreting in the short consecutive mode; in the latter, the focus is on simultaneous interpreting, more often than not of speeches with a high level of information density as a result of careful preparation or scripting” (Pöchhacker 2011: 22). In terms of mode, I suggest that TV interpreting can be grouped under four main categories: simultaneous, consecutive, sight and sign interpreting. When it comes to on-sight interpreting, based on my own experience, I hold that sight interpreting is also a mode of TV interpreting. To cite an example, if a media outlet has a Washington- based correspondent, and he/she gets the text before the speech that the US president will deliver, then in this case, sight interpreting will be used, that is, the interpreter will translate the written text into a verbal form. Sign language is also another mode of interpreting that one might see on TV. In this case, the interpreter usually appears in a small corner of the screen. This mode of interpreting is mostly employed in press conferences. Moreover, just like the consecutive mode employed in TV shows, the interpreter is visible. As for the practices of TV interpreting, Castillo, in The Routledge Handbook of Interpreting, maintains, “Different interpreting practices arise depending on the medium (radio, TV), the format (live, recorded, edited, etc.), and the media institution’s conventions, which are usually established through practice and experience” (2015: 289). It is worth noting that in simultaneous mode, the interpreter is invisible and his/her voice comes in a voice-over “largely covering the original also for those who would prefer to hear more of the source language they understand” in Pöchhacker’s words (2007: 125). Yet, the audience’s hearing both the source and target language simultaneously might make him/her 6       criticize the interpreter very easily despite being ignorant of the norms of or constraints on the interpreter’s performance at that point in time. In analyzing the practices involved in interpreting, it is important to note that simultaneous interpreting might be sub-grouped based on various elements in TV interpreting. To cite an example, the interpreting event itself might not be performed live, it might be recorded and broadcasted later on, or else, footage prepared previously might be interpreted in a studio. In this case, the interpreter “may not share space (hic) and time (nunc) with the other participants in the communication event” (Falbo 2012: 163). Therefore, simultaneous interpreting on TV differs to a great extent from simultaneous interpreting done at conferences in that in conferences sharing the hic and nunc with the speaker and participants is simply a must. Castillo states “the distinction between simultaneous interpreting in presentia and simultaneous interpreting in absentia proves to be essential”. Falbo and Straniero Sergio describe this issue as follows: in the former case simultaneous interpreting is performed by an interpreter sharing the hic et nunc of the unfolding program and who is necessary in order for primary interlocutors to mutually understand each other; in the latter case simultaneous interpreting is carried out by an interpreter who is simply ‘useless’ for the primary interlocutors but essential for the television audience and professionals introducing and commenting on the foreign broadcast (Falbo and Straniero Sergio, 2011: XVII). One of the practices in which TV interpreting is employed widely is talk show interpreting, as suggested by Katan and Straniero Sergio (2011). They hold that viewers’ comfort and entertainment stand out as the main yardsticks against which the performance of the interpreter is measured. In this practice, the invisible interpreter gains visibility however unwillingly as they maintain “at times, the interpreter is also a full-fledged primary participant – whether they like it or not” (Katan/ and Straniero Sergio 2001: 217). To conclude, the mode and practice of interpreting chosen by different media outlets has to do with the outlets’ goals in the first place. According to the chosen mode and practice, different elements such as visibility, role of the interpreter, the feedback he/she gets (if the interpreter is in the studio interpreting live, he/she has the chance to get feedback immediately) are subject to change. 7       1.2 Discussion of the Profession in Literature with Emphasis on Norms & Constraints Despite the fact that broadcast interpreting (O’Hagan 2002), media interpreting (Straniero Sergio 2003, Ingrid Kurz 1997, Pöchacker 2007) and TV Interpreting (Pöchhacker 2011, Serrano 2011, Dörte& Fünfer 2011, Dal Favo 2013) - all, of course, the exact same thing – have been the subject matter of various research projects, it is only recently that TV interpreting has begun to be considered separately from other types of interpreting. In line with the purposes of this thesis, I will be using the term TV interpreting, as the term media interpreting might refer to film interpreting in simultaneous mode, a subject outside the focus of this thesis. Pöchhacker holds that media interpreting covers radio as well (2010: 224). To O’Hagan, “TV interpreting is part of the larger field of media interpreting which also includes radio and newer types of electronic media and transmission such as webcasting and other forms of Remote Interpreting” (O’Hagan/Ashworth 2002). The subject of TV interpreting became a focus of academic research with the early contributions of Kurz, starting in the 1980’s. Kurz, an experienced media interpreter and researcher herself who penned the first doctoral thesis in the realm of interpreting, in her paper “Overcoming Language Barriers in European Television” (1990) dwells upon the challenges of interpretation in the media and considers TV interpreting “a new job profile which is rewarding and interesting” (1990: 174). Kurz, in 1997, holds that, interpretation for the media is a form of communicative language transfer requiring editorial decisions, content related judgments and cultural considerations2 (1997: 197). Pöchhacker, back in 2007, maintains that “compared with such major forms of audiovisual translation such as dubbing and subtitling, media interpreting is a relatively marginal domain, in terms of both volume and scope of application (2007: 123). Yet, four years later Pöchhacker, claims that “interpreting in the media has become acknowledged as a specialization in its own right rather than an aspect of conference interpreting” (2011: 22), thereby delineating TV interpreting as a separate form of interpreting. 2 I emphasized those terms because they correspond to the dual role of the TV interpreter in Turkey as will be discussed at length in the analysis section. 8       Research in the realm of TV interpreting, however, has not been the only factor contributing to the increasing interest in this particular realm of study. Geopolitical events such as the Gulf War, where the interpreters worked round the clock, interpreting in shifts, to name one example, have contributed to making interpreters and the profession of interpreting more visible to laymen. Pursuing this line of argument, Tsuruta (2003: 30) states that it was during the Gulf War that the television interpreter came to be distinguished from the conference interpreter. Research in TV interpreting has indeed attracted the interest of various scholars. The quality of TV interpreting and the criteria used to assess it are some of the most prevalent research topics in TV interpreting. Kurz and Pöchhacker, in their 1995 article, “Quality in TV Interpreting,” shed light on the challenging aspects of TV interpreting, and comparing conference and media interpreting, reached the conclusion that the interpreter’s pleasant voice, native accent, and fluency of delivery become more salient in terms of quality assessment on TV interpreting. Yves Gambier (1997) focused on media and court interpreting in her book, which is made up of the proceedings of the International Conference on Interpreting, held in Turku between August 25- 27, 1994. One of the articles in this volume was penned by David Snelling et. al. on media and court interpreting. Akura Mizuno (1997), in David Snelling’s article, mentions the public’s expectations of media interpreters and what media interpreters must endeavor to do to meet them. Interpreting in the 21st Century, which is a collection of the selected papers from the first Forli conference on Interpreting studies, held November 9-11, 2000, also contains three articles pertaining to TV interpreting. Ingrid Kurz (2002), focusing on the psychological stress responses during media and conference interpreting, asserts that stress in TV interpreting stems from: physical environment, work related factors and psycho emotional stress factors. Drawing on the pulse rate recordings of the interpreters, she concludes that during live TV interpreting, an interpreter is exposed to more stress than interpreting a medical conference. In the same book, Gabriele Mack, from the University of Bologna, focuses on the differences of TV interpreting and conference interpreting. As for the purpose of TV interpreting, Pöchhacker (2004: 15) contends that TV interpreting is designed to make foreign language broadcasting content accessible to “the media users within the socio cultural community”. Therefore, TV interpreting is geared towards not only a group of people as is the case in conferences, but to a larger and more varied segment of the society. 9       Moreover, to Pöchhacker’s contention, since spoken-language TV interpreting is often from English, albeit involving personalities and content from the international sphere, TV interpreting appears as a hybrid form on the inter-to intra social continuum (ibid: 15). In this regard, the content or the subject of TV interpreting might have to be analyzed in detail to see whether it is hybrid or not. When it comes to the discourse of international organizations, the International Association of Conference Interpreters, AIIC, names TV interpreting as “a different sort of world” on its web site and it states that interpreting for the media differs from interpreting for a conference. Brian Harris, in a similar vein, (1990: 116), also states that TV interpreting might develop some norms that are different from the ones already established in conference interpreting. He asserts that it looks as if those norms are already in being created, which one can see by looking at the approaches of different scholars and/or interpreters. To cite an example, Vincent Buck, working for the Franco- German broadcaster ARTE, maintains that the main difference between working on a live news program and conference interpreting lies in timing and synchronization (Buck, 2012)3. What he means by synchrony is “to be in synchrony with the anchor in terms of delivery and style and not overrunning the original”. One other important aspect is the role the producer plays for the interpreter since the producer can tell the interpreter to wrap up or warn him/her with respect to how much time he/she has left. Kurz (1990:170) mentioned this as well, noting that the media interpreter must endeavor to interpret very rapidly without “hanging over” excessively after the speaker has finished. Hence, minimizing time lag to the speaker (decalage) is more important in comparison to a normal conference interpreting setting because the camera will not wait for the interpreter to finish his/her sentence. Once the interpreted source text- speech is finished, the program will proceed without further ado. One other important feature of TI is the fact that it requires the interpreter to keep abreast of the news all the time. To Vincent Buck, it even entails being a news junkie. It stands to reason that being knowledgeable about the agenda, world news, and following the news from various resources helps one a lot in terms of a last-minute assignment. Moreover, preparation is a sine que non in such an ad hoc assignment. In this sense, the interpreter might have to acquire the 3 http://aiic.net/page/3851/exploring-media-interpreting/lang/1 (accessed on May, 2015). 10       skills and sharpness of a journalist as well. Sergio Viaggio notes the various skills that need to be employed by the interpreter. [...] He is expected to be a consummate mediator with the psychomotor reflexes of the interpreter, the cultural sensitivity of the community interpreter, the analytical keenness and background knowledge of the journalist and the rhetorical prowess of the seasoned communicator (2001b: 30). Carrying this line of thinking to its logical conclusion, it might be claimed that the job of TV Interpreting itself lies in between interpreting and journalism. As he did not pursue that argument, however, the article lacks a consideration of the effect of this in-betweenness on TV Interpreting. Moreover, Viaggio (2006: 201) also touches upon a similar point, maintaining “unlike conference colleagues, the media interpreter has to be in a position to tackle any subject and any speaker, any dialect, any sociolect, and any idiolect at any time”. Hence, apart from conference interpreting, TV Interpreting is an assignment that is performed at short notice. It is beyond any doubt that these norms bring about constraints as well. Sergio Viaggio (2001: 28) summarizes them as follows: “being in the same rooms with the interviewee or interviewers, interpretation being public in the broadcast language, interpretation being taped and re-broadcasted and therefore opening it to repeated mass consumption, seldom preparing for a specific job: obligation to tackle any subject and any speaker at any time, sound quality and physical environment being less than optimum, elocution being much more decisive on intelligibility and acceptability factor than in non- TV Interpreting and hence demanding a larger amount of attention, incarnating the profession before the public.” To him, all these factors bear on the performance of the interpreter, let alone his conscious and unconscious motivation and resistance. Moreover, as noted by Pöchhacker (2007: 125) “assignments are at short notice and at unusual hours, the interpreters work with monitors and non standard consoles, and there is a surging amount of stress as the interpreters are widely exposed to a mass media audience” cf. Kurz 2002, Mack 2002). Kurz (2002), by measuring the heart rate and perspiration levels of interpreters, also found out that one of these constraints, that is, the high level of exposure, causes more stress on interpreters in comparison to a normal conference setting. 11       Moreover, the method of cultural adaptation might bring about an enormous constraint related to the time pressure upon the interpreter, as well. Since it takes time to explain cultural related concepts such as “Joe, the plumber” (in the US presidential debate between Barack Obama and Joe Biden), or Obamacare, the interpreter has to make his/her choices very carefully, striking a balance between missing the content of the next sentence as he/she takes more time to interpret the previous one loaded with cultural element and making the cultural elements crystal clear to the audience. Within this framework, in a study conducted by Kurz regarding the interpretation of the Bush- Clinton- Perot debate into German, she summarizes the strategy employed by the interpreter as follows: Although it would have been preferable at some points to insert a brief explanation for the sake of the non-American audience e.g. a definition of 'trickle-down economy', the interpreters simply did not have time for it. In view of the enormous time pressure - a salient feature of simultaneous interpreting, exacerbated by the high speed of delivery in this case - they could do nothing but stick fairly close to the original text, having no chance to add 'hyperinformation' for their listeners (Kurz, 1993: 444). Thus, the TV interpreters might be under the load of interpreting culturally specific elements into another culture and since they seem to be racing against time, they might not have a sufficient amount of time to lag behind the speaker. To offer another example as to the strategies and constraints of TV interpreting, Pöchhacker analyzed a televised debate of the 1992 presidential election and ascertained that interpreters are just like rope dancers (2007: 140). According to him, interpreters have difficulty in terms of interpreting culture-bound elements and might opt for omission, substitution or specification by completion. Another constraint might stem from the significance of the original speech, according to Pöchhacker. He maintains that since speeches that are delivered from remote locations have special content and wording, especially in the political and diplomatic realm, the interpreter needs to cope with the importance of the speech and high level of exposure as well (2011: 23). It is worth mentioning that since the importance attached to TV interpreting has increased vastly during recent years, the journal Interpreters’ Newsletter allocated volume 16 solely to TV interpreting, calling it Television Interpreting. This volume, made up of 11 articles in total, is the largest volume of any journal ever dedicated to TV interpreting. Articles depicting 12       the world of TV interpreting in Germany, Austria, Spain, Japan and Italy all have one point in common:Thus, by the year 2011, TV interpreting had already created its own literature, questions and place in the largest realm of translation and interpreting. Thanks to this volume, one might see the differences in handling TV interpreting among different countries: For instance, in Italy, in CorIT (spoken corpus of Italian) one can find more than 2700 interpretations spanning 50 years of TI in different interpreting modes and interaction types. It goes without saying that CorIT makes Italy by far the most prolific country contributing to research into TV interpreting. Due to the fact that CorIT allows for analyzing the interpretations rendered by the same interpreter during 15-20 years’ time (Straniero-Sergio 2012: 211), the idiosyncratic characteristics of interpreters have been able to be analyzed as well (see Straniero-Sergio, 2012). The journal Interpreters’ Newsletter number 16, which was devoted to Straniero-Sergio following his death, is a clear sign of this mounting interest in TI in Italy since the contributors to this volume are mostly from Italy. Again, it is in this volume that one reads that in the recruitment of a TV interpreter, gender, age, voice tone, characteristic traits, temperament, physical and psychological traits matter in Germany (Andres and Fünfer 2011: 104). To me, these articles, depicting a worldwide perspective related to TV interpreting, also display the constrictions executed such as the fact that product names should not be broadcasted in Japan (Tsuruta 2011: 160). Drawing on this example, it can aptly be claimed that TV interpreting is not a form of interpreting that is perpetuated in a conduit form, but rather, the interpreter is perpetuating a process besides interpreting. For instance, if the speaker says “barbie” it needs to be rendered into “toy”, or else “fanta” has to be produced as a “fuzzy drink” if the profession is performed in Japan. In this regard, the volume as whole serves to be a very mind-opening one regarding the particular facets of TV interpreting. All in all, this volume is a contribution to the fact that TV interpreting has its own norms and constraints as prominent scholars have studied it. In relation to the norms and constraints of TV interpreting, Falbo and Straniero Sergio hold that “since TV interpreting gives great visibility and accountability to interpreters, it contributes in shaping not only the public image of interpreters, but, most importantly, the underlying norms (Chesterman 1993; Toury 1995) governing their profession” (2011: XIV). Yet, I find it impossible to agree with this statement. For one thing, this statement contradicts the view that TV interpreting has its own norms and constraints that differ from those of conference interpreting. To state one example, decalage is not as important in conference 13       interpreting as it is in TV interpreting. That is, the conference interpreter usually has more time (at least 1-2 seconds) to finish once the speaker stops talking whereas the TV interpreter has to stop talking almost simultaneously with the speaker since there will be another event or piece of news broadcasted. To give another example, the voice quality of the interpreter does not need to match that of a presenter in a conference setting. Therefore, drawing on these examples, it can be said that the norms and constraints peculiar to TV interpreting simply do not fit the norms applied in a conference setting. As for visibility, in Japan TV interpreters are visible – despite the fact that they are interpreting in simultaneous – mode since their faces are shown on TV (Torikai 2009: 120). One of those “famous” interpreters joining Torikai’s research, Nishiyama Sen, recalls the early days of TV interpreting and states though he did not want to display his face. The producers said they needed his face due to the fact that viewers were asking about the equipment used for interpreting. The channel NHK wanted to respond by showing the viewers that the interpreter is a person in the flesh. This is in stark contrast to what happens in Turkey. Let alone the face of the interpreter, if the interpreting is not performed in consecutive mode, then even the name of the interpreter is not mentioned. When it comes to the recipients of interpreting, another constraint becomes clear. Whereas in conference interpreting the audience might be experts in the subject matter of the conference, the recipients are divided into on screen users and off screen participants in TV interpreting. That is, as noted by Gabriele Mack (2002), the main difference lies in interpreting a studio- based communicative event and hence acting as a mediator between the presenter and his/her guests, on the one hand, and interpreting broadcast events unfolding in a remote location, on the other. Moreover, the interpreter does not have the chance to adapt his/her language to the recipients mid-way, in contrast to the example from conference interpreting provided by Çorakçı-Dışbudak: And when we interpret into Turkish we basically speak according to the average of those in the room without even noticing that we are doing this. It is not that when we enter a room we take a look at the delegates and say “These people are young” or “These people are old”. But since our eyes keep roaming inside the room, our language is automatically shaped according to those that we are facing. Just like a chameleon (1991:14) (my translation). 14       Unlike the example of Çorakçı-Dışbudak, the TV interpreter does not have the chance to change his/her language or discourse according to the audience. Furthermore, in TV interpreting, interaction between the interpreter and the audience is a two-way one. Pöchhacker describes this binary state as follows: Given the nature of the medium, the performance of a single interpreter can reach thousands, if not millions of viewers and listeners. The quality of a given interpreting performance therefore has a high impact on the audience and is likely to shape the public perceptions of interpreting one way or another. Since most members of the general public are familiar with the practice of simultaneous interpreting only or mainly from its use in TV programs, the individual interpreter will project a certain professional image much more so than in other settings, where the number of users is comparatively small (1995: 23). Given the fact that the importance of social media is surging, the performance of one single media interpreter might easily turn into the topic of a tweet/tweets and this might pose a constraint on the decisions made during the interpreting. Viaggio also maintains that it is by watching and listening to the media interpreter that the idea of “interpretation” is shaped for people who do not have access to the conference settings: “the media interpreter takes on the heavy burden of incarnating the profession before the general public, who witness and judge it and its practitioners exclusively by him” (2001: 29). In this regard, interpreting is introduced to people who do not have access to conferences via TV interpreting. Unexpected interruption is another aspect of TV interpreting. That is, the editors or the newscasters might suddenly decide to stop the interpreting. In this case, the voice of the interpreter will be faded out and though the source text might be still ongoing, that is, the speaker being interpreted might still be talking, what he/she is saying will not be interpreted (Katan/Straniero Sergio, 2003: 142; Darwish, 2006: 57). Another constraint lies in the limited market share that TV interpreting has. Amato and Mack hold that “[a]lthough TV interpreting only accounts for a limited share of the interpreting private market, it has a remarkable impact on the perception of interpreters and their work among large numbers of people” (2011: 38). It follows that the impact of TV interpreting does not correspond to the size of its market. The Turkish example, which will be accounted for in 15       the following section, also exemplifies this limited market as the number of news outlets hiring a full time interpreter is very much limited. With respect to the technical aspect of TV interpreting, in 1987, the AIIC Working Party in TV Interpreting recommended the creation of an informational brochure for broadcasters with the goal of promoting interpreting on television and presenting the technical requirements for interpreting on TV such as documents, an adequate booth with perfect visibility, individual volume control, a cough button and light mono earphones. In this regard, it might be beneficial to check the tips provided by AIIC for interpreters and clients4 (TV Interpreting – a different sort of world, 2000; on AIIC’s website) • Sound- proof booths must be available for interpreters. • Earphone requirements for interpreters are not the same as for other professions, such as singers or journalists. • Interpreters should never hear their own voice in the headset. • There must be volume control for the interpreters. • There should be one microphone per interpreter. • Make sure you can switch the mike on and off. • The interpreters should be able to hear all the speakers. • Interpreters should have a full view of the set and everyone on it--direct or with monitors. • If monitors are used, there should be 2 in the booth: ◦ One focused constantly on the person being interviewed ◦ One giving the image being broadcast The rest of the checklist includes helpful extras, among which are listed a press file containing the interviewee’s latest books, records and a brief CV (Checklist for TV interpretation: 2002), as well the set of questions which will be directed to the guest from the anchorman/woman. Furthermore, AIIC states the rules related to technical quality, as well: the interpreter having a direct connection to the sound control room to be able to speak with the sound control engineer and other participants at all times, no additional microphones switched to the interpreter, being able to see the set and all the people on it, having sound proof booths, having more than one booth should the need occur, having a relay button, a cough button, 4 http://aiic.net/page/149 (accessed on May, 2016). 16       testing the microphones before the program, having a trial run with the actual guests (2011: 187.) Difficult as it might be, AIIC also dwells on the duty of the interpreter to “hand a list of basic technical requirements to the broadcasting organization” (2011: 216). In case of having more than one speaker, AIIC states, “it is advisable to have as many interpreters as speakers to avoid the problem of speaker identification for listeners or viewers and to ensure that each interpreter can cut in as soon as his speaker starts.” (2011: 215) As much as I wish it were the reality, I, having worked as TV interpreter myself, should state that this meta-discourse does not reflect even in the tiniest way what happens in real world TV interpreting, at least in Turkey. Yet it is not only Turkey, as will be considered in the following parts, but also all around the world, where these standards might not be met and interpreters may be dismayed by seeing the real conditions on the ground. Kurz (1990:170) notes that “when an interpreter turns up at the studio for the first time, he should not be surprised to find that he has to rely on a monitor instead of direct vision; is supplied with heavy studio earphones and sometimes does not even have his own volume control.” The solution she comes up with is to cooperate closely with the program creators on technical matters. Within this framework, Vincent Buck recounts the instances form his real life interpreting conditions as follows: Media interpreting can also be a high-risk occupation. Anything can happen. The audio feed may be sub-standard or drop altogether. Your assigned speaker may end up speaking a language no one knows. Sound engineers with little media interpreting experience may suddenly decide to mix your voice with the original sound track and feed it back to your earphones when you’re interpreting. A junior producer may bump in on the sound track when you’re interpreting and ask you to clarify a concept for the audience, or to tell you how well you’re doing, only to realize later that he made you miss 10 important seconds of the original speech. You may not have a booth, or have to make do with bulky over-ear headphones that make monitoring your own voice nigh impossible. Your console may not have an ON button because the engineers decided they would turn your mic on for you, so you never know when you can clear your throat or take a sip of water. Or you may not even have a console but a hand-held mike, and no headphones, only a loudspeaker next to you (Vincent Buck, 2012)5. 5 http://aiic.net/page/3851/exploring-media-interpreting/lang/1 (accessed on May 30, 2016). 17       It is my contention that this personal account is not peculiar to its author. In media stations all around the world, interpreters might very well not provided with the appropriate conditions and might have to do with the poor working conditions. Having analyzed the norms and constraints in TV Interpreting for the interpreter, on the other side of the coin come the users from different walks of life and different backgrounds, with their own expectations. When it comes to user expectations, it stands to reason that the importance attached to the presence of a pleasant voice seems significant in TV interpreting. Ingrid Kurz, an experienced media interpreter and a prominent scholar in interpreting studies, claims that the media interpreter must strive to make his style and delivery particularly smooth, clear and to the point on the grounds that the audience is very much accustomed to television newsreaders and commentators with very good voices and not capable of understanding the demands made of the interpreter (1990:169). Vincent Buck, himself an interpreter for a news channel, states that the interpreters need to perform in a way that will not drive the audience away and adds that in good media interpreting, interpreters do not sound too much like interpreters. As for ARTE, the importance of the interpreter’s voice is so vital that they organize superb voice coaching seminars for their regular interpreters. Moreover, Buck (2012) emphasizes the importance of developing a rapport with the newscaster in the sense that the tone, pace and color of the interpreter is amenable to the voice and mood of the newscaster. Viaggio (2001: 201) notes that the expectation of the media owners well overrides the expectations and prejudices of a massive and heterogeneous audience. The interpreter has to produce a speech act that is optimally relevant, immediately intelligible, with a pleasant voice and professional enunciation and lastly, his own motivation to come into the air in the most positive possible (Viaggio 2001: 202). In this vein, the media interpreter might resemble an actor/actress in the sense of “coming air in the most positive possible” in Viaggio’s words. In this regard, just like an actor, he/she has to perform in the best possible manner. Another study done in Japan and penned by Snelling (1997:192) on TV interpreting puts the requirements on TV interpreters as follows: 1. Make translation aurally intelligible 2. Observe the broadcasting guidelines on speech 18       3. Finish their translation no later than the original broadcast or at least without lagging too far behind the original 4. Synchronize each of the speech segments in the source language and their translation (not a lip-synch as in dubbing but a loose correspondence) 5. Have a voice quality intonation, and pronunciation close or nearly equivalent to the broadcast standard Taking the constraints mentioned above into consideration, Snelling puts the strategies of the interpreters in the face of these challenges as follows: 1. Choose shorter target language words than the corresponding source language words 2. Render redundant expressions in the source language into concise language in the target language 3. Omit some elements that are essential in the source language in terms of syntax and language conventions but unnecessary in the target language. Eugenia Dal Fovo, keenly interested in TV Interpreting, has contributed to the realm prolifically in recent years. Conducting her studies based on CorIT and focusing on US Presidential debates, she studied TV interpreting in Italy. In her PhD thesis, she touches upon the mediating role of TI and suggests the following: … television has played a key role in defining public political communication, … highlighting and mediating items of political agendas, not so much with the intent of persuading the public, but rather presenting it with a series of issues worth discussing, and therefore acting as a filter between the political agenda-setting and the audience (2013: 12). As far as this thesis is concerned, acting as a filter will correspond to gatekeeping both on behalf of the interpreting and interpreter. Yet, to support the thesis I present, it is important to note that the filtering position of the TV interpreting has been touched upon by Dal Fovo, as well. In one of her papers in the field studying the language of TV interpreters, she maintains the following: 19       Indeed, the interpreting product (IT) can never be entirely isolated from the interpreting process, as recurring choices are frequently driven not only by external constraints and conditions, but also internal (conscious, deliberate) habits and decisional patterns (2013: 416) (my own emphasis). Dal Fovo, therefore, draws attention to both the external and internal constraints on the interpreter. This thesis, supporting Dal Fovo’s statement based on a corpus from Turkish TVs, will attempt to further explain those external and internal constraints and conditions, drawing on open-ended interviews and live interpreting examples. To conclude, the current literature on TV Interpreting is widely interested in the norms, constraints and quality standards of TV interpreting as well as the coping techniques of the interpreters themselves. It is against these unique norms and constraints of TV interpreting that this study sets out to explore TV interpreting with a different perspective. Although the norms and constraints mentioned so far seem to have prevailed in the perpetuation of TV interpreting, there is one point crucially missing in the picture: Does TV interpreting go through a gate keeping process in its perpetuation, and if so, in what terms? Who or what are those gates? These are the questions that will be addressed by drawing on the corpus of the media institutions and the personal accounts of the interpreters, editors, correspondents and one cameraman assuming the “interpreter” title whenever required. 1.3 TV Interpreting in Turkey 1.3.1 History In order to be able to look into the history of TV interpreting in Turkey, it is necessary to address the history of TV broadcasting in Turkey. One reads the following information regarding the history of TRT on its webpage: “Turkish Radio and Television Corporation was established in 1964 to broadcast radio and TV on behalf of the state having a legal entity via a special law. With the constitutional amendments in 1972, the institution was defined as an “objective” government owned corporation.”6 6 http://www.trt.net.tr/Kurumsal/Tarihce.aspx (accessed on April 4, 2016). 20       TV broadcasting in Turkey began in 1968. In the beginning the test broadcasts lasted three hours for just three days a week, and one year later it increased to four. In 1974, TV broadcasting was offered every day. Previous to 1984, when color television was introduced, TV was was black and white. TRT 2 and TRT 3 were founded in 1987 and 1989 respectively. It was in 1990 that the monopoly of TRT over broadcasting was lifted. Coincidentally, it was just after Magic Box (which changed its name to Star TV subsequently) was established, that the First Gulf War broke out. And TV interpreting started with the First Gulf War in Turkey. The interpreters who were asked to interpret for MagicBox were invited to Germany to interpret in the studio there.7 They interpreted live statements from CNN. They worked on shifts that lasted for 24, 18 or 12 hours. The working conditions were so harsh that sometimes they did not even have time to eat. Once the technicians forgot to turn off an interpreter’s microphone and they were caught up saying “We forgot to have food”. According to Nur Camat, one of those interpreters, it is thanks to interpreting the First Gulf War that Turkish people got to know what simultaneous interpreting is like. Those interpreters did not work as in-house interpreters but instead provided their service whenever the requirement arose. I contend that if an interpreting scholar was to write a book on the inception of TV interpreting in Turkey, its name could be “War and Interpreting” since TV interpreting perpetuated by freelancer interpreters became a part of our lives with the First Gulf War and the very first in-house interpreters came into our lives with the war in Afghanistan. I will go into the details of the profession as experienced by staff interpreters in the second chapter. 1.3.2 Modes The Turkish prime ministry published a full-fledged document on translation entitled “Translation Report in Turkey-2015”, and since it is the government that published it, the document and the way it describes TV interpreting might offer some insights into the state institutions’ understanding of TV interpreting. In order to better analyze this document, it might be fruitful to take a look at the translation societies/foundations that assisted the Prime Ministry in the preparation of this document.8 When I searched the term television in that 7 http://www.ukt.com.tr/images/basinda/normal/ukt24.jpg (accessed on May 20, 2016). 8 http://www.igb.gov.tr/Kutuphane/ÇEVİRMENLİK%20RAPORU10.08.2015.pdf (accessed on May, 2016). 21       document, the only occurrence that I came across was under the term terms, symbols and abbreviations. Simultaneous Interpreting refers to the rendering of a verbal message to the target language simultaneously with the speaker by making use of the suitable technical equipment (whisper interpreting, on sight interpreting, television/ radio interpreting, remote interpreting, conference, video- conference, teleconference, etc) (my translation). Therefore, it follows that though TV Interpreting comes in various modes such as consecutive, whispering, simultaneous, on-sight and sign language, in this document TV interpreting is deemed to be one of the forms of interpreting. As such, TV Interpreting itself is not defined as a separate form of interpreting in this document. To put it differently, the different modes of TV interpreting seem invisible in this document though the most visible mode of TV interpreting might be consecutive since it makes the interpreter himself/ herself and the interpreting itself as a whole more visible. Moreover, not only the modes but also different practicalities such as the programs where TV Interpreting is made use of seem invisible in this official document. In a similar vein, the term live interpreting reads under the definition of simultaneous interpreting under another article related to translation services. Simultaneous Interpreting service is the interpretation of the speeches made as the speech is delivered. It is an interpreting service widely used in meetings, conferences, congresses, live broadcasting and press meetings (my translation). Therefore, it should be noted that TV and live interpreting are merely forms of simultaneous interpreting on the official level and the fact that TV interpreting might be perpetuated in consecutive mode looks to be missing. However, even the presence of such a document is a manifestation of the attempts to make interpreting more visible. As Straniero Sergio (2007) puts it, consecutive interpreting on TV makes the interpreter more visible. In one of the examples I encountered on youtube, the interpreter who performs in a consecutive mode in one of the most well known talk shows in Turkey is highly visible as a 22       consequence of her performance.9 Moreover, in the video entitled “Beyaz (the host of the show) gets pissed off at the interpreter girl,” dated 201210, the interpreter seemingly does not abide by the honest spokesperson norm brought up by Brian Harris (1990). Hence, she does not adopt the first person singular and instead uses the third person singular. Not only is the norm related to the use of “I” to denote the speaker broken up, but also the interpreter herself turns into an element of entertainment as might be discerned in the following transcript11 One of the guests: I talked for three hours and you uttered two words. How is that possible? Interpreter: She thanks. One of the guests: Your voice is inaudible. Interpreter: She thanks Mr. İbrahim. One of the guests: What did you say to make her thank? Interpreter: Greece… (Interrupted by the host) Host of the show: Look, interpret well! Interpreter: But… Okay… (Applause) Host of the show: We do work with you as an interpreter all the time. I do swear that today might be the last day of your job… Interpreter: I said that you visited Greece before. Host of the show: I do apologize Brother Ibrahim. One of the guests: You’re welcome! Host of the show: Translate well. Translate again. If it is not okay, translate again. 9 For a detailed analysis of interpreter- mediated talks shows please see Wadensjö 2008a; 2008b. 10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OIgLu9cezw (accessed on November 8, 2015). 23       Interpreter: I translate it as it is Mr. Beyazıt. Host of the show: OK. Do it until you translate it the same way. Maybe it is not the same. You might translate it into something else since we do not speak English. Interpreter: It is not possible. Host of the show: I have something to tell you. What are you up to there? (The literal translation would be: What are you translating there which means what are you up to) One of the guests: Something is happening over there but who knows what... Host of the Show: Since the two of us do not understand, who knows what she is saying over there. Interpreter: This is totally wrong! Based on this example, it might be claimed that the host of the show turns the interpreter and the phenomenon of interpreting itself into an element of entertainment by making use of the power vested to him by the audience (Katan and Straniero-Sergio, 2001). In this setting, the interpreter is not only visible but part and parcel of the show. Katan and Straniero-Sergio define this case as follows: …Rather than being implicit to the act of translating or interpreting, as is the case of the conference interpreter, the professionalism here is literally in the spotlight. At times, the interpreter is also a full-fledged primary participant – whether they like it or not… In fact, as a primary participant, the talk show interpreter is often the object of explicit scrutiny and teasing (2001: 217-218) (my emphasis). Connecting this definition with the above example, it might stand to reason that the interpreter becomes a full- fledged participant, becoming an object of the host’s teasing just like the above sentences purport. In another example, in a quiz show, in which interpreting is rendered in consecutive mode, the non-professional interpreter again turns into an element of entertainment. The video entitled 24       En Komik Tercüman Herkesi Gülme Krizine Soktu- The Funniest Interpreter Made Everyone Burst into Laughing- is transcripted and translated into English as follows12: Interpreter: Like Istanbul in Turkey, which city in Kyrgyzstan? City? City? City? Which? (He utters the term city in both Turkish and English and the contestant does not react) Host: Who are you brother? Who are you? Interpreter: Interpreter… Jury member: How come? No way…. Interpreter: Yes. Host: What did you interpret right now? Can’t you interpret the term city? Interpreter: Yes. There is a problem related to it. (Audience bursts into laughing) Host: What are you going to interpret? Interpreter: Things like age, for how long he has been dancing like kind of stuff. Jury member: He just knows those. Host of the show: Which language is it? Which language? Interpreter: Russian. Host of the show: Russian. So you speak Russian? Interpreter: Yes. Host of the show: What does city mean in Russian? Interpreter: That I do not know. That is why there is a problem. 12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1KCTh5fpdA (accessed on November 8, 2015). 25       Host of the show: Are you a translator and interpreter? Interpreter: Yes Host of the show: I swear that if it were not for you on the stage tonight, we would not have any problems. But may God bless you because it was an inactive program and you jolted us out of it. Could anyone teach you anything in your education life? Interpreter: Me? Host of the show: Yes. Interpreter: I am a high school drop out (my translation) Moreover, as the show goes on, it turns out that this person who claims to be an interpreter is indeed a waitress who learned Russian while working in hotels. More dramatically, as for the way he was hired, he admits that he is a contestant himself and the program administrators asked him to interpret as they overheard him talking to the contestant for whom he interpreted. As specific as it might look, it stands to reason that the interpreting performed on talk shows might not have a professional aspect at times. As these examples reveal, TV interpreting in consecutive mode does not seem institutionalized when performed by non- professionals. Since the interpreting performed on news channels will be covered in detail in the next chapter, I will suffice with limiting myself to the consecutive interpreting performed on TV shows aired on mainstream TV channels in this part. 26       2 Historical Overview of TI in News Outlet in Turkey Onlarla gerçek anlamda ilk tanışmamız Körfez Savaşı’nda oldu. Dakika dakika gelişmeleri yabancı televizyonlardan anında Türkçe’ye çevirirken bizden biri oldular. New York’a yapılan terörist saldırı sonrası yani 11 Eylül’den beri yine bizimle birlikteler. Gece gündüz, dakika dakika gelişmeleri birinci ağızdan anında çevirerek bizlere aktaran simültane tercümanlar gerek konferanslarla, gerekse diğer televizyon yayınlarıyla karşımızda. It was during the Gulf War that we got to know them for the first time. They turned into one of us while interpreting the developments live simultaneously. And then since the terrorist attacks in New York, that is, since 9/11, they have been with us. Simultaneous interpreters are with us in both conferences and TV broadcasting, interpreting the developments minute by minute in the first person (my translation).13 This part of the thesis is dedicated exclusively to TV interpreting in news outlets in Turkey. First the history of the profession will be revisited in order to provide context for the current discussion. Then the current situation of the profession will be taken up. Last but not least TV interpreting training will be looked into with a view to understanding the different weights assigned to disparate languages. 2.1 Review of the History of the Profession in Turkey In Turkish TV interpreting history, the 1990s marked the beginning of freelancer conference interpreters’ TV work and the 2000s was when in-house interpreters’ began being hired by private TV stations. As stated by the MO1 Correspondent 2, it was during the Afghanistan War that the in-house interpreter was hired widely for the very first time. To her, media outlets realized that they need in-house interpreters for the very first time during the Afghanistan War. By the same token, in an article published in 2001, one of the professors working for Boğaziçi 13 http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2001/10/06/pazar/paz03.html (accessed on April 4, 2016) (Article published in 2001 about interpreters, entitled “Remembered with War”). 27       University maintains that “the importance of simultaneous interpreting is grasped better now and a couple of televisions have hired full-time interpreters working for them”. To her, it makes sense for the TV channels to hire full time interpreters. As for the profile of those first in-house interpreters, they were graduates of the translation and interpreting departments of the top ranking universities. One of those first in-house TV interpreters, who worked in an MO between 2001-2007, MO 1 Interpreter 2, seems to have been deeply involved in the crucial moments of TV Interpreting in Turkey. The interpreter, deemed to be a pioneer in the realm of TV interpreting, describes those days as follows: Example Excerpt (1) from Interviews with MO1 Interpreter 2 I started to work at the end of August and ten-eleven days later the September 11 attacks occurred. On the day of the attacks I interpreted for HOURS CEASELESSLY. I recall it very well and in the following weeks the amount of interpreting I did was very high. Sometimes it amounted to a couple of hours in total. September 11 occurred and then came the Afghanistan War so I interpreted night and day. And then started the Iraq War. It was a very busy agenda to follow. That is, when I was working as an interpreter, I interpreted very intensely. Especially when the agenda was busy, the interpreting hours amounted to a couple of hours, I might clearly say (my translation).14 It is crucial to consider that in her account of the first days in the profession, MO2 Interpreter 2 draws attention to the ceaseless interpreting hours. Working for ceaseless hours, if required to do so, seems to have evolved into one of the main professional norms of TV Interpreting in news outlets in Turkey as mentioned by the other interpreters, as well. To cite an example, MO3 Interpreter 2 stated that she worked for more than 2 hours seamlessly. MO3 interpreter 1 states that she interpreted one of the American presidential debates on her own for four hours. Interestingly enough, she does not regret it. Instead, she is of the opinion that she could measure her capacity that way and she learned about a part of herself that was unknown to her previously. However, it needs to change in the future, she adds. Since in-house interpreters have the status of full-time employees, it seems to management that they can be made/forced to interpret for four hours on their own, whereas in conference interpreting in line with the 14 For information on what the capital letters represent, please go to the part “Survey Transcription Methods” in Chapter 4. 28       working conditions put by AIIC, the interpreters have to switch every half hour. Regarding the subject matter of interpreting in the 2000s, not only wars but also some other major issues became the subject matter of interpreting. “On the one hand people wanted to be informed of the ongoing wars in the Middle East and on the other hand Turkey’s accession negotiations to the EU and the attempts to resolve the Cyprus problem came to be the other major issues requiring interpreting back in the beginning of 2000s”, MO1 Editor-in-Chief states. MO2 Editor-in-chief also mentioned the fact that Turkey’s EU journey was a hot item topping the agenda and necessitating heavy interpreting. It follows that the successive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Turkey’s interest in the EU and Cyprus triggered news outlets to hire an in-house interpreter. Having said that, it might be worthwhile to recall that what gave rise to hiring an in-house interpreter is closely related to the news agenda and what is deemed newsworthy by the political will and/or media outlets. Example Excerpt (2) from Interviews with MO1 Interpreter 2 I can clearly say that the agenda determines the amount of time spent on interpreting on TV. If there is a political or military issue, an artistic subject, or anything that is consuming the attention of the public, which is therefore a top item on the agenda, then the amount of interpreting increases naturally. Nonetheless, when the agenda is not that busy, the frequency decreases (my translation). Therefore, it might be claimed that the amount of working hours of a TV interpreter clearly has to do with the agenda of the country/or the media outlet. In this regard, one of the most well established norms of conference interpreting, switching every half-hour, does not work in TV interpreting. However, in TV interpreting, rather than the half-hour rule, there exists a “night and day rule”. That is, in the very first years of interpreting, one interpreter would work the day shift and the other would work the night shift. To wit, in house TV interpreting was born out of the necessity of war interpreting, as has been shown. Moreover, with its birth came the establishment of the current norms of the profession, such as ceaseless interpreting hours, and night/day shifts. In what follows, I attempt to draw the current picture of the profession in Turkey with an emphasis on the historical perspective. Following that, I will dwell on the training of interpreters for the media outlets, if any. By doing so, I set out to draw the current picture of TV interpreting in Turkey 29       to be able to grasp it via a fine grained analysis of the open-ended interviews and the corpus in the following chapters. 2.2 Turkish TV Interpreting in News Outlets Today Regarding the way the interpreters start TV interpreting, a major difference seems to exist between different languages and professionals and non-professionals. Whereas in English- Turkish combinations, well-established news outlets such as MO1 and MO2 hire the translation and interpreting graduates of the leading universities, this does not hold true for other languages such as in the case of Arabic in MO4 and that of Kurdish in MO215. As far as MO2 Editor-in-chief is concerned, he makes up his mind in selecting the English- Turkish interpreter to be hired based on his/her references. Moreover, a senior interpreter evaluates an interpreting performance rendered by the candidates. To him, “references of a reliable person and competence diminish the risk factor as an interpreter does not become an interpreter on the grounds that he/she knows everything”. In a similar fashion, MO1 Editor-in-chief reports that they prepare a 20-minute video for the prospect to interpret, made up of one of Obama’s addresses, one of an EU official’s addresses, one of the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs’ addresses, and an Oscar Awards Ceremony and they make up their mind based on the candidate’s rendering. In the second step of the hiring process, they ask the sister channel’s interpreter to give feedback on the performance of the candidate and proceed accordingly. One crucial point is that those interpreters do not only work as interpreters but assume the role of an editor, as well. In this regard, the job of interpreting itself also becomes a part of the news as stated by MO2 Editor-in-chief below. Example Excerpt (3) from Interviews with MO2 Editor-in-Chief Simultaneous interpreting is a part of the news and there is a very simple reason behind it. It has to do with economic reasons. You try to handle the interpreting with someone who can also edit the news simultaneously. It has to do with the budget. Because you can find a person who can do both jobs. A person stating that he/she will only do simultaneous interpreting, would not be sufficient for us. You would not employ such a person. Instead, you would hire someone who is curious, excited and into journalism and whenever there is a requirement to 30       do simultaneous interpreting, he/she goes back to interpreting role. However, when she can’t function as an interpreter, he/she edits news in the newsroom (my translation). What is clear from the excerpt above is that, it is vital that an in-house interpreter work as an editor besides performing simultaneous interpreting in news outlets in Turkey. Those in-house interpreters do work as editors at the world-news desk. However, they do not only pen world news but also other types of news. MO1 Correspondent 2 states that in-house interpreters edit health news. To her, there is a prevailing understanding that “since the interpreter renders interpreting on various subject matters, he/she automatically understands everything in the right way”. It follows that the interpreter does not merely render interpreting but edits news. Therefore, he/she turns into a journalist in time as stated by the interpreters. In this regard, they not only edit news, but might also edit video footage, that is, preparing the video over which the voice will be mounted, as did MO1 Interpreter 1. Dwelling upon the editor title of the interpreters, it goes without saying that the practices of the first interpreters assuming the job of TV interpreter for news channels helped shape the profession itself. In this regard, the first interpreters’ practice as an editor helped shape the evolution of the profession. MO1 Interpreter 2, working in an MO between 2001-2007, recounts that when she joined the news outlet, people regarded her as an interpreter; however, once she started to assume different roles such as editing news for the world news desk, people started to consider her to be a news person, adding that she turned into a news person at the end of the first 6-7 years. In her account of those days, she maintains, “You get to know what the most striking sentence is in a piece of news as much as the others in the world news desk. You start to notice it better, see it better. In time the simultaneous interpreter turns into a newsperson, though not in the beginning”. In her remarks, she claims that this (the interpreters’ assuming the job of the editor) holds true for all media outlets and this acquaintance with editing turns itself into a guideline for her whereas she is not provided with any guideline as an interpreter. My findings also support her statements in the sense that no single interpreter I conducted an interview with assumes merely the interpreter role. In a similar vein, the other interpreters assert that this journalistic habitus and performance have a positive impact on the interpreting they perpetuate. To cite an example, MO2 Interpreter claims that this journalistic role eases the preparation to be carried out for interpreting. 31       Example Excerpt (4) from Interviews with MO2 Interpreter In terms of preparation, working within an institution provides one with an upper hand. Most of the time the interpreting is on the subject matters that I am already knowledgeable about and follow up on as long as it is not specific health news or magazine news. Because the subject matters are the agenda items that one already keeps up to date on. And the preparation phase is way shorter in comparison to freelance interpreting. Because you already know a lot of things, the concepts, the dates and the figures that the speaker is mentioning about, that’s why you’re more comfortable. There is also one summary text that the news agencies send as to what the speaker will mention prior to the speech. You might check those texts…(my translation). As mentioned in the above excerpt, assuming two titles, working as an editor and an interpreter within a media outlet, eases the job of an interpreter in the sense that he/she can prepare easily for the interpreting role thanks to the awareness gained and familiarity with the subject matters from editing news. Another interpreter, MO1 Interpreter 1 believes that the fact that the interpreters assume a role as an editor might stem from the following reason: Example Excerpt (5) from Interviews with MO1 Interpreter 2 Let’s imagine that you need to be in the media outlet for at least 10 hours and let’s say that there is no interpreting request during those hours. In this case can we assume that you did not work at all? That’s the question that arises. That is, if the simultaneous interpreter is left on his/her own, he/she will be following up on the agenda and will make preparation, that is, he/she will work for sure. However, when there is no product visible, there is the impression that you did not work at all. That is why I believe the role of editorship comes into play (my translation). To this interpreter, the fact that an interpreter -while not performing interpretation- is considered “not to have worked at all” might result in the interpreter’s taking on a journalistic role. However, in the eyes of the editors-in-chief, the interpreter’s being given two roles, interpreting and editing, mainly has do to with economic reasons as noted above. Having analyzed statements of the interpreters who were hired as “full time interpreters” and 32       assumed the title of “editor” in time, this order does not hold true in all cases. There might be a reverse order, as in the cases of MO3 Interpreter 1 and MO3 Interpreter 2. As far as MO3 Interpreter 1 is concerned, though a graduate of the translation and interpreting department, she had been working as an anchorwoman, when she started to interpret live. She reminisces about those days as follows: Example Excerpt (6) from Interviews with MO3 Interpreter 1 It was sheer coincidence that I started interpreting. The editor-in-chief told me that they would get connected to Brussels when one of the Serbian war criminals was being tried and asked me to interpret that. I said okay, I interpreted. However, I was an anchorperson. And then whenever I served as an anchorperson, there would be a headset under the news desk. Because when I was presenting the news in case of any breaking news they said, “Now we will broadcast this. Put the headset on. You will be off the screen and start interpreting” (my translation). MO3 Interpreter 2 also states that she started interpreting out of necessity while working as an editor within the media outlet. Though she interprets from English, her first interpreting goes back to the days when there was no interpreter working full- time at news channels. Witnessing the first couple of days of another media outlet apart from the one she currently works at, she was asked to interpret an interview the former Prime Minister, Bülent Ecevit, gave to CNN International. Though she was not very much willing, she accepted the assignment due to “her sense of work ethic” and rendered the interpreting. Due to her success, she undertook all the interpreting assignments up until the respected news outlet hired a full time interpreter. Having focused on the way that English-Turkish interpreters are hired and the roles they assume within the media outlet, I will now move on to the other languages taken up in this thesis, Arabic and Kurdish. When it comes to Arabic interpreting in MO4, MO4 Interpreter 1 states that while working as a correspondent in the same media outlet, he started interpreting in a sports program when one of the two interpreters who were to carry out the interpreting that day never showed up. The officials told him that there is no other solution apart from him doing the interpreting and that’s how he started to interpret. Upon his successful performance, the managers told him that he would be interpreting for the sports program as of then. A similar process that stemmed from “necessity” holds true for MO4 Interpreter 2. Although she 33       believes that she was not highly successful in her first instances, she believes that she somehow handled the job. With respect to Kurdish-Turkish interpreting, similar to Arabic, no formal training in the field of translation and interpreting is sought. In the case of MO2 Cameraman, it is sufficient for him to be a native Kurdish speaker to be able to interpret on news channels, and even to proofread the translation or transcription. He describes his role as a Kurdish translator in the media outlet he worked at previously with these sentences: “I might be on vacation or abroad; however, they used to call me, make me listen to some news pack, I would listen to it, approve it and only following my approval would that news would be broadcast.” Therefore, the formal requirement of being a graduate of the department of Translation and Interpreting of a prominent university does not hold true for Kurdish or Arabic, due to the limited number of people who can speak those languages. Considering the evolution of TV interpreting in Turkey, it is worth considering the evolution of the subject matter. MO1 Editor-in-chief mentions the current situation by putting it into a historical perspective as follows: Example Excerpt (7) from Interviews with MO1 Editor-in-chief As I have told you the September 11 attacks, and then the US invasion of Afghanistan, the Iraq War in 2003… In the same period Turkey’s accession to the EU, Cyprus plans… They all required intensive simultaneous interpreting. However, since the mid-2000s the Afghanistan-Iraq war cooled off, Turkey’s accession to the EU slowed down and the Annan Plan related to Cyprus did not get anywhere since the Greek Cypriots rejected it. And then Turkey turned inwards. Hmm… Thus, the rate of simultaneous interpreting decreased day by day (my translation). In a similar vein, MO1 Correspondent 2 and Correspondent 1, MO3 Interpreter 1 and MO3 Interpreter 2 hold that the frequency of interpreting decreased drastically since Turkey seems more involved in domestic matters than international ones in recent years. MO 1 Correspondent 2 explains the diminishing frequency of interpreting as “the more a country is interested in the outer world, the more the necessity of interpreting will arise”. MO2 Editor- in-chief holds that the fact that interpreting is not widely used in media outlets stems from the fact that the world news perception in Turkey is low as Turkey is already rich in terms of 34       local news agenda. MO1 Editor-in-chief maintains that in comparison to the interpreting- intensive days like 9/11 and Turkey’s intense accession attempts to the EU, the frequency of interpreting has diminished drastically. If we assume that the frequency of simultaneous interpreting was 10 on a scale of 10 those days, currently it is at a level of 1, to him. Having examined the hiring process of the interpreters and the intensity of interpreting in media outlets, in what follows the interpreter training for the media (if any) will be addressed. 2.3 TV Interpreter Training When we say interpreter training, it may be worthwhile to separate the broader term training into two aspects: training in the universities and training received within the media institution. To start with, 3 of the 7 interpreters with whom I conducted interviews for the sake of this thesis, happen to be graduates of the same university. Out of those 7 interpreters, there is only one interpreter who has received interpreter training at another university. Therefore, it might be meaningful to consider the curriculum of the university, 3 graduates of whom have been respondents in this thesis. In the curriculum of this university, in the past there existed one course called recorded broadcast translation. Currently, there exists one course on the language of the media. As for the content of the course, it is stated that the language of the press in both Turkish and English are dealt with, basic research is conducted on the underlying structure of the media, and media content is analyzed. Moreover, the course aims to increase the awareness of the students regarding media language via English and Turkish exercises. The 3 TV interpreters who are graduates of this department, namely MO1 Interpreter 1, MO1 Interpreter 2, and MO2 Interpreter, believe that the training they received made them gave them the courage to apply for the job; however, it was not sufficient to be able to truly grasp the totality of the job of media interpreting. MO1 Interpreter 2 puts it as follows: Example Excerpt (8) from Interviews with MO1 Interpreter 2 The people performing this profession do learn it by doing. Maybe this case holds true for conference interpreters, as well. I do not know. People could disagree about that. I gained an important terminological infrastructure during the university training; however, I do not think 35       that the interpreters learn about media interpreting or how it should be performed during their studies. I mean the practitioners do learn this job on their own. Apart from that, I do not think there exists any training pertaining to media interpreting (my translation). MO2 Interpreter adds that she did not learn about the editorial line or editorial rules during her university training. To her, the required training needs to be on-the-job. That is, the interpreter needs to practice in the booth and get feedback on his/her performance. She adds; “one feels like a fish out of water in here without receiving the required training”. In a similar fashion, MO1 Interpreter 1 mentions that behind her performance lie efforts she made on her own and the feedback she received from the former interpreter whom she replaced. She maintains that the former interpreter guided her in terms of how she could perform the job and what she should pay attention to in interpreting. Moreover, she practiced on her own, working on terminology. When it comes to the in-house trainings offered to the interpreters, it appears that contrary to the desires and expectations of the interpreters, on-the-job training provided by senior management is not the case in media outlets. MO1 Editor-in-chief notes that they hire people who are capable of performing TV interpreting; however, they do offer voice training to those interpreters. He states that if there is an issue related to the voice of the interpreter, like not knowing when to breathe, he calls the voice-over artists and asks them to train the interpreters. He adds that this type of voice-over training might be necessary especially for beginners. As for MO2, MO2 Editor-in-chief notes that there is no training offered to the interpreter/s they hire. Nonetheless, he mentions a natural training within the institution or an imbuement with the terminological correctness as follows: Example Excerpt (9) from Interview with MO2 Editor-in-chief …the interpreter becomes competent in keeping up to date on the news since he/she prepares news on various issues over time. He/she might be speaking English very well while starting to work with us however he/she does not take hold of any files (Files meaning the history of a piece of news). Therefore, his/her English might be very good; he/she might be interpreting very well yet he/she might not meet your expectations in the first place. However, one of the benefits of working in this way, I mean one of the benefits of the journalism role assumed by the interpreter, alongside with the economic benefits, is that when he/she knows the past and 36       the future of the subject matters due to following up on the files, there emerges a difference in his/her interpreting (my translation). It follows that MO2 Editor-in-chief is of the opinion that working as an editor within the institution helps the quality of interpreting. In this regard, the editing role itself turns into training on its own since it prepares the interpreters for the subject matters and terms to use. 2.4 Conclusion: A Profession in the Making This chapter offers information as to when and how TV interpreting started and evolved into its current status. As the data (interviews and articles) suggest, TV interpreting in news outlets started back in the 1990s with the First Gulf War. For a decade the channels worked with freelancers. Then, in the 2000s with the Afghanistan War and Turkey’s attempts to open up to the West, news outlets began hiring in-house interpreters. In time, ceaseless working hours (interpreting that amounts to up to 4 hours in total) and having two titles (interpreter and world news editor) became the norms of TV interpreting. From the perspective of the management towards interpreters, there was and is a discrepancy between English and other languages. In the English-Turkish pair, a professional interpreter is hired based on his/her performance and references, whereas in the other languages taken up in this thesis, Arabic and Kurdish, interpreting mostly stems out of necessity and is handled by non-professionals, though they might become professional in interpreting over time. In terms of the training provided to those in-house interpreters, on-the-job training is not the case though this is what the interpreters require. In the case of the translation studies graduates, senior management expects the interpreters to perform interpreting as of the very first day. However, the editors- in-chief maintain that the editor role undertaken by the interpreters helps them get imbued with the related terminology that they will need to use. Regarding the frequency of interpreting, the interviews suggest that there is a downward trend, as is discussed in more detail in the chapter on the analysis of the data. Since it took me more than two years to complete the thesis, I had the opportunity to see what happened to the respondents following the interviews in their professional life. Interestingly, 4 of the 12 respondents no longer work for those media institutions, having left for various reasons. When I made an informal talk with the MO1 Interpreter 1, she suggested that working for a news outlet as an interpreter is not prestigious anymore since people do not confide in news channels, and media has become a party supporting the stance of the 37       government to a large extent. Therefore, she is of the opinion that news outlets can no longer employ the best interpreters whereas it once was the case that graduate interpreters were very much willing to work for those institutions. As Herman and Chomsky claimed, there are five filters16 operational in media and one of them is “the reliance of the media on information provided by government, business, and “experts” funded and approved by these primary sources and agents of power” (1988: 2). Though the goal of the thesis is to look into TV interpreting, interpreting can’t be considered in isolation from the environment in which it is performed. Therefore, it might be hypothesized that in the interpreters’ leaving the media industry, the filter defined above by Herman and Chomsky might have been functional and might serve as another gatekeeper in interpreters’ getting away from TV interpreting since MO1 Interpreter 1 holds that media lost its objectivity to a large extent. 38       3 Theoretical Framework 3.1 Gatekeeping: Inter-Editing or Mere Interpreting? As do all professionalized intermediaries, interpreters work at providing a particular service. Simultaneously, they – of necessity – exercise a certain control. Obviously, there is a potential conflict between the service and the control aspects, which sometimes surfaces in dilemmas reported in the literature on institutional communication. It largely remains to be investigated how this conflict is handled in institutional interpreter-mediated talk, where the gatekeeping is, in effect, doubled. Wadensjö, 1998: 68-69. Translation is a phenomenon that can never be isolated from the context in which it occurs.17 That is, with respect to the focus of this thesis, TV interpreting cannot be considered isolated from the environment that it functions in. Having examined TV interpreting in the previous chapter and having considered it to be a different form of interpreting than conference interpreting, in this chapter I will set the theoretical framework against which the data will be analyzed. With a view to analyzing how TV interpreting is shaped within the broader perspective of gatekeeping, I will first look into the origins of gatekeeping. Then I will move on with a description of how gatekeeping is considered in articles on news and news translation. Setting up the framework of gatekeeping, I will consider gatekeeping as interediting, translation and agency/ethos policy respectively. Then I will offer the AIIC and RTÜK (Radio and Television Supreme Council) documents as the policy documents operationalizing gatekeeping. Last but not least I will address the relationship between gatekeeping and exercising agency or ethos. 3.1.1 Origins of Gatekeeping Gatekeeping is a term first coined by Kurt Lewin, a psychologist himself, in 1947, in the aftermath of the Second World War. Lewin, in his seminal article, draws attention to the 17 See Even-Zohar, 1990 for a discussion of polysystem theory, which puts emphasis on the position of the translated literature within the literary polysystem. Drawing on polysystem theory, Toury, in 1995, developed his notion of norms and constrictions. See Bengi- Öner, 1999 to read on an extensive discussion of the descriptive translation studies. 39       changing group dynamics and in other words “the relations between the parts” (1947:8). Lewin maintains that group goals, group standards, group values and the way a group sees its own situation and that of others need to be considered to project group behavior (1947: 12) (my own emphasis; it might prove beneficial to take the difference between the way that they see themselves and others, thereby making a distinction between themselves and others into account). To him, the social happening is considered to be a result of groups, subgroups, members, barriers, channels of communication (1947a: 14). Lewin, conducting studies on how individuals and groups change the decisions of the individuals related to their giving orange juice, came to the conclusion that rather than the mothers who received individual attention, the mothers who discussed the issue in a group of six changed their behaviors. He observed that the group decision makes change easier. In a similar study, in switching from white bread to whole wheat bread, the group decision facilitated the change since the individuals felt like “group members” in this case. In the second article, which is deemed to be the follow up article, Kurt Lewin studied the channels via which food comes to the family table with a view to discerning how the food habits of the family might be altered. Calling the channels “gates”, Lewin claims that what happens in the gate region, that is the passing or non-passing of a certain item, has a certain impact on the decisions taken at large. Not only does he hypothesize that the gatekeeping holds true for food channels alone but holds that it might also be applied to the “traveling of a news item through certain communication channels” (Lewin 1947b: 145). As for the gatekeeper, to him, it might either be an individual or group. Regarding the force exerted through a gate or in other terms, to what extent a gate is pushed, it depends on a. the gatekeeper b. the total situation within the channel Therefore, Kurt Lewin coining the term gatekeeping has paved the way for a huge number of studies to follow including the media studies as shall be elaborated on below. 3.1.2 Gatekeeping and News Drawing on gatekeeping, David Manning White applies this theory to a case study in television news in 1950. In this study White uses a man with the name Mr. Gates to represent the gatekeeping functions within the news, that is the focus of his study, therefore overlooking 40       the institutional aspect of gatekeeping, despite mentioning it briefly in a couple of sentences. Mr. Gates, embracing the role of the last gatekeeper, makes journalistic decisions himself as to which news is chosen or discarded. As a consequence, it is suggested that Mr. Gates makes highly individualistic choices yet the driving forces behind these choices are not examined in detail. In this sense, selection is not solely related to which stories are to be selected but to the why and wherefore of the materials deemed to be trustworthy though not examined in much detail in this particular study. Westley and MacLean (1955), making use of gatekeeping, come up with a conceptual model for communications research. Accordingly, A and B, represent individuals in a hierarchical system and the presence of C is added to the communication theory choosing Xs suitable to the needs of B, thereby acting as a gatekeeper. They hold that “Cs are in effect competitors for the attention of Bs and they maintain their presence as long as they meet the requirements of Bs” (1955: 5). Moreover, the feedback between the agents is also a vital part of the system. They hold that for A to have an impact on B, he should be informed about the alterations in B’s condition. Moreover, B might not try to communicate back to A or C. To cite an example, B might be considered as President Obama in the case of delivering a speech. Though he is not trying to reach out to the Turkish audience, he does it though inadvertently at times. Gatekeeping, since then, has been widely employed to denote the role played by the journalists/editors/transeditors (in Stetting’s terms), that is different agents taking place in the perpetuation of the news making be it the individuals, group or intuitions and the effects of gatekeeping on media content. Shoemaker categorizes the approaches towards media into two groups: the ones that see media as an active force and the ones that consider the media to be a passive force (Shoemaker& Reese 1996, 30-31). In this regard, the one that deems media a passive force such as Westley and MacLean’s model set in 1955 might be likened to the conduit model18 in interpreting studies, which allocates a passive role to the interpreter rather than seeing him/her as an agent. Analyzing the literature related to gatekeeping, one sees studies tackling the topic of journalists as individual gatekeepers. Harmon (1989) studied the decisions of Mr. Gates in a 18 According to the conduit model, the neutral interpreter is merely an instrument. Therefore the model considers the interpreter a neutral one. Researches conducted later on such as Wadensjö, 1998; Roy, 2000; Angelelli, 2004 manifested the agency of the interpreter by revealing the interpreter’s function in managing discourse. 41       local television station concluding that significance, proximity and timeliness have played a significant role in his choices. On the other hand, the literature tackling the gatekeeping process as a whole, rather than focusing solely on the individual as a gatekeeper is ample. In one of the most quoted studies related to gatekeeping, Östgaard (1965) studies the forces affecting the flow of news. To him, the political influence on the news might be seen when the governments attempt to make use of censorship19. He contends that, political and economic factors including “cultural proximity” do impact the flow of news, causing a distortion. To him, the difference between the levels of the countries does also play a major role as a gatekeeper. Rather, it is the rank positions of the source for the news messages on the one hand, and of the receiver on the other hand, which is important. It seems that news does not flow most easily between people or nations of the same rank (as it would if rank proximity were a key element in the interest aspect). Rather it appears that news tends to flow from higher towards lower ranks, both within a nation and among nations (1965: 47). It follows that in terms of the subjects interpreted within TV interpreting, if there is a certain piece of news from the US the chances of it being taken up is higher in comparison to a piece of news from Cuba. Therefore, it might be claimed that the higher ranking a country has the more likely it is the news of that particular country will pass through the gates – or in other terms – be deemed trustworthy. 19 The News Webster’s Dictionary of the English language defines censor as the person empowered to suppress publications or excise any matter in them thought to be immoral, seditious, or otherwise undesirable. Lefevere also maintains that censorship is one possible form of patronage, so it is closely related to power (1992). Bourdieu draws attention to how censorship is put into practice and asserts that journalists operationalize censorship even without being aware of it (1996: 47). Therefore, it corresponds to the inadvertent part of cultural repertoire in Toury’s terms. Denise Merkle, one of the most prolific writers addressing censorship notes that due to a conflict stemming from the target culture, some translators choose to exercise censorship and the rest could be faced with personal “cost”. It might either be a financial loss or loss of freedom to him (2005: 1). Merkle, in his discussion of censorship and gatekeeping holds that translators who assume the role of “gatekeeper” reproduce the norm and are likely to apply the principle of correction, or self-correction (self-censorship), to their discursive products (ibid: 19); however, the findings of this thesis suggest that gatekeeping is not merely about the norms but how they are perceived by the agents, as well. Since not only power but how it is perceived by individuals impinge on interpreting, I suggest gatekeeping is a better term in revealing the process of TV interpreting. Bourdieu draws attention to the economic censorship functioning in the background in examining TVs, as well. “[i]t is not enough to say that what gets on television is determined by the owners, by the companies that pay for the ads, or by the government that gives the subsidies. If you knew only the name of the owner of a television station, its advertising budget, and how much it receives in subsidies, you wouldn't know much” (1996. 16). In my analysis I will not go into the ownership structure in detail, however, it is of utmost importance to know whether an MO is a public or private institution as the differences between them are quite stark. 42       Likewise, Dimmick (1974), revealing the results of a pilot study, draws attention to the factors that the gatekeepers are influenced by. To him, the point of analysis should be the gatekeeping institution rather than the gatekeeper. The goal of the paper is to establish a theory for gatekeeping studies answering what input and output of a gatekeeping institution consists of. In this sense, first the input is identified (called the sensing process), and then is turned into output (valuation process) calling them “necessary and sufficient conditions. The paper claims that the role gatekeeper means four organizational roles, namely: editor, reporter, news executive (manager) and news source. He reflects on the organization’s policy as the “single most important determinant of which the day’s events are defined as news” (1974: 20). Furthermore, he contends that policy is instrumental in reducing the gatekeeper’s uncertainty. Shoemaker & Reese draw attention to news values. To them, the journalists do assess the news, and in a way do perform their gatekeeping function based on the news values. ...News judgment is the ability to evaluate stories based on agreed-on news values, which provide yardsticks of newsworthiness and constitute an audience-oriented routine. That is, they predict what an audience will find appealing and important; and, in practice, they direct gatekeepers to make consistent story selections (1996: 106). To Shoemaker and Reese, these news values are as follows: prominence/ importance, human interest, conflict/ controversy, the unusual, timeliness, and proximity. As for other gatekeeping elements, publisher attitude (Donohew, 1967), news editorial function (Donahue, Tichenor& Olien, 1989), timeliness and significance, group decision making, organizational constraints and a broad interest-importance framework, group process (Berkowitz, 1990), timeliness and ideology (Bassnett and Bielsa, 2008) stand out in a number of studies. Glenn Bleske (1991), revisiting the role of Ms. Gates this time, focusing on a female rather than a male, reaches the conclusion that three categories – human interest, national and international politics – still do keep their own place in the gatekeeping process, yet the gatekeepers are highly influenced by the wire service’s agenda setting as a primary change. Hun Shik Kim (2002) has shed light on the attitudinal patterns manifested by TV journalists in the US in their selection of news. Drawing on Shoemaker’s previous study, individual differences, newsroom routines, organizational constraints, extra-organizational influences, and social-cultural differences are presented as the outstanding factors in perpetuation of the gatekeeping to him. 43       With the advent of Internet, the surge in social media and blogs, the most recent studies drawing on gatekeeping mostly analyze on-line entities. In one of those studies, Aaron Shaw (2012) studies an online collective and reaches the conclusion that gatekeeping processes do further strengthen the negotiation and reproduction of inequalities on the site. Furthermore, Piet Bakker (2014) analyses the way that journalism has changed, focusing on the newly burgeoning roles such as the freelancer or independent journalists with the surge in the use of the social media. The paper points out that as the way that jobs are performed is vastly changing, the role of Mr. Gates is surging, getting more important in comparison to the era of the first paper on Mr. Gates. Singer (2006) studies the role of the gatekeeper in online platforms and finds out that as creating and disseminating news by the audience is the case in on-line platforms. To him, the changing atmosphere is ever challenging the role of the gatekeeper. To wit, it stands to reason that though the approaches towards gatekeeping have changed from one researcher to the next, turning gatekeeping into Mr. Gates, Ms. Gates (see Bleske, 1991) or Institution Gates at times, the interest in making use of gatekkeping in media studies has not vanished. On the contrary, with the ever-changing role of Gates, be it an individual or an institution, gaining insight into gates is gaining in importance to different extents in different realms, including digital media. 3.1.3 Gatekeeping and News Translation As for the studies in the realm of translation studies that draw on gatekeeping, Erkka Vuorinen seems to be one of the leading researchers. In his seminal paper, he defines the gates as information channels; he maintains that gatekeeping suggests that different types of text manipulation do occur. To him, gatekeeping within an entity is shaped in the communication routines and organizational characteristics of the organization. (1997: 168). Moreover, he also dwells on the term internal-gatekeeper as a staff translator working within an organization and concludes that the gatekeeping “operations” are indeed “the normal textual operations performed in any translation in order to produce functionally adequate texts for a given use” (1997: 170). Fifteen years later, Christina Schäffner (2012), in her paper where she provides a detailed theoretical perspective of transediting, also reaches a similar conclusion drawing on functionalist approaches, as will be stated in detail below. 44       With regards to the linguistic operations carried out during the gatekeeping process, this issue has been tackled by various scholars at different times and has been of great interest (Fujii 1988, Hursti 2000, Ya-Mei Chen 2009). In trying to grasp the process of gatekeping, Vuorinen maintains that four major processes performed by news translators are: controlling the quantity of the message, message transforming, message supplementing, and message- reorganization.20 In Fuji’s paper where he makes use of the Westley-McLean model, on New Translation in Japan, similar procedures seem to apply yet under different names: controlling, transforming, supplementing, reorganizing messages rooted in the institution (Fujii, 1988). Although different researchers opt for different names, it seems as if they have paved the way for the later studies to follow. To cite an example, Ali Darwish, following the footsteps of these studies, studies the content of Bin Laden interpretations and the voice-overs and concludes that “the content of those speeches studied do not match the script read out either by the voice- talent or produced by the translator, assuming that they are 2 different people” (Darwish and Pilar, 2014). Hence, the footsteps of the earlier studies have proved useful and concluded in more descriptive studies. Yet, to Roberto A. Valdeón, it was due to the events on 9/11 that the interest in news writing and news production increased (2008). However, I contend that the footsteps of this surging interest could be heard back in 2006, with the publication of the Warwick Conference proceedings on news translation. Claire Tsai (2006), in this volume, draws on rewriting and presents synthesis, reorganization, omission, edition and generalization as the key strategies (2006: 60). Tsai states that some media outlets in Taiwan make and even push the news translators to work as a simultaneous TV interpreter in breaking news. Schäffner, in 2008, analyzing political interviews, speeches and press conferences calls the lexical and syntactic alterations “transformations” (2008: 13). Moreover, she touches upon the different perceptions that the readers get: As a result of these transformations, readers of the respective newspapers get a different impression of the topics discussed in the interview and of the way in which Putin expressed his views. Deletions, rearrangements of information, substitutions and paraphrasing are typical examples of transformations that text producers (i.e. journalists, revisers, editors) make use of in the recontextualisation processes (2008: 13). 20 For a detailed analysis of different methods and terminology please see Christina Schäffner, 2012, Rethinking Transediting. 45       To her, media exerts gatekeeping by selecting relevant issues. Connecting gateekeping with power relations, she maintains that the voice of the powerful gets heard more strongly than the ones with less power (2008: 22). Moreover, as a consequence of the transformation process, different images of the same politician are constructed in different languages reflecting institutional values and policies (2008: 22). Luc Van Doorslaer, one of the most prolific translation studies scholars, analyses the press in Belgium press, Dutch and French language press specifically (2009). Finding out a correlation between the language and the source of information, he reaches the conclusion that geographical, physical, linguistic proximity and identity do stand out as the reasons behind the selection of the news items. By making reference to transediting, he holds that the results do manifest the presence of transediting. In another paper, Van Doorslaer, studying the relationship between journalism and gatekeeping, introduces the concept of journalator to depict the role combining the journalism and translation with a focus on the “active interventionist attitude” of (2012). In another study, Doorsler, analysing news choices, maintains, “a complex mixture of power relationships (continental, national, linguistic, political and ideological) determines important decisions and choices regarding news selection, news translation and news editing” (2010: 180). In a similar vein, Alberto Orengo, in his paper depicting the life of a translation news agency related to a localization project, draws attention to the hybrid profession of a translator and defines it as follows: “multitasking activity where the translator has to be at once translator, editor, and expert in software, marketing, web design, multimedia technologies and texts; in short a professional bemused by the paradox of working with language and text movements in a context where even the conventional notion of text itself… is at stake” (2005: 172). As for the output, Orengo draws attention to the filtering process that might be called gatekeeping, as noted above, and holds that the level of the filtering process has been the major “yardstick” (2005: 175). To me, this yardstick might equate to gatekeeping or might even serve as a gatekeeper itself. Yet, in this gatekeeping process, the news, that is the output, has been made to be politically and socially suitable for the readership (or the audience for the purpose of this thesis) and the current political environment. It is highly important that Orengo makes a reference to political ideology as he elaborated on the filtering or gatekeeping process, and considers the political milieu one of the filters resulting in the translation’s being reflections of multi-faceted cultures (2005: 185). Therefore, it might be 46       claimed that Orengo, though not making use of the terms gatekeeping or transediting, displays the transformation that the texts are exposed to in translation. Ji Hae Kang (2007) drawing on institutionalization21 and conducting a case study comparing the news stories published in Newsweek and its North Korean version concludes that news translation is an institutionalized practice with institutional aims and processes employing the struggle between voices, ideologies and images. Drawing on discourse analysis, he claims the following: Although translated news discourse projects the image that it is a complete and accurate representation of the source text writer’s intentions and meaning, the process of mediation across boundaries of language, culture and institution frequently leads to the creation of a target text in which the distinction is blurred between the original writer’s discourse, as based on a specific linguistic and institutional context, and the translating agent’s discourse, which is based on a completely separate linguistic and institutional context shaped by different beliefs, opinions and institutional criteria (2007: 221). To him, the discourse of the original writer and the translating agent is intermixed to such a degree that it is not so easy to separate and pinpoint where one begins and the other ends. In one of the recent articles published in this realm, Pan Li (2014) claims that the institutionalization of the process is largely ignored in the papers addressing news translation. Analyzing a Chinese daily, the paper claims that the institutional goal of the daily has impacted both the translation and the translator. Li, examining the question as to whether the guidelines affect the “translational practice uniformly” conducted open-ended interviews and surveys with the translators and found out that the institution functions like a translating institution rather than a news institution. To him, institutional factors that possibly lead to mediation include the inherent conflict between the institutional guideline of producing faithful translation with a literal translation method and gatekeeping function the news organization has to perform, and the translators’ belief in their role and their assumptions (2014: 557). Therefore, he makes a reference to the way that the translator considers his/her role and mediates accordingly, pointing out the agency of the translator. 47       In another recent study, David Deluiis, analyzing the history of gatekeeping from a holistic perspective, puts the role of the gatekeeper as follows: Within each organization, boundary gatekeepers make initial decisions about what information to let into their channel. Once information passes these boundary gatekeepers, it moves to internal gatekeepers, who make decisions based on journalistic routines and standards. The internal gatekeepers then pass information to boundary output gatekeepers, who make final decisions about how to the present information based on feedback from the audience (2015: 11). It follows that Deluiis separates the role of the internal gatekeepers from the output gatekeepers. As for the roles of these different levels, Shoemaker and Reese depict the case as follows: Within most media organizations there are three general levels. The front-line employees, such as writers, reporters, and creative staff, gather and package the raw material. The middle level consists of managers, editors, producers, and others who coordinate the process and mediate communication between the bottom and the top of the organization. Top-level corporate and news executives make organization policy, set budgets, make important personnel decisions, protect commercial and political interests of the firm, and when necessary defend the organization's employees from outside pressures (a frequent requirement in the case of news organizations) (1996: 145). It follows that not all gatekeepers hold the same power. Based on their level, the power they might use as a gatekeeper might change. Furthermore, it should be noted that the role occupied by people would have a repercussion on the way that they think, voiced as well by Shoemaker and Reese (1996: 145). Shoemaker and Reese note that there might be some other reasons behind the power exerted by the employees or the gatekeepers. To them, though a gatekeeper might occupy a lower ranking position in the organizational hierarchy, they might have special “expertise or other means to 48       thwart directives22 from the top, often making negotiation and compromise necessary” (ibid, 145). In a recent study, Ahmed Ayyad and Anthony Pym (2012) analyze the translation of the road map document in a number of newspapers including Yedioth Ahranot. They call the changes such as rendering “curfew” as “closure” an intervention drawing on the theory of translational shifts. They draw attention to the need to admit the collective agency behind those changes. Similarly, within the institutions producing these translations, it is highly unlikely that there was just one translator working on each translation. These organizations operate through revisers, guidelines, editorial committees and back-and-forth power play memos that tend to override, unevenly and imperfectly, at least some of the key decisions made by a translating intellect. In such situations, one cannot assume that there is a single coherent mind at work behind all the choices made in a translation. The level of relative coherence is more likely to be near the end of the process, in the instance that authorizes the translation as such and presents it to the world (2012: 17). As these sentences do indicate, there is not one single interpreter who is in charge of the gatekeeping process that makes the key decisions. The output we see, hear or read turns out to be the end process of a collective agency in Pym’s words or a collective gatekeeping for the purposes of this work though Ayyad and Pym call it “collective intervention (ibid: 17). When it comes to research drawing on gatekeeping in the field of interpreting, not many studies exist. In her study, Wadensjö allocates three pages to gatekeeping and holds that “gatekeepers are intermediaries between lay people and institutions” (1998: 67). In her conclusion with respect to gatekeeping, she draws attention to the dilemma of the interpreters: As do all professionalized intermediaries, interpreters work at providing a particular service. Simultaneously, they – of necessity- exercise a certain control. Obviously there is a potential conflict between the service and the control aspects, which sometimes surfaces in dilemmas reported in the literature on institutional communication. It largely remains to be investigated how this conflict is handled in 22 The means or power to hinder directives or to put it differently to exercise agency or ethos will be taken up in detail in 3. 5 Gatekeeping as Exercising Agency/ Ethos. 49       institutional interpreter-mediated talk, where the gatekeeping is, in effect, doubled (1998: 69) (my own emphasis).23 I hold that the dilemma depicted above might stem from the gap between the translation policy of the institution and the ethos of the interpreter as will be depicted based on the examples. In another study penned in 2000, Davidson examines medical interviews held via medical staff interpreters drawing upon gatekeeping. He suggests that interpreters act as “informational gatekeepers” in the sense that “they keep the interview on track and physician on the schedule” (Davidson, 2000: 400) and calls the interpreters “institutional insiders” and “allies”. An important study worth mentioning that employs gatekeeping to analyze media interpreting is Submerged Ideologies in Media Interpreting by David Katan and Francesco Straniero- Sergio (2003). In their paper they come up with a model to grasp TV interpreter based on consumer capitalism and popular culture. To them there are three levels in this model: 23 I emphasized the term dilemma since it is one of most salient terms coming up in interviews. To see how the TV interpreters state their dilemma, see 5.2.2 Their Working Conditions as a Gatekeeper. 50       Figure 3.1 The Three Levels of Interpreted Media Event (Source: Katan & Straniero-Sergio, 2003). 24 According to them, “the gatekeeping decision to use an interpreter, whether simultaneous, consecutive or dialogue during social interaction on screen (or only in audio) is only one of the ways in which inter-language transfer is managed” (ibid: 137). Moreover, “the broadcaster gatekeepers decide not only what to translate but also importantly how an event is to be translated” (Katan and Straniero-Sergio, 2003: 135). Touching upon the term habitus, they contend that TV interpreters are expected to go into “media habitus” (ibid 143: 144) 25. They 24 In my analysis of this chart, submerged ideologies correspond to invisible policy guidelines, invisibility of the interpreter in the media law and RTÜK documents. The partially submerged part corresponds to interpreting strategies and the visible part corresponds to real instances of interpreting. 25 To see how TV interpreters are forced into media habitus, see 5.2 Interpreters’ Perception. 51       conclude that because of the “gatekeeping maneuvers” the identity26 of the media interpreter is changing at a fast pace. Having looked into the origins of gatekeeping, how it is addressed in news and news translation, I will approach gatekeeping from different perspectives: interediting, translation policy and agency/ethos. 3.2 Gatekeeping as Interediting 3.2.1 Discussion of the Term Transediting Karen Stetting (1989) coined the term transediting as a blending of translation and editing to manifest the role of journalists and has paved the way for various studies to come. To her, the transeditor has an interventionist approach rather than a conduit one, carrying the right to make semantic changes as the target settings alter. Therefore, she proposes three types of transediting: cleaning up transediting (to provide efficiency in expression), situation transediting (to follow up the intended function of the translation) and cultural transediting (to adapt to the requirements and convention of the target culture) (1989: 377). It is also important to note the timing of the publication of the article in the Proceedings of the Forth Nordic Conference for English studies. As noted by Schäffner (2012: 867) back then the realm of translation studies was a burgeoning discipline still considered under the umbrella of Applied Linguistics most of the time. The term transediting came to be used in various studies to denote the way that mass media works. As noted by Schäffner (2012: 869), the studies that have been undertaken so far which make use of transediting have been centered around specific language pairs, analyzing specific cases and have been of a descriptive nature in this sense explaining the corpus via the term transedition. Bielsa studied the translation performed in news agencies (2007) and contended that editing and translation, that is transediting to Stetting, do comprise the selection, correction, verification, completion, development or reduction phases (2007: 136). Chen (2009) aptly held that transediting itself refers to gatekeeping in the sense of filtering and deciding which piece of news is to be transferred (2009: 204). In a similar vein, Kristian 26 In this thesis rather than the term identity, the ethos of the interpreter will be taken up. The reason is that rather than making top-down analysis regarding their identity, it might prove more beneficial to address how they see themselves. 52       Hursti, analyzing the translation from Reuters news Agency to the Finnish Agency and drawing on gatekeeping, studies the textual operations. She pointedly describes transediting and gatekeeping as “two faces of the same coin” and provides the following example: For example, when an FNA journalist decides to manipulate a string of information in a Reuters’ story to produce a Finnish-language story (e.g. reorganize, delete or substitute it), s/he is making a translatorial (transeditorial) decision and transforming the text; this is a gatekeeping operation. Similarly, if s/he were to make the opposite decision to retain the string of information intact, this could be seen as a transfer operation (my own emphasis). 27 It follows that depending on the framework/perspective/point of view one holds, the linguistic processes or alterations might either be explained via gatekeeping or transediting. Accordingly, Hursti conducted his analysis based on “four major linguistic operations, namely, reorganization, deletion, addition and substitution. To him, all these process including selection, transformation and transfer, point to a “contextualization of the entire news writing process”. Aktan and Nohl (2010), in their paper titled “International Trans-editing: Typical Intercultural Communication Strategies at the BBC World Service Turkish Radio” draw on transediting. Conducting an ethnographical study combining interviews and observations with the corpus at hand from the BBC World Service, they analyze the English and Turkish news texts. Zhang (2012) also draws on transediting in analyzing news headlines. Four major international news events between 2008 and 2010 are analyzed to this end. Zhang concludes that since the texts are imbued with the values and knowledge of the transeditors, as he calls them borrowing Stetting’s term, he draws attention to the changes between the texts. To him, the discourse may be considered as an “indication adopted by the news agency”. …the transeditor has to work under various constraints, which include the consideration of the readership, the social value of the target culture, the stance and 27 Please see http://blogs.helsinki.fi/hes-eng/volumes/volume-1-special-issue-on-translation-studies/an-insiders- view-on-transformation-and-transfer-in-international-news-communication-an-english-finnish-perspective- kristian-hursti/ (accessed on June 15, 2015). 53       value positions of the news agency and the mode of communication (2012: 13) (my own emphasis)28 Therefore, it might be claimed that Zhang, in his paper, considers the discourse as a manifestation of the ideology of the particular news agency under which the transeditor is to perform. One of the most fruitful case studies in this regard was conducted by Cheesman and Nohl (2010). Drawing on gatekeeping and transediting, they studied the way the 2008 American elections were covered on BBC websites by comparing the source text and their versions in Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Tamil. They maintain that “the term gatekeeping usually refers to which news story is transferred at all but re-sequencing a report involves a refined, subtle form of gatekeeping”. To them, as the norms and the audience with its expectation do differ from one site to the next, so do the texts. Schäffner, revisiting the term transediting within the confines of translation studies, has conducted a very detailed study and has come up with a theoretical approach rather than studying a case in point. Schäffner claims that transformations in translation do in fact stem from its nature, being inherent to it (2012). Schäffner, pointing out that when the term was coined the dominant paradigm (in the Kuhnisian sense) was equivalence, criticizes Stetting’s paper for making no reference to the functionalist approach in the realm of Translation Studies. As true as this point is, the lack of reference might stem from Stetting’s interest in journalism rather than translation studies. Yet again, it goes without saying that if one is to make use of the functionalist theories, including Vermeer and Holz Mantaari, then the term transediting is not required to legitimize the work of any journalist at all. Nonetheless, it is my contention that this case might hold true for various cases in point. Functionalist approaches to me are indeed very much of use to explain various cases including the target text, the process and the role of the translator/interpreter. Yet, I am of the opinion that interdisciplinary studies are also of utmost value and might bring about a new perspective to both disciplines at hand. 28 Since all those terms do refer to the translation terminology, I underscored them to draw attention to the similarities between transediting and translation. 54       3.2.2 Interediting as a Term Encompassing Interpreting and Editing I contend that though transediting might look like an old-fashioned term since it was coined when translation studies was prescriptive (source text oriented) rather than descriptive (target text oriented) it might still prove useful to translation studies. Nonetheless, I must state that since all the above-mentioned studies tackle the written texts such as newspapers or digital media, this study is different in the sense of being interested in oral texts. Since finding a corpus in the oral text analysis is thornier when compared with written texts, the lack of interest in making use of transediting in interpreting studies might stem from this difficulty. Moreover, it should also be noted that since interpreting is the subject matter of this thesis, it might prove useful to coin the term interediting, gathering the interpreting and editing processes together and see whether this term might prove useful in explaining a. the process of TV interpreting and b. the role of the TV interpreter himself/ herself. In order to talk about interediting, first what I refer to by interpreting and editing should be explained: Interpretation: 1. An interpreting or being interpreted 2. An explanation produced by interpreting 3. The essential meaning of something, that is, “the interpretation of this poem” 4. The act of translating a speech orally from one language into another 5. An instance of this- comes from Latin interpretatio. (I take the item numbered 4 for the purposes of this paper). Editing: 1. To prepare (literary or musical work) for publication esp. to establish or prepare a commentary (on a text) 2. To prepare a film, radio or television material in the form in which it is to be seen or heard 3. To alter (matter for publication) so as it make it suitable for one’s purpose, the news has been edited to bolster morale 3. To be in charge (a newspaper or periodical) and decide its policy and contents – comes from Latin edere: give out.29 (I refer to item number 3 for the purposes of this paper). Interediting: The combination of interpreting and editing as the TV interpreter assumes a journalistic role in the execution of his/her job. Therefore, it refers to the editing and interpreting processes happening simultaneously in the mind of the TV interpreter as the audience hears the output, the interpreting rendered. 29 The New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language. 1995. Lexicon International: New York. 55       In the chapter, analyzing the role of the interpreter and the output that is the corpus, the term interediting will be tested and it will be hypothesized that as the TV interpreter assumes the role of gatekeeper in producing the output or rendering the interpreting, he/she automatically embraces the intereditor role, thereby explicating, adding, deleting and substituting lexical items whenever it is deemed necessary on behalf of the related media outlet or his/her own decisions, as well. In light of the theoretical discussion above, the question to what extent interediting comes to the scene and under which circumstances in TV interpreting, will be answered in the chapter on conclusive remarks following the analysis chapter. 3.3 Gatekeeping as Translation Policy Gatekeeping is mostly discussed within the news framework and media. Yet, in translation studies although the term gatekeeping has not been used widely, what translation policy refers to is closely related to gatekeeping. Drawing upon this premise, I will discuss gatekeeping as translation policy and will go into the different perspectives of translation scholars pertaining to translation policy. Gatekeeping, by its definition, can’t be considered without taking power relations into consideration, as discussed above. To Barzilai-Nahon, “information control in many cases is a manifestation of the power of stakeholders who wish to achieve their political interests (2009:50). If one is to address gatekeeping in an institutionalized context, the translation policy of this institution necessarily comes into play. Holmes, in his seminal paper “The Name and Nature of Translation Studies” (1972) draws the map of translation studies and puts translation policy under applied translation studies. He holds that “[t]he task of the translation scholar in this area is to render informed advice in defining the place and role of translators, translating, and translations in society at large: such questions, for instance, as determining what works need to be translated in a given socio- cultural situation, what the social and economic position of the translator is and should be, or … what part translating should play in the teaching and learning of foreign languages” (Holmes 1999: 182). As Holmes insightfully remarks, translation policy, examining the role of translators and translating, can’t be dissociated from language and education policy. Gideon Toury (1999) considers translation as a “norm- governed activity”. He holds that mainly there are 2 types of norms that are operational in translation act. To him, preliminary 56       norms have to do with translation policy and the directness of translation. Operational norms govern the decisions of the translator during the translation process. Moreover, he also distinguishes between basic (preliminary) norms, which are mandatory, secondary norms governing favorable behavior and tolerated (permitted) behavior. As norms are considered somewhere in between the rules and idiosyncrasies with a certain sanction to exert if not followed, it might be hypothesized that certain norms might act as gatekeepers themselves, as well. As for Toury, translation policy comes under preliminary norms as mentioned above. By translation policy, Toury denotes “those factors that govern the choice of text types; or even of individual texts, to be imported through translation into a particular culture/language at a particular point in time. Such a policy will be said to exist inasmuch as the choice is found to be non-random” (Toury, 1999: 202). To him, “different policies may of course apply to different subgroups.” To open up his statements for the purposes of this thesis, different media outlets might adopt different policies. Andrew Chesterman, expanding on norms, differentiates between expectancy norms and professional norms. To him, expectancy norms are related to the expectations of the target culture or audience for the purpose of this thesis. Professional norms, on the other hand, are informed by competent professional behavior. Thus, those norms make it necessary for the competent translator/interpreter to abide by the expectancy norms. In this sense, norms have to do with the understanding of the institution and/or readers/audience related to the profession. To Schäffner, translation policy might be defined as follows within the concept of norms: “... exactly how much and what kind of rewriting is prescribed, preferred or allowed in practice, depends on the prevailing concepts of translation. This brings us to the aspect of normative force, and to the related question of who has the power to enforce reforms (Schäffner, 1999: 7). As noted by Christina Schäffner, to what extent certain rewriting is closely related to the power to apply the norms is in a sense keeping the gates. Combining gatekeeping with the norms, it might therefore be claimed that the gatekeeper might put efforts into preserving the 57       norms of a certain institution. The function of gatekeeping and norm abiding are very much intertwined. In addressing translation policy, institution and institutional settings have a major role to play, since they shape translation policy. Hermans, regarding translation as an institution, maintains that “translation as institution is circumscribed by expectations which have both cognitive and normative elements in them; secondly, that, beyond this, these expectations also shape the domain or the field or indeed the “system of translation” (1995:5). Hermans, incorporating norms with institution, maintains that: We acquire norms by learning them. They are inculcated as part of the process of socialization. Just as learning to speak is learning to speak ‘properly’ in accordance with the linguistic norms of the relevant community (the family, the circle of friends, the school, the workplace) so learning to translate means learning to operate the norms of translation, i.e. to operate with them and within them, anticipating, accommodating, calculating, negotiating the expectations of others concerning the social institution called translation (1995:9). Accordingly, norms make the translator and/or interpreter get imbued with the institutional policy and translation policy as a part of it. Therefore, with the agents’ abiding by the norms systems turn into “self reproducing systems” in that they perpetually produce and reproduce the elements that they consist of (1995:11). Having considered this viewpoint, I must note that it depends on the agents or the ethos of those agents to break this vicious circle, as will be depicted in the part related to ethos below. If one is to see the norms as an extension of institutional expectations, then, institutional power comes along. One of the most prolific researchers looking into the relationship between institution and translation is Kaisa Koskinen. She holds that all translation is institutional. Koskinen, conducting an ethnographic research into the European Union and providing insight into how the institutional context shapes the translation process and how translators negotiate their role and professional identity, puts the relationship between the translator and the hegemony or patronage provided/exerted by the institution as follows: The translated text is not mine, nor does it have my name on it. It is not my trustworthiness but the trustworthiness of the translating institution that will be 58       maintained, enhanced or harmed by my translation. In the commission, my words are not mine; I am a spokesperson for the institution. The institution speaks through me (Koskinen, 2008: 24). To the extent that the translator interpreter represents the institution and has to abide by the norms and/or constraints or the translation policy in its broader sense brought about by the institution, his/her words might solely turn into the words of the prevailing discourse of the institution, as put by Koskinen. The power of the institution and the way it is exerted is a major issue discussed by Andre Lefevere at large. Lefevere holds that translation (or interpreting) has to be examined in connection with power and patronage, ideology and poetics (1992b: 10). He defines patronage as the powers (persons, institutions), which help or hinder the writing or rewriting, reading and rewriting of literature (1985: 227). To him, patronage can be exerted by persons, groups of persons, a social class, a royal court, publishers and the media (1992a: 15). Lefevere holds that patronage basically consists of three elements: an economic component on which the translator depends for his or her living; an element of status of which could lead to elevating the translator's reputation; and an ideological component which confines the act of translating (1992a:16). It follows that, in a way, gatekeeping helps to rewrite the ideology set by patronage and operates within a policy. As for ideology, it is a very broad term covering positive and negative aspects, and requires looking into the relation between interpreting and the conglomerate behind it in more detail. Since I would like to elaborate on the gates of TV interpreting, I did not want to speculate on the ownership and ideology of those media institutions. However, it might be beneficial to recall how Van Dijk defines ideology. To him, ideologies are social and often associated with group interests, conflicts or struggle; moreover, they may be gauged to legitimize and oppose power and dominance, or symbolize social problems and contradictions (1998: 5). As put above, ideology is strongly connected to patronage and censorship in Andre Lefevere’s sense. Lefevere defines ideology as “the conceptual grid that consists of opinions and attitudes deemed acceptable in a certain time, and through which readers and translators approach texts” (1998: 41. He claims that control factors often act as a force on the translators to produce translated texts, which conform to their patron's ideology (Lefevere, 1992b: 14). As a result, translators often resort to rewriting the original work. I contend that an interpreting’s 59       acceptability might refer to being acceptable a. in the eyes of the stakeholders (state, owners of the media outlet, editors) and b. in the eyes of the audience (the public at large with their own world views and nationalistic values in line with the agenda of the related era). Therefore, in terms of TV interpreting, the interpreting rendered needs to befit these two points and be rewritten accordingly. Consequently, the images created by translation and/or interpreting might be different from the ones in the source text.30 Meylaerts, addressing translation policy in several papers, defines translation policy as follows: ‘translation policy’ covers a variety of meanings, designing official institutional settings but also a wide range of relatively informal situations related to ideology, translators’ strategies, publishers’ strategies, prizes and scholarships, translator training, etc (2011a : 163) (my own emphasis). It follows that translation policy is instrumental in institutional settings and has to do with strategies and training, as well. Looking into translation policy and institution as an element exercising translation policy, one aspect worth mentioning is language policy. Spolsky holds that “the goal of a theory of language policy is to account for the regular choices made by individual speakers on the basis of patterns established in the speech community or communities of which they are members” (2007: 1). To Spolsky, language policy has three pillars: management, belief or ideology31 (idiosyncratic part of language policy; what people believe they should say) and practice.32 Language management refers to the formulation and proclamation of an explicit plan or 30 For a detailed study on the way different images do occur via interpreting please see Morven Beaton-Thome, 2013. 31 Spitulnik holds that “language ideologies are, among many other things, about the construction and legitimating of power, the production of social relations of sameness and difference, and the creation of cultural stereotypes about types of speakers and social groups” (1998: 164). 32 Gabriel Gonzales Nunez (2013) holds that translation could be applied to those three areas. “Translation practices involve questions such as what texts get translated, into and out of what languages, where it takes place, who is tasked with it, what mode of interpreting is used, etc. Translation beliefs involve issues such as what the value is or is not of offering translation in certain contexts for certain groups or to achieve certain ends. Translation management refers to the decisions regarding translation practices made by people in authority. Hence, drawing to the intricate relationship between language and translation policies, he asserts that language policies give rise to translation policies. Similarly, Meylaerts holds that “there is no language policy without a translation policy.” (2011b). 60       policy, usually but not necessarily written in a formal document, about language use. However, the existence of such an explicit policy does not guarantee that it will be implemented and, nor does implementation guarantee success (Spolsky, 2004: 14). It is about what is planned by whom and how. In this sense, he notes that language policy might serve as an instrument of nationalism. As regards the elements of language policy, Spolsky maintains: language policy is concerned not just with named varieties of language, but with all the individual elements at all levels that make up language. Language policy can apply to pronunciation, to spelling, to lexical choice, to grammar or to style, and to bad language, racist language, obscene language or correct language. It may apply to non- autonomous varieties of language, such as dialects like New York English, Afro- American English as well as to recognized, autonomous, standard languages like French and Russian. Questions of how to handle variation and of how to categorize varieties of language are at the very center of the study of language policy (2004: 40) (my emphasis). Since in the interpreting instances lexical choices employed by the interpreters will be addressed, it might prove beneficial to recall that those choices are closely intertwined with language policy. As education policy is also closely connected to both language and translation policy, it might prove useful to consider the education policy of Turkey vis-à-vis foreign languages. Bayram Küçükoğlu, analyzing the history of foreign language policies maintains, “people living on these lands have always tried to learn the languages of the countries they have relations with. Governments worldwide have produced specific policies covering languages in education, and so has Turkey. In Turkey in order to maintain international communication and to catch up with new developments, English has become the inevitable tool for people to do so, especially for the young population” (2013). He puts that the interest in English stems from modernization and westernization movements (2013: 1091). Drawing from this interest, it is not a surprise that the number of English teaching schools is much higher in comparison to other languages. Hence, it might be claimed that English holds a higher position vis-à-vis other languages with regard to educational policies. 61       In analyzing the management aspect of language policy, it stands to reason that management has to do with the law, regulation and the like documents enforced by the government. Drawing on this hypothesis, I will go on with a discussion of gatekeeping as policy documents. 3.4 Gatekeeping as Policy Documents In analyzing the process of gatekeeping or transediting in Stetting’s terms, the editorial rules33 unavoidably and essentially come to the fore. Since the journalist, no matter where he/she stands in the assembly line as defined by Bell (1991)34, is guided by the editorial rules, the repercussion of those rules might clearly be manifested in the output, which is the interpreting itself, within the confines of this thesis. Those rules might either be written or oral. In this part the written guidelines shall be taken up with a view to understanding the role of TV interpreter and seeing the manifestations of those guidelines on the interpreting itself in following chapters. Regarding the oral rules, they might be discerned from the statements of the respondents and the output, the real instances of interpreting. Since staff interpreters are dealt with in this thesis, it might prove beneficial to have a look at the stance of AIIC towards staff interpreters to depict the picture meticulously. Secondly, RTÜK (Radio and Television Supreme Council) guidelines will be taken up. AIIC Guidelines In the document pertaining to the professional standards of AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters) members Article 14 on Staff Interpreters maintains that “The association shall adopt recommendations concerning the working conditions of staff interpreters” and refers to the Staff Interpreters’ Chart.35 Accordingly, the Staff Interpreters’ Charter puts that: In accordance with the undertaking they give on assuming their duties, staff interpreters should: 33 The editorial rules or guidelines correspond to the management part of the three pillars of language policy defined by Spolsky. 34 Bell maintains that in the news assembly line the amount of news to flow from one gate to the next is selected. 35 http://belgium.aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/article122.htm (accessed on May 15, 2015). 62       1. Serve the interests of the organization to which they belong, 2. Scrupulously observe the vow of secrecy to which they are already bound by their professional code, 3. Keep abreast of developments, undergo further training and prepare for assignments in all areas of their organizations’ activities, with a view to maintaining high professional standards at all times. Staff interpreters should make it their duty to notify their supervisors, if they believe themselves not fully qualified to carry out an assignment, 4. Advise their organizations of the working conditions established by the profession and make every effort to abide by them for the sole purpose of maintaining high professional standards, 5. Co-ordinate with free-lance colleagues, 6. Act as interpreters outside their organization only with the latter’s consent, in compliance with local working conditions.36 Looking into the articles in detail, the first article seems to have a broad sense. The first article maintains that the staff interpreter is to serve the interest of the organization to which they belong, yet since most of the media outlets in Turkey are affiliated with different lines of organizations37 it might be quite complicated to get into whose interest the interpreter will serve. To make it clear, should the interpreter maintain and preserve the interest of the media outlet or the bigger group? Or else could the media outlet, which is merely one line of business in the bigger picture, be considered alone or should it be considered part and parcel of the business conglomerate? Given all these questions, the number of which could be further increased, evidently providing a clear answer is not an easy task to perform. Considering the fact that a company that a holding firm possesses might have a bearing on the other lines of business that the holding is involved in, it goes without saying that whose interest the interpreter serves turns into a thorny question. 36http://asiapacific.aiic.net/community/attachments/ViewAttachment.cfm/a839p1081- 2017.pdf?&filename=a839p1081-2017.pdf&page_id=1081 (accessed on May 10, 2015). 37 To cite an example Ciner Group involved in energy and mining business, as well. http://www.cinergroup.com.tr/energy (accessed on May 10, 2015). 63       As to the second article, the vow of secrecy is an element to which both AIIC and TKTD (Turkish Conference Interpreters’ Association) attaches huge importance to. With respect to the third article, as noted in the previous chapter TV interpreters are to keep abreast of the news all the time – even to the point of turning into a veritable news junkie. Training, preparation and not accepting an assignment if you are not qualified are the other points that come to the fore. In regards to advising the organization of the working conditions, which is item four, staff interpreters do strive for the technical problems to be eliminated so as to deliver their rendering in the best possible manner. In the fifth and sixth articles, respectively, coordinating with freelancers and getting assignments outside the institution so long as the institution in question approves stand out as the requirements. Looking into the AIIC guidelines for staff interpreters, the guideline will be addressed in the conclusion part in light of the findings of the interviews and corpus. RTÜK (Radio and Television Supreme Council) Guidelines As has been largely discussed in the previous chapter, television interpreting is conceived to be an integral part of television by some (see Katan and Straniero-Sergio, 2003). No matter how it is considered, it goes without saying that if a contract made with a freelance interpreter, let alone an in-house interpreter, makes a reference to the “broadcasting principles” and stipulates that the interpreting be delivered in line with those principles set by the Radio and Television Supreme Council, it might be highly beneficial to take a look at those principles. Before looking into the broadcasting principles, it is of avail to consider what Radio and Television Supreme Council does and the whys and wherefores of its existence. RTÜK, as it is widely called in Turkey, was established in 1984, close on the heels of the 1980 coup d’état. It is a state agency primarily in charge of regulating, monitoring and if necessary sanctioning radio and television broadcasts. If the regulations set by them are not followed, they impose sanctions on the related media outlets by stopping the broadcasting for a certain period of time. 64       Having stated what RTÜK does and its raison d’être, the media law will be analyzed first. In this regard, the media law holds that: The purpose of this Law is to regulate and supervise radio and television broadcasting services and on-demand media services; to ensure the freedom of expression and information; to determine the procedures and principles in relation to the administrative, financial and technical structures and obligations of media service providers and the establishment, organization, duties, competences and responsibilities of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (my own emphasis). 38 It follows that to RTÜK, maintenance and preservation of freedom of expression is one of the goals that it aims to attain. It might be of tremendous value to ask whose freedom or which information does this sentence refer to? Does it refer to the expression or information in line with the rhetoric of the state or else does it refer to the freedom of the speaker whose voice will be heard on TV? If the first case holds true, that is, if the voice of the state is to be ensured, then, will the voice of the speaker who is to be interpreted live be ruled out/manipulated/adapted to the state policy? All those questions are to be tackled, guided by the interviews and corpus made up of exemplary cases of TV interpreting. As for the way that broadcasting is maintained in Turkey, in article three paragraph six, it holds that: (3) Media service providers shall be obliged to ensure that media services shall not be exercised in a manner that serves to the unfair interests of themselves, shareholders and their relatives by blood or by marriage up to and including those of third degree or of any other real or legal persons (my own emphasis). Therefore, interests of the media owners shall be of utmost importance in any broadcasting in line with this article. Moreover, in the part related to the Principles for Media Services, it reads as follows: 38 http://www.rtuk.org.tr/Home/SolMenu/5386# (accessed on June 10, 2015). 65       ARTICLE 8 – (1) Media service providers shall provide their media services in accordance with the principles under this paragraph with an understanding of the responsibility towards public. Media services; a) Shall not be contrary to the existence and independence of the State of Republic of Turkey, the indivisible integrity of the State with its territory and nation, the reforms and principles of Atatürk. b) Shall not incite the society to hatred and hostility by making discrimination on the grounds of race, language, religion, sex, class, region and sect or shall not constitute any feelings of hatred in the society. c) Shall not be contrary to the rule of law, the principle of justice and impartiality. d) Shall not be contrary to human dignity and the principle of respect to privacy, shall not include disgracing, degrading or defamatory expressions against persons or organizations beyond the limits of criticism. e) Shall not glorify and encourage terror; shall not display terrorist organizations as powerful or justified and shall not portray terrifying and deterrent features of terrorist organizations. They shall not present the act, the perpetrators and the victims of terror in a way serving for the interests of the terror. f) Shall not include or promote broadcasts which make discrimination on the basis of race, color, language, religion, nationality, sex, disablement, political and philosophical opinion, sect and any such considerations and degrade individuals. g) Shall not be contrary to the national and moral values of the society, general morality and the principle of protection of family. h) Shall not glorify committing a crime, criminals and criminal organizations, shall not be instructive on criminal techniques. ı) Shall be predicated on the principles of impartiality, truthfulness and accuracy and shall not impede the free formation of opinions within the society. 66       j) Shall ensure that the Turkish language is used in a proper, favorable and intelligible way without undermining its characteristics and rules; shall not display coarse, slang and poor quality use of the language. k) Shall not be obscene (my own emphasis). I put special emphasis on the articles since they will be addressed in the concluding remarks in light of the findings of the interviews and corpus. Having considered the broadcasting rules, it might be plausible to take a look at the role of the interpreter within the broadcasting world on the basis of RTÜK laws and by-laws. In the same media rule, regarding the personnel in news units, it holds that: ARTICLE 23 – (1) The Supreme Council shall determine the minimum number of press-card holder personnel working in the news units of the media service providers. These personnel are subject to the Law No. 5953 on the Regulation of Professional Relationships Between Employers and Employees in the Press. Interestingly, the report prepared by the Republic of Turkey Office of the Prime Minister Directorate General of Press and Information entitled “Turkish Media at a Glance” in 2013, there is no reference to the TV interpreter whatsoever, manifesting the invisibility of TV interpreter. 39 The broadcasting guidelines put by RTÜK in live simultaneous interpretation have been handled in an article published in a daily as well. Yüksel Aytuğ, who writes mostly on popular magazine topics, states that The speeches delivered by two-foreigner jury members need to be interpreted simultaneously. Then the auto control of Acun (the host) will be eliminated. Because Acun is adapting the words of those jury members to the rules of RTÜK during interpretation.40 39 http://www.byegm.gov.tr/uploads/docs/bir_bakista_en.pdf (accessed on June 15, 2015). To read the full report you may download here. 40http://www.sabah.com.tr/yazarlar/gunaydin/aytug/2010/11/02/oda_seffaf_dans_kapali_olsun (accessed on June 15, 2015). 67       To him, since Acun, who is the host of the program, is delivering the interpretation himself, he is adapting the speeches so that they could follow the guidelines put by RTÜK. Drawing on these sentences, it might be concluded that the columnist makes a distinction between the professional and non-professional interpreters so to speak. The professionals do not adapt the words whereas the non-professional interpreter-who is the host of the program in this case- will somehow alter the interpretation. However, not only professionals but also all interpreters, since interpreting is considered to be a part of broadcasting, need to abide by RTÜK law. It stands to reason that the broadcasting guidelines in Turkey are very much abiding, taking the shape of a yardstick whenever it is necessary. Thereby, the guidelines are very much stronger in comparison to norms in Toury’s sense. 3.5 Gatekeeping as Exercising Agency/ Ethos Merriam Webster defines ethos as the guiding beliefs of a person, group or organization. In its full definition it reads the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group or institution. To Peter Flynn, ethos covers “individual perceptions of the profession of translation including social and textual practices taken together” (2007: 29). Since the thesis examines the interviews made with interpreters, editors-in-chief and correspondents, I am of the opinion that how those people define the profession of interpreting might be defined as “ethos”. Ethos is a term closely related to ideas and attitudes of a profession as put by Flynn. Flynn, focusing on translatorial ethos, concludes that ethos impinges on institutional and textual practice and relations. He holds that profession is something that is also ‘inside’ the translator, that translators do indeed embody a set of dispositions, which clearly ties in with Bourdieu’s notion of habitus41 and hence of practice (2007: 26). 41 According to Bourdieu, habitus refers to the subjects’ internalized system of social structures in the form of dispositions. The concept of habitus is a term widely used in translation studies recently (Simeoni 1998; Sela- Sheffy 2005; Inghilleri 2003, 2005; Meylaerts 2006). Simeoni maintains, “the habitus of a translator is the elaborate result of a personalized social and cultural history” (1998:32). To him, norms without a habitus to instantiate them make no more sense than a habitus without norms (1998:33). 68       As a consequence of one’s ethos, one can either be a conformist or a non-conformist in Toury’s sense. Toury, in his paper “The Translator as a Non- Conformist to be or How to Train Translators so as to Violate Translational Norms” The existence of norms for a certain “behavioral dimension” obviously presupposes a certain rate of conformity to them. However, this by no means implies that any single act of performance in this “dimension” will in fact reveal the same rate of conformity, or any conformity at all, to the norms in question. Nonconformity is not perfectly possible but also very common since norms are much less compulsive than any rule and the sanctions involved in them-the positive and the negative alike-are much milder (Toury: 1980) (my own emphasis). Accordingly, to him, the translator/interpreter might be a non- conformist and resist against the norms. The concept of ethos is closely related to agency, as well. Merriam Webster defines agency as “a person or thing through which power is exerted or an end is achieved”42. However, considering the way that agency is taken up in translation it has to do with the actions of the translator (see Kinnunen and Koskinen, 2010: 7). To Kinnuen and Koskinen, though agency is arranged by context, it is perpetually renegotiated by the agents (2010: 7-8). Hence, agency43 is related to the power of the person and not the institutions. In this regard, as aptly held by Koskinen, “conceivably it is not norms that govern translation activity, but the translators’ ways of dealing with these norms” (2010 :178). As regards the impact of the studies related to the agency of the translator/interpreting on the theoretical aspect of it, Chesterman mentions a new emerging model in translation studies and calls it the “agent model”. To him, translation studies covering research which focuses primarily and explicitly on the agents involved in translation, for instance on their activities or attitudes, their interaction with their social and technical environment, or their history and influence, come under the agent model (2009: 19). 42 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/agency (accessed on June, 2016). 43 Agency is a term that has been taken stock of in various translation and interpreting studies (see Angelelli, 2004). 69       Against this background, the questions could be addressed as follows: To what extent is ethos/ agency revealed in TV interpreting? To what extent do the interpreters “feed their own beliefs and goals”44 into interpreting? Is there a factor that increases its degree? The answers to those questions will be offered in light of the interviews and interpreting examples. To wit, gatekeeping was introduced and discussed as translation policy and agency. It is against this background that data will be discussed and results suggested. 44 Borrowed from Hatim and Mason (1997:122). 70       4 Data Collection Methodology Normality in interpreter-mediated action is not something once and for all given but a task for empirical research to determine by exploring real life encounters. Wadensjö, 1998: 80. This chapter gives insight into the way data is collected and examined. The thesis makes use of the triangulation45 method providing an insight into the television interpreting carried out in news outlets in Turkey and its goals by analyzing the policy documents, interviews and corpus analysis. Taking the difficulty of the task into consideration, I offer a mix of observational, theoretical and experimental work. My work is empirical in the sense that it is based on events and also inductive since observation precedes hypothesis and interpretation (Vanderstoep and Johnston, 2009:168). Rather than coming up with an idiographic explanation, focusing on one event and overlooking the similar events, nomothetic explanation, which tries to explain classes of events, is employed. Nonetheless, it is my contention that rather than generalizing a certain behavior, approach or instance, adopting a descriptive translation approach in Toury’s sense is what I set out to do. I do believe that the thesis, in this regard, contributes to the descriptive translation studies as conceived by Gideon Toury. Cross sectional design will be used, as it will be a one time study. Robin Setton, a professional conference interpreter and a researcher, maintains that interpreting studies need more corpora, observational and experimental studies, and theoretical underpinning (1999: 45). The thesis responds to this requirement and provides insight into TV interpreting in Turkey by analyzing the open-ended interviews and corpus analysis, incorporating it with theory. In what follows, I go into further details on data collection methodology. I dwell upon the way in depth interviews are conducted, the way that candidates are selected, and the interview is administered and transcribed. In the second part, how I gathered the corpus and worked with it will be elaborated on. 45 Triangulation refers to the use of different methods applied to the same data (often referred to as mixed method research (Hale&Napier, 2013: 12). 71       In data collection, I attempted to analyze two public and two privately owned media institutions to make the data representative and to lay bare the differences between the state and private media outlets, if any. Furthermore, by keeping the number of private and public outlets the same, a balance is maintained. To start with, I began making interviews in December 2014, with the interpreter and editor-in- chief of MO2. Though I had a clear sample in my mind, I let the respondents or the people who worked for the respected institutions guide me. In this regard, I made use of the snowball sampling method (Vandestoep and Johnston, 2009: 27-28). Thus, I asked the respondents to guide me to others who might be eligible to join the research. I might claim that this method proved to be fruitful since that is how I found about the Kurdish into Turkish interpreting perpetuated in MO2. The producer to whom I spoke on the phone regarding my interview and whom I asked to guide me to the archive forwarded me to the cameraman who interprets from Kurdish into Turkish for them. Moreover, she suggested that it might be useful for me to talk to him since one of his renderings caused a huge reaction on twitter. I listened to her advice and accordingly both accessed his interpreting in the archive and contacted him on skype for an interview. As the example suggests, the snowball method, exercised in a controlled manner, helped me identify the potential informants. With respect to the corpus, I went into the archives of those four institutions. The language of the corpus is restricted to the language capacity of the researcher. However, since I deemed the Kurdish- Turkish interpreting important, I asked for two Kurdish translators’ assistance. As I wanted to double-check the data, I opted for working with two translators instead of one. Another limitation within the study was the fact that the archives of those media outlets did not keep the interpreting recordings properly. I chose the media outlets with the best archives in my research. Moreover, I conducted on-line research and accessed the websites of those institutions. In what follows I will go into further details regarding the data collection methods regarding both the interviews and the corpus. 4.1 In- Depth Interviews Straniero-Sergio and Falvo maintain, “corpora findings may tell us how translators translate but not why they translate the way they do” (2012:22). Drawing on this train of thought, rather than speculating on the reasons behind the choices of the interpreters, I set out to conduct in- depth interviews with the interpreters and the senior editors involved in the interpreting 72       process directly or indirectly. As put by John M. Johnson “a researcher who uses in-depth interviewing commonly seeks “deep” information and knowledge than is sought in surveys, informal interviewing, or focus groups, for example” (2002: 104). Subsequently, I also set out to search for deep information. Furthermore, my goal in conducting interviews was to reveal the common patterns of TV interpreting. Since the interviews are completed with the corpus of interpreting, or to put it in another way, the corpus is gauged to illustrate the interview findings and check on them, I am of the opinion that this hurdle of “obscuring the process” as mentioned above is eliminated. Instead, since interviews are triangulated with the policies and corpus, the research sheds light onto the process as a whole. When it comes to the way interviews are made, to Thompson first comes preparation (2007: 222). As for me and the way that I prepared for the interviews, I read intensively about the people with whom I would conduct interviews. I searched about their background on the internet to be able to go deeper in the interviews. The interviews were the starting point to me as pointed out by Paul Thompson. To him, the exploratory interviews serve to map out a field, pick up ideas and information (2007: 222). As for the purposes of this thesis, the interviews served not only to get information, but they turned into guiding mechanisms for the related corpus. To cite an example, it was MO2 Interpreter 2 who guided me to find out the rendering of the interview made with the journalist the name of whom she uttered during the interview. 4.1.1 Selection of the Candidates In Turkey, there are 39 media outlets according to the information provided on the webpage of the Turkish Grand National Assembly.46 In selecting the MOs and the interviewees, I sought to apply the right sampling. In this regard, I picked up two public channels and two privately owned channels to be able to reveal the real institutional cases and the differences between those two poles, if any. In picking out the candidates for the interviews, first I focused on the interpreters, both 46 https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/baglantilar/basin.htm (accessed on February 3, 2016). 73       present and the former ones, as they are indispensible to this study. However, leaning on their opinions and narratives solely would not be sufficient since the institutional choices might stem from the administrative body. To reveal the impact of managerial positions upon the interpreters and interpreting, the editors-in-chief were also integrated into the research. It is important to note that in case of senior interpreters who are in charge of selection of the news and presenting it (anchorwomen in some cases) I did not conduct interviews with editors-in- chief since those senior (in terms of age and experience) interpreters are already in charge of the selection of the stories/interviews to be interpreted and assume a senior editorial role. When I started the ethnographic research, that is, when I started to visit the media outlets myself to be able to get the permission to conduct interviews and access the corpus, I had no single idea that the correspondents and the cameramen could also be enlightening respondents. However, during the interviews and/or in-between the interviews during formal chats, the interviewees guided me to those respondents by making it clear that either those people work as interpreters whenever it is required (the case of MO 1 Correspondent 2 and MO2 Cameraman) or they provide source material to be interviewed (the case of MO1 Correspondent 1). Thus, I conducted interviews with them, as well. It was my impression that the views of those journalists regarding interpreting could prove useful to a large extent. My first preference was to visit the MOs, get a glimpse of the working atmosphere, access the corpus and make interviews myself. Hence, interviews with the subjects were held in their work places in order to observe them in their habitual places, whenever possible. The sessions lasted 45 to 60 minutes. I opted for face-to-face interaction, whenever and wherever possible. As aptly put by Roger W. Shuy, “face to face interaction compels more small talk, politeness routines, joking, non- verbal communication and asides in which people can more fully express their humanity. And naturalness leads to open expression and comfort” (2002: 541). Moreover, to him, face-to- face interviews are more appropriate to get answers to sensitive questions. Given the fact that one-to-one interactions give rise to more information, it would be better to carry out face-to- face interviews rather than telephone or skype for the purposes of this thesis. Regarding the interview candidates who do not live in Istanbul, I opted for talking over skype. For instance, I interviewed MO1 Interpreter 2 over skype. Moreover, since it was not that easy to talk to MO2 Cameraman due to the field workload of the cameraman, I talked to him 74       over skype, as well. In recording those skype interviews, I made use of the program “audacity” and transcribed the recordings later on. The choice of the English- Turkish interpreters was conditioned by my language combination as an interpreter. Since my language combination includes English, I could triangulate the data by analyzing the corpus, as well. Since most of the news outlets hire solely English- Turkish language combination interpreters, it was not a wrong choice to make. However, in order to ensure whether I am on the right track in terms of discerning the institutional differences, I integrated an Arabic broadcasting state channel to my study. Additionally, if I wanted to analyze two state owned media outlets, I had no choice but to integrate this Arabic channel to my study since the state owned channels broadcast in either Kurdish, Arabic or English (the English channel just opened up in 2016). Another point worth mentioning is the bifurcated relationships among the channels and interpreters. What I mean is that MO3 Interpreter 2 worked for MO2 previously. To give another example, that MO3 Interpreter 1 worked for MO2 previously. Therefore by talking to her I was not only talking to a current interpreter but a former interpreter of MO2, as well. It follows that even those instances display the intricate situation of the news channels. In recruiting the interviewees, I stated the following to the respondents: - My name and dual status as a freelance conference interpreter and PhD researcher - The subject and goal of my study - My commitment to guarantee the confidentiality of the interview by anonymizing the data before publication and only publish excerpts, not the full transcripts or exhaustive profile data which might reveal identification of individual interviewees - An estimate of the time needed for the interview (at least half an hour, possibly more) (adapted from Duflou, 2015). All in all, I conducted 12 interviews from 2014 December to 2015 December and the breakdown of those is as follows: 75       4.1 Breakdown of the respondents according to their profession INTERPRETER 7 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 2 CAMERAMAN 1 CORRESPONDENT 2 TOTAL 12 4.2 Breakdown of the respondents based on the media outlets INSTITUTION TITLE NUMBER MO1 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 1 INTERPRETER 2 CORRESPONDENT 2 MO2 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 1 INTERPRETER 1 CAMERAMAN 1 MO3 INTERPRETER 2 MO4 INTERPRETER 2 4.3 Demographics of the respondents joining the research AGE EDUCATION GENDER EXPERIENCE MO1 INT 1 27 B.A in BU Translation Studies F 1,5 yrs 76       MO1 INT 2 36 B.A in BU Translation and F 6 yrs int. Interpreting 8 yrs as a correspondent MO2 INT 32 B.A in BU Translation and F 7 yrs int. Interpreting 2 yrs MOs MO3 INT 1 35 B.A in Bilkent Translation and F 16 yrs in news in Interpreting total 8 yrs in TV MO3 INT 2 48 B.A in BU Department of F 16 yrs in total Western Languages and Literatures MO4 INT 1 46 B.A in English Language and F 5 yrs Literature MO4 INT 2 35 B.A in Bahçeşehir University, M 7 yrs Radio and TV MO1 ED 41 B.A in Marmara University, M 16yrs in total Business Administration, MBA in Bogaziçi University, PhD in 6 yrs in current Istanbul University, Geopolitics place of Energy MO2 ED 48 Ankara University Faculty of M 28 yrs in total Press and Information Department of Journalism and Public Relations MO1 COR 1 B.A in METU Sociology, MA M 11 yrs in total 39 Urban Political Planning and Local Management MO1 COR 2 45 Istanbul University Department F 22 yrs in total of American Culture and 77       Literature MO2 CAM 44 High School graduate M 24 yrs in total 4 yrs in MO2 *int: interpreter/ interpreting ed: editor cor: correspondent cam: cameraman yrs: years 4.1.2 Administering the Open- Ended Interview In designing the interview, I took note of my goals as a researcher and matched the questions with the goals. To this end, I designed the document “Questionnaire with Its Goals” which might be found in the appendix. To cite a couple of examples: Q 1 Researcher: If this person worked as a conference interpreter previously - What do you think are the differences between working in an institution and being a freelancer? Do you think it has repercussions on your language? Goal: Role of the TV Interpreter and The Differences between Conference Interpreting and TV Interpreting Q 3 Researcher: How do you prepare for an assignment? Could you elaborate on the process? Goal: Role of the interpreter (Practice of interpreting and preparation for an assignment) By aligning the questions with the goal of the thesis, I set out to make sure that each and every question addresses one of the topics that the thesis is aiming to shed light on. Moreover, this alignment eased my job as a researcher. The next step was the design of the interview. 78       To this end, I decided to group the questions under three pillars as recommended by Franz Pöchhacker in our sessions in CETRA: Informative Level: Age- Gender- Training- Background- Experience- Role Definition (ethos) Factual Level: Subject Matter in TV Interpreting, Frequency of TV Interpreting, Working conditions Conceptual Level: Agency (Role of TV Interpreting and Role of TV Interpreter), TV Interpreting as an institutionalized practice, Goal, Motives Strategies Tactics - Lexical Changes, Institutional Policy, TV Interpreting as news As might be seen above, firstly, information related to the background of the subjects was elicited. Secondly, questions pertaining to their job and their perception of their job were directed. In administrating the questionnaire, the chart above was of great help since it guided me if I got away from asking the previously designed questions. Just by looking at those three categories and subcategories I could easily redesign my questions and ensure that I am addressing the topic, not diverting from it. This list assisted me in the sense that I had to alter the questions according to the role assumed by the interviewees. To cite an example, the questions directed to the editors-in-chief had to be different from the ones directed to the correspondents. Hence, I altered the questions in line with the position of the respondents keeping the topics above in my mind. Moreover, as Thompson puts it, those clear questions help one concentrate on the information offered by the respondents (2000: 230). By drawing a map for the interview questions, I got the chance to focus on the responses. Having said that, I must note that I did not refrain from abandoning the questionnaire for the sake of the conversation and getting more information, and tried to come up with a method that is between questionnaire and a free conversation. A contrast may be made between so-called box-ticking `questionnaires' whose rigidly structured logical patterns so inhibit the memory that the `respondent'- again the choice of term itself suggestive-is reduced to mono-syllabic or very short answers; and, at the other extreme, not so much an `interview' at all, but a free `conversation' in which the `person', `tradition-bearer', `witness', or `narrator' is `invited to talk' on a matter of mutual interest (Thompson, 2007: 225). 79       By the same token, Mishler also notes, “the idea of a standardized response is “chimerical” and “equivalence of interviews in terms of interviewer-respondent action is misdirected and bound to fail” (1991: 21). Accordingly, I did not go for a standardized questionnaire but rather reformulated the questions based on the informants’ statements and wording. Duflou maintains that in-depth interviewing entails checking up on the interaction at all times and making decisions as to when and how to intervene (2015: 54-55). Subsequently, in what follows, I go into details as to which techniques I made use of in conducting the interviews and addressing the challenges faced during the interviews. 4.1.2.1 Being an Insider Having dwelt on the methodology, it might prove useful to shed light on the role of the interviewer/researcher, as the interpreter was once an “insider”. I worked as TV interpreter for two major news outlets, one of which is addressed for the purposes of the current thesis. I have been working in conference settings mostly since I gave up being a full-time TV interpreter. Nevertheless I must note that since I am still in touch with people in media, it was not that difficult for me to access the interviewees thanks to their kind acceptance. I am of the opinion that it could be more difficult for an outsider to gain access to the interpreting and ensure a friendly atmosphere in which the interviewees feel free to talk about their experiences. As Torikai, among many interpreter/researchers (see Beaton 2007a, 2007b, 2010, 2013; Diriker, 2004; Duflou, 2015) puts it, one benefit of being an interpreter/researcher is that rapport between the interpreter and interviewers is established, and that is a vital part of narrative interviews (2009: 9). However, this friendly attitude might take the interviewer to the other side of the coin: being way too much formal even an “off- the record” conversation. As friendly as the relationship might look, I must note that I respected the interviewees by and large. There were a couple of instances in which the interviewees told me “off the record please”. I never included those instances into my research, first because I had to protect my interviewees and establish a mutual relationship, secondly because they were irrelevant anyway. If they ever went off-topic and start talking about an irrelevant point, I listened to them respectfully and once they stopped making their point I attempted to bring them back to the main point just like I did with the MO4 Interpreter 2. Therefore, I benefitted from being an insider insofar as it enabled me to access the people I wanted to include within the scope of my research, but I must note that I did not make use of 80       this advantage to their detriment, acting as a researcher rather than an insider once I contacted them. Secondly comes the problem of neutrality, as being in the shoes of the interpreters whom I interviewed might bring about some insider-researcher shortages. Though on one occasion I was directly asked a question and was assumed to know what this job looks like I did not confirm the informant by making an effort to preserve my stance as a “researcher” rather than an “interpreter” or previous “insider”. As noted by Gulbrium and Holstein, “the interviewers are generally expected to keep their “selves “out of the interview process (2001: 14). They go on as follows: Ideally the interviewer uses his or her interpersonal skills merely to encourage the expression of, but not to help construct, the attitudes, sentiments and information in question. In effect, the image of the passive subject behind the interviewer is one of a facilitator (2001: 14). To ensure such a facilitator role whenever the topic diverted to my knowledge and myself, I tried to get the respondent back to the subject being taken up. Thompson puts it as follows: Your role is above all to listen. You should keep yourself in the background as much as possible, simply making supportive gestures, but not thrusting in your own comments and stories. It is not an occasion, which calls for demonstrations of your own knowledge or charm (2007: 238). 4.1.2.2 Following Up on the Participants Irving Seidman notes that a good way to become a researcher is through listening more and talking less (2006: 78). To take it one step further, I must note that the researcher needs to be attentive and perform attentive listening just like psychologists in therapy sessions. Moreover, the researcher should shy away from distracting the attention of the interlocutors. To cite an example, since I wanted to ask for clarification at times, I just wrote down key words as suggested by Seidman (2006: 85) and got back to them when the utterance of the informant was over. Thompson, similarly, claims that it is of utmost importance not to interrupt the informant and go back to the story with a statement like “earlier you were saying…” (2007: 81       238-239). The example below illustrates how I made use of those keywords when the right time arose: Example Excerpt (1) from interview with MO2 Interpreter (conducted in December, 2014) Interpreter: Yes, it happens. Hmmm…Sometimes it might be like… I mean when there is a risky name or a skype call. In case of a risky name there occurs the tendency to soften down at least. Researcher: Any examples coming into your mind or what do you mean by risky names? Interpreter: Hmm.... There was Robert Fisk whom I remember from old times. (my translation). In this case, upon hearing the term “risky names” I would like to ask a follow-up question, asking the interpreter to clarify what she means by that. However, in order for the conversation to follow, I wait for her to finish her sentence, jot down the term “risky names” on a piece of paper and go on with the follow-up question upon the completion of her words. Example Excerpt (2) from interview with MO2 Interpreter (conducted in December, 2014) Interpreter: Actually it is not about protecting the institution. It is a bit like… Hmm… Of course those two are connected to ach other. To the extent that you do not protect the institution, the employees pay a couple of times more than the price paid by the institution ((smiling)). It is more like protecting yourself and protecting the institution IN RETURN to protect yourself. Those are interconnected. Researcher: Hmm… What kind of a price does the interpreter pay when he/she does not protect the institution? Interpreter: Hmm… How? He/she is dismissed, that is, not liked, I mean, falls from grace That’s it (my translation). In the above excerpt, though any question as to why the price that the interpreter is to pay when the institution is not protected was not in the list of the previously- prepared question list, the question emerged out of the way that the interpreter guided me as a result of attentive listening. Since I listened to the informant meticulously and jotted down the term “price paid 82       by the interpreter” into my head I could go back to it and ask her to elaborate on what she meant by this. Secondly, I must note that the coaching techniques I got familiar with in translation and/or interpreting for coaching companies helped me immensely. In effective coaching, sharing observations and understanding in a non-judgmental manner just to make sure that you are on the same page might be an effective tool. Not only is this technique helpful in coaching but in conducting interviews, as well. Example Excerpt (3) from interview with MO2 Cameraman (conducted in November, 2015) Researcher: At one point you say, “they are crying and I am videotaping for you”. It seems like you are interpreting and simultaneously you go back to your cameraman identity by saying “I am videotaping.” Cameraman: Yes, yes. Researcher: Is it right? Cameraman: Yes, I am a cameraman there. So what I say is “MO2 audience, I am not an interpreter. I am not a translator, I am not a correspondent. I am a cameraman, I am both videotaping and interpreting for you.” (my translation). As shown in the excerpt above, I paraphrased what I understood and checked whether I got it right or wrong. In this way, I wanted to clarify whether this change of footing was a purposeful activity or not for the cameraman. To cite another example, I made use of the term “If I heard correctly, you said…” and required the informant to elaborate on it. To Reiss, a coach summarizes and paraphrases to ensure understanding (2007: 87-88), and that is what I attempted to do. Though it is vital to go beyond the questionnaire, I am of the opinion that a researcher should be careful of the emotional borders of the respondents, if any exist. Thompson notes that one should not force too much when the respondent is not willing to answer (2007: 240). I was lucky in the sense that I did not go through awkward moments as a researcher; however, there was one single instance in which I realized that I should not push too hard as we went through an awkward silence as a consequence of one of my questions. 83       Example Excerpt (4) from interview with MO3 Interpreter 2 (conducted in June, 2015) Researcher: So a couple of seconds ago you said that something happened to you due to your stance, right? Newsperson: Hmm… Of course, I mean... Researcher: What happens? Interpreter: Uhhh... ((Hesitates)) Researcher: No what I mean is that without going into private… My question stems from the fact that… I mean in interpreting. (my translation). The above excerpt was the only instance in which I felt like I was trespassing the boundaries as a researcher. Subsequently I made myself clear by stating that I am merely interested in interpreting. 4.1.2.3 Making use of Examples Last but not least, examples have been gauged whenever it was necessary to draw out informants, as is the case in the following excerpt: Example Excerpt (5) from interview with MO2 Editor-in-chief (conducted in December, 2014) Researcher: Let me give you such an example. Clinton... what was her name… Monica… In Clinton’s relationship with Monica a news outlet does the following: The editors call in the interpreter and say that “We will be broadcasting Clinton’s speech soon however no matter what he says, for instance, if he goes into his sexual life you will say that “Clinton is offering information about his sexual life” right now and you will not interpret this part. Do you make such warnings? Editor: We don’t make such warnings however there might be simultaneous interpreters exercising auto censorship. So it might be the interpreter. Uhh… In the excerpt above, the example related to Clinton’s press release offers a ground to go into the topic and makes the case more concrete for the respondent. 84       4.1.2.4 Explicating the Terms As aptly put by Briggs, the meaningfulness of statements depends on the prior existence of the present context (Briggs 1984: 24). Since interpreting-specific terms are not meaningful for the non-professional interpreters acting as interpreters on a number of occasions, I had to explicate those terms for them and reach a common ground accordingly as the below excerpt displays: Example Excerpt (6) from interview with MO2 Cameraman (conducted in 2015) Researcher: So you interpret consecutively that way? Cameraman: How? Researcher: We name interpreting after the speaker is finished consecutive interpreting (my translation). 4.1.2.5 Telling Stories To Mishler, offering story analysis a prominent place might bring about important results whereas the traditional method suppresses them. As he also maintains, the non- interruptive stance of the researcher makes the story telling proceed notes (1991: 68-69). Following this line of thought, I let the informants tell stories whenever the interview process took them to telling stories. Example Excerpt (7) from interview with MO1 Correspondent 2 (conducted in 2015) Correspondent: Because hmmm… There was one commission. That commission would regulate a couple of things regarding that death. That is why it was a broadcasting Syrian assembly. Syrian assembly started to name them. First I started to utter those names and then I stopped. What would the audience get out of it? Researcher: Hmmm... Correspondent: There is someone turning the TV on, somebody is counting the Arabic names. And then came the command…(my translation). In the above example, the fact that I do not interrupt the informant and instead help her draw 85       out makes the story emerge out of the interview. Since one pillar of this study is interpreting corpus, the stories might be helpful in guiding the researcher to the corpus, too, as occurred in the case of MO2 Interpreter 1. Once she mentioned the lexical transformations she perpetuated during interpreting Robert Fisk, I asked the archive people about this rendering and accessed it. Therefore, the stories in this study have been gauged as a forwarding element to the archive, as well. 4.1.3 Transcription Methods When it comes to the analysis of the recorded interviews (I used a cell phone and a lap top just in case something is wrong with any of those devices) it was clear that transcription would be the first step to undertake. Though various tools, including the one I sued, namely MAXQDA, allow the audio files to be coded, I am of the opinion that reading and seeing for oneself rather than listening is a better method for a researcher to examine the data deeply. Since the results of this study are presented in written form, it could be more appropriate to analyze written materials that just do not die in the air. With these thoughts in mind, I set out to transcribe the oral data, which are the interviews. All in all, I had 12 interviews and about 360 minutes-long data. When I started to work on the transcription of the first two interviews conducted in December 2014, I realized what a time- consuming work transcription is. For this reason, I outsourced some of the interviews for one of my students and paid her. I briefed her in detail and sent her the transcription conventions below. It goes without saying that I had to check all the transcriptions in detail. 4.4 Conventions used in interview transcripts (adapted from Duflou, 2015: 66) Researcher followed by colon Denotes the researcher Code of interviewee followed by colon (e.g: Introduces interviewee's turn MO3 Interpreter 1: ) (( )) Description of noises, interruptions, as well as non verbal feedback of any interview partner ((MO2 Interpreter 1 laughs)) ((Researcher: Hmm)) 86       (xxx) Passage which was acoustically unclear and could not be transcribed ICorrespondent:Then… Overlap between speakers I Researcher: CAPITAL LETTERS Strongly emphasized syllable Duflou notes that by transcribing the data in this way, the interview is presented as a co- constructed interactional context. To her, the narrative and the meaning are co-constructed by both the interviewer and the interviews (Duflou, 2015: 77). Mishler also regards the interview as “a joint product of what interviewees and interviewers talk about together and how they talk with each other (1991: vii). Moreover, he maintains that even responses such as “hmm” are of value since they are confirmatory markers displaying that the interviewer is on the right track. I also adopted a similar stance and focused on creating authentic data. In what follows I will go further into the transcription process and explicate it. 4.1.3.1 Anonymity To start with, I had to make all the data anonymous, as my respondents did not want their names to be mentioned within the thesis. That is what my first two respondents asked me to do and as for the rest of the process when I asked for permission to conduct interviews with the informants, I always told them that anonymity and confidentiality would be preserved. To live up to this promise, I had to delete all the names including the names of the other media outlets. To cite an example: Example Excerpt (8) from interview with MO1 Correspondent 2 (conducted in 2015) Correspondent: For example there is the following thing. Let me give you an example. They brought this young man during the Gulf War to…. ((utters the name of the world desk editor))… Let me put it that way: For instance the coup d’état was staged in Egypt. Mursi was toppled. The current reaction, that is, the interest of Turkey is prevailing but our channel did 87       not cover it however I was watching MO2. A person whom I knew chaired the world news desk in MO2. Actually this person could speak some Arabic. ((The information that would help this person be deciphered was not transcribed for the sake of confidentiality)) (my translation). As the above excerpt reveals, I did not only protect the identity of the respondents but the people and/or the institutions they mentioned, as well. Moreover, I used the anonymous media outlet names, if any of them was ever mentioned, within the interview as follows: Example Excerpt (9) from interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 (conducted in July, 2015) And then following the TV… and the rest I moved to Istanbul and started working for ((MO2)) here. 4.1.3.2 Emotions Regarding the emotions that can’t be transcribed when one merely focuses on the wording, I opted for including the emotions that I discern out of actions into the transcription as the below example displays: Example Excerpt (10) from interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 (conducted in July, 2015) I would say that I undertake the profession that you have been performing ((with an air of honesty)) (my translation). Example Excerpt (11) from interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 (conducted in July, 2015) ((toning down her voice)) let’s say that there is an interpreting to be broadcasted, for instance imagine that Turkey is criticized in an EU interpreting would it be interpreted? Let alone interpreting probably we would stop broadcasting that (my translation). Another point worth mentioning within the confines of the transcription methods is that I transcribed all the interruptions including the telephones ringing and so forth. Example Excerpt (12) from interview with MO2 Editor-in-Chief 1 (conducted in December, 2015) 88       Editor: It has repercussions on the simultaneous and the news, as well. Because journalist hmmm….. Well, the term Kurdistan might change according to the broadcasting institution. Hmmm… However, once the political will utters... ((Telephone rings)) Just like in the bureaucracy, the journalists also follow up on the terminology of the political will. ((The other phone rings)) They ask themselves whether they could use it that way or not. That’s the reality of life ...((Takes the call)) 3rd recording starts (my translation). 4.1.4 Analyzing Interview Data In approaching my data, I focused on two different modes of methods described by Paul Thompson (2000: 270-271). First comes the “collection of stories”. As he maintains, a broader interpretation might be formed around histories in this method by grouping them around recurrent themes. Moreover, I made use of the third method presented by him as “narrative analysis” and by focusing on the “language, themes, repetitions and silences” of the narratives. To be able to reveal the whole picture regarding TV interpreting in news outlets, I garnered the fourth method, which is “reconstructive cross-analysis” and crosschecked the interview findings with the live interpreting. In this regard, I treated the interpreting instances as a manifestation of the interview findings and/or evidences of the narratives of the respondents, especially the interpreters, as they are the ones directly involved in the practice. Nonetheless, it must be noted that the voice of the editors-in-chief, correspondents and cameramen might also be heard in the interpreting especially to the extent that they serve as interpreters on some certain occasions. By making use of the cross checking method, the reliability and validity of the interview findings are maintained to a certain extent. 4.1.5 Thematic Coding To Mishler, the coders do determine the meaning of an isolated response to an isolated question, stripping it of its natural and social context (1991:3). Mishler states that the coders interpret the data rather than using a manual (1991:4) and inevitably, that is what I did as a researcher and looked for patterns via making comparisons as noted by Mishler (1991: 25). Since the qualitative analysis tools are of avail for the researchers, I considered various options and opted for MAXQDA. The tool MAXQDA allowed me to code the interview and allowed me to see the emerging patterns within the data in a clear way. Moreover, as 89       mentioned in its website, the software allows for quantitative analysis, as well.47 For instance, I could easily see the themes recurring in the interviews, and their ranking once the interviews were coded and retrieved. To start with, before importing the data to MAXQDA, I started taking notes regarding the recurrent themes in the interviews manually and prepared an excel sheet accordingly. I named the key themes. However, I knew that once I imported the data to the software, the number of the codes would further increase since I would have the opportunity to see the big picture. Only after completing all the interviews I went on with MAXQDA and initiated the data process. As Duflou pointedly puts it, the coding exercise provides the researcher “with a clear view of the recurrence of certain topics in interviewees’” statements and gives rise to questions about underlying reasons” (Duflou, 2015: 71). Regarding my immersion into the data as a researcher, I am of the opinion that the coding process was of great avail. First, it helped me to read and reread the data since I was to assign a code to almost every line in the transcriptions of the interviews. Secondly, once the codes were assigned manually, I could retrieve those codes and see what each interviewee said about a certain code. As for the process, I must note that due to the drag and drop option of the software, the coding process, which is mentally time consuming, turned into an easy operation. The following screenshot could serve as a case in point in which I marked with more than one code. 47 Please see http://www.maxqda.com/products/maxqda for more information. 90       Figure 4.1 MAXQDA screenshot of a coded fragment of interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 In the above figure, I coded the excerpt of the interview conducted with MO3 Interpreter 1 with more than one code. The interviewee mentions the policy of the institution and state (code: state policy, policy of the institution), covering the Armenian genocide (code: Armenian genocide) and repression (code: repression; then turning into a sub code under the umbrella code Norms and Policies of MOs), then moves on with the repercussions of this approach on the frequency of interpreting (code: frequency) and this bit as a whole is related to working in a state institution (code: working in state institution). As the number of coded segments edged up, the number of utterances started to emerge as in the below figure. 91       Figure 4.2 MAXQDA screenshot of the number of the utterances related to a coding Following the labeling of the utterances with the related codes, I attempted to re-examine the data. To this end, I re-read the codes and utterances and set out to follow the table of contents, which I prepared previously, drawing upon my data as a framework. I centered on Spolsky’s three pillars: language management, language beliefs/ideology and language practices (Spolsky, 2004). Accordingly, I re-arranged all the codes, designed the umbrella codes and sub codes. In the end, I decreased the number of umbrella codes to three, merely: TV Interpreting in News Outlets in Turkey (as I would draw on the data in Chapter 2 as well as Chapter 5, as well), Norms and Policies of MOs, Interpreters’ Perception. 92       Figure 4.3 MAXQDA screenshot of a number of codes and sub codes assigned to the interview segments As a conclusion, the coding process handled manually allowed me to see the patterns emerging and group the data within the software neatly. Moreover, it provided me with a framework to see the connections between the codes and sub codes on the way to determining the main codes. As I broke the data down into coded segments, I could proceed with a fine- grained analysis and analyze the findings comparatively. To provide an example, before I exported the data into the software, coded and re-coded it, I had not realized the different opinions regarding interpreting and the way it is perpetuated between the professional and non-professional interpreters. However, during the manual coding work using the software, the differences between professional and non-professional interpreters emerged and it turned into one of the findings of the thesis. Moreover, as the software enables the researcher to make use of the quantitative analytic tools as well as the qualitative ones, I could see the 93       patterns of interviews in numerical data. Given the benefit that I drew out of coding and re- coding the data, I could assert that using the assistance of software helped me immensely in seeing the patterns emerging out of the interviews and starting to analyze them neatly once I grouped them. By coding the data that way I would be able to come up with patterns noted by Mishler. Mishler maintains that “investigators search for patterns in the responses of different subpopulations by making comparisons between groups of respondents differing in one or a combination of socidemographic characteristics” (1991: 25). To Mishler, “rather than serving as a stimulus having a predetermined and presumably shared meaning and intended to elicit a response a question may more usefully be thought of as part of a circular process through which its meaning and that of its answer are created in the discourse between interviewer and respondent as they try to make continuing sense of what they are trying to say to each other.” (1991: 53-54). Therefore, I was set to look into the meaning created in the discourse after coding the interviews. 4.2 Working with a Corpus In this section, I will provide information related to the way he corpus was collated and its transcription and alignment. 4.2.1 Collating the Corpus In this study corpus was used to illustrate the findings of the interview findings. Therefore, language, frequency and subject matter of the interpreting were analyzed with a view to illustrating the findings of the interviews. Gubrium and Hosltein maintain, “the interview is being reconceptualized as an occasion for purposefully animated participants to construct versions of reality rather than merely purvey data” (2001: 14). Following their train of thought, I attempted to go along with the third pillar of this study and illustrate the findings of the interview with the corpus analysis. To Sergio and Falbo, all communicative events necessitating an interpreter and his/her presence might be described according to five main items: interpreter, situational context, mode, language, directionality, and type of interaction (2012: 12). Following their definition, the corpus I analyzed in my study may be defined as follows: 94       Interpreter: Professional and non- professional (in- house staff) Situational Context: TV Setting Mode: Simultaneous and Consecutive (only the interpreting rendered by MO2 Cameraman is in consecutive mode) Directionality: English into Turkish and Kurdish into Turkish (in Kurdish renditions two translators deciphered the same texts for the thesis since the language capacity of the author does not cover Kurdish) (1. Due to the language capacity of the interpreter 2. It might be worthy to recall that all the investigated media outlets apart from MO4 do broadcast in Turkish, solely MO4 broadcasts in Arabic). Type of interaction: Media interview, press meetings, interview with citizens. The corpus, that is authentic texts that were aired on line, is collated from the media outlets. Though one of the most outstanding difficulties faced by interpreting researchers is to gain access to the data, it was not the case for this study. Since media outlets keep their records for 5 years, I had easy reach to the interpreting records of the last 5 years. Since mostly all TV interpreting is performed from English into Turkish, all subjects worked into their mother tongue. Although MO4 merely works into Arabic, again in their case the interpreters do interpret into their mother tongue thereby not breaking the norms of interpreting into mother tongue in TV interpreting performed in Turkey. 4.2.2 Subject Matter and Dates of the Corpus Since I tried to make an ethnographic research instead of asking for the assistance of the employees of the related MO and asking them to make use of the technology to send me such big data, I visited the MOs myself not only to see the working conditions of the interpreter there but also to see the way that these interpreted recordings are kept. Though the system seemed easy to use as most of the recordings were converted to digital, if there is a recording that had not been digitalized yet, I or the editors themselves in their case, had to visit the archives, take the cassettes that were widely used almost a decade ago and convert them into a digital format by making use of a machine. I case of MO1, I decided to find the files that the people with whom I conducted the interview 95       in MO1 had informed me about. I conducted interviews with the interpreter, one correspondent making interviews in English, one editor at the world news desk and the head of the world news desk. Therefore, in those interviews I already gained an insight into the way that interpreting is perpetuated/not perpetuated in MO1 and within this perspective I set out to see whether the corpus at hand confirms the statements of the respondents. To give an example, one of the correspondents told me about an interpreting carried out during the Second Gulf War and I was curious as to whether I would be able to see these recordings myself since she had said that her editorial reflexes do guide her stance as an interpreter and might even lead her to omit lexical items. The second data that could be beneficial based on those remarks would be the interpretation of Muhammad Sahaf since it was awkward to the MO1 that “the freelance interpreter interpreted all the curses into Turkish and the interpreter was warned in the aftermath and told that he/she should not interpret all the curses next time despite his being a free-lancer”. However, since those examples were from the year 2003, I had no chance to access these recordings. In MO1, 26 different cases, the duration of which changes between 01: 26 to 27: 55 have been analyzed. Below is the chart that I gained as a result of the study conducted in the archive of MO1. 4.5 Subject matter list of MO1 DATE SUBJECT MATTER CHANNEL DURATION TYPE 21.04.2015 Interview with Armenian Musician MO1 27:55:00 Arts Ara Dinkjiyan and Omni Dinkjiyan 01.10.2009 Interview with the Vice President of MO1 03:30 Economy the World Bank 02.04.2015 US President Obama delivering a MO1 06:30 Politics speech on nuclear energy 03.07. 2014 Statement of Egyptian Chief of Staff MO1 07:03 Politics Sisi 03.12.2009 Special Interview with the philosopher MO1 03:07 Politics Slavoj Zizek on Turkish politics 96       04.05.2011 Interview with the British journalist MO1 07:28 Politics Robert Fisk on Al Qaeda 04.06.2009 Obama's Cairo speech -on Afghanistan MO1 00:48 Politics 04.06.2009 Obama's Cairo speech - on Iran MO1 01:37 Politics 04.06.2009 Obama's Cairo speech - on Koran MO1 01:10 Politics 07.04.2014 Interview with Iraq's Former Prime MO1 10:05 Politics Minister Leader of Vataniye Party Ayad Allawi 04.11.2014 Interview with the office of the United MO1 19:26 Politics Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 05.12.2014 Press Conference of the actors of the MO1 09:00 Arts movie Water Diviner 06.09.2011 Channel 2 World Desk Editor-in-Chief MO1 09:43 Politics Arad Nir 07.01.2015 Charlie Hebdo attack MO1 02:33 Politics 07.04.2009 Press meeting of Barack Obama with MO1 19:45 Politics Adullah Gül 07.04.2009 Barack Obama's address in Turkish MO1 26:00:00 Politics Grand National Assembly 11.06.2014 Statement of Al Maliki on ISIS's MO1 03:00 Politics occupation of Mosul 12.02.2012 Interview with the actors of the movie MO1 10:00 Arts "In the Land of Blood and Honey" 13.09.2012 Interview with Iraqi vice President MO1 14:25 Politics Tarıq al Haşimi 97       16.07.2011 Press conference of American MO1 01:26 Politics Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoğlu 17.06.2012 Interview following signing of the MO1 14:29 Economy contract between IMG and Doğuş 23.10.2014 Interview with the director and painter MO1 16:06 Arts Peter Greenaway 24.04.2015 Interview with the Prime Minister of MO1 05:48 Politics New Zealand John Key 25.03.2014 Interview with the Armenian Musician MO 1 24:46:00 Arts Ara Dinkjiyan 27.01.2015 Interview with a Greek expert Miranda MO1 05:00 Economy Safa via Skype on Greek economy in the World News Program Subsequently when analyzed and grouped according to the type of subject matter tackled, it is seen that politics is the subject matter that is interpreted the most in MO1. 4.6 Subject breakdown of the corpus in MO1 SUBJECT TOTAL NUMBER OF POLITICS ART ECONOMY INTERPRETED IN- SITU CORPUS 25 17 5 3 3 As for the way that the recordings are handled, what struck me first was the fact that the voiced-over recordings were kept under the title “Simultaneous Interpreting”. This example makes it clear that for the archivers, there is no distinction between voice-over and 98       simultaneous interpreting, which I believe is a pointed case in terms of displaying the outlook towards TV Interpreting. The same archive holds true for MO2, as well. Based on my interview with the interpreter, cameraman and editor-in-chief I decided to go for the recordings that they told me about. Therefore, I was able to find the interview with Robert Fisk and two more interviews interpreted from Kurdish into Turkish. Since I was not satisfied with what the archive provided me with, I conducted an online search and came up with the following chart. I checked out the webpage of the MO, and came up with data to shed light onto the subjects being interpreted live. I accessed a large number of videos, in total 128 videos, lasting 35 minutes to 1 hour 28 minutes (including commercials) of a world news desk program aired between February 14-December 28, 2013. Out of those videos there were 19 cases either from Arabic and English (2 from Arabic, 17 from English). Below is the chart that emerged out of this online search: 4.7 Subject matter list of MO2 DATE SUBJECT GUEST LANGUAGE Fight with terrorism, Pope's resignation and 14.02.2013 last situation in Syria FBI agent-Ali Soufan English Zionism fueled by Erdogan's speech, 1 March memorandum, death of Venezuelan Middle East correspondent-Boris 08.03.2013 leader Mabillard English Syrian opponents' being recognized Usak Middle East expert-Ali Hüseyin 04. 04. 2013 internationally Bakeer English Syrian opponents-Ali Sadraddin 18.04.2013 Syrian Opponents Arabic Beyanuni, Abdülbasit Seyda, 99       Abdulahad Asteifo, Halid Hoca Erdogan- Obama Middle East Correspondent-Mike 16.05.2013 meeting Giglio English 30.05. 2013 Lebanon Researcher-Thannasis Cambanis English Gezi protest and to what extent we know the Middle East correspondent-Boris 06.06. 2013 youngsters Mabillard English Mursi's leadership in 27.06. 2013 Egypt Haaretz Coloumnist- Gideon Levy English Mursi's leadership in Former Political Consultant of 27.06. 2013 Egypt Hamas-Ahmed Yusuf English USAK's Middle East expert-Fuad 18.07. 2013 Syria Ferhavi Arabic Egypt and Ergenekon- like cases in different parts of the world including Spain and 15. 08. 2013 Brazil Chillean MP- Eduardo Gallardo English MENA Director of Human Rights 22.08.2013 Syrian chemical attack Watch-Tamara El Rifai English Freelancer Journalist -Marine Olivesi English Armed intervention into American commentator-Reihan 29.08.2013 Syria Selam English Duke University's International 05.09.2013 USA's Syrian policy English Relations Professor-Bruce W. 100       Gentleson Spokesperson of the Syrian National 12.09. 2013 Syrian Opposition Coalition- Halid Salih English Duke University's International Relations Professor-Bruce R. 20.09. 2013 Syrian Crisis Kuniholm English UN Summit in New 26.09. 2013 York Princeton University Professor English Relations with North Iraq and Mursi being Muslim Brothers leader-Ashraf Abdul 07.11.2013 investigated Abdulgaffar English In the cases of MO3 and MO4, since accessing the archive was not possible as they are public institutions, I had to do online research with the help of the interpreters. In the case of MO3, interpreter 1 guided me to her website and that is how I was able to access one of her renderings to be able to check her statements. In the case of MO4, since the media outlet airs in Arabic, the interview findings were made use of; however, the interpretations were not accessed at all since those interpreters do not have personal websites as in the case of MO3. 4.2.3 Transcription and Alignment Cencini and Aston maintain that “like all speech, interpreting dies in the air. In order to study it, we need to resurrect the corpse by recording and transcribing it, therefore transforming the corpse into a corpus (2002: 47). That is why I needed to transcribe the entire corpus into a written text. First, as noted by Cencini and Aston (2002: 47) although in most cases getting the original and the interpretation might be hard, it was not the case with my corpus. The corpus I received from the media outlets allowed me to be able to hear the original as well since interpretation on TV allows one to hear the original albeit only slightly. Hence, I could easily hear the sound of the original speech in the background and hence did not have to synchronize source and target texts. 101       Since I was interested in lexical choices, if any, I did not focus on anything apart from them. Accordingly, some subject variables like training and experience, and the interpreters’ preparation were considered to be given. In terms of transcription, I listened to the texts and transcribed them manually. I believe that I got to see the lexical items better this way. In analyzing the corpus, as noted by Straniero-Sergio and Falbo (2012: 38), the variables have a huge impact on the outcome. Since the goal is to illustrate the findings of the interviews, I gathered the instances of live interpreting with the findings of the interviews. Thus, in the interviews I conducted, I attempted to ask the respondents the grounds of their choices in interpreting and put them together with their real interpreting performances. In the following chapters, the analysis of the data will be provided. 102       5 Analysis of Data (Interviews and Corpus) Media seems to mobilize support for the special interests that dominate the state and private activity and their choices, emphases and omissions can often be understood best and sometimes by striking clarity and insight by analyzing them in such terms. Chomksy, 2002: xi. 5.1 Policies of Media Outlets as a Gate The aim of this section is to sketch out the policies of TV interpreting drawing on the interviews perpetuated with the respondents. In coding the terms related policies of MOs, the following chart came out: (On the left hand side are the manually assigned codes; on the right hand side the number of their occurrences) Table 5.1 Code list related to the policies of the media outlets Policies of MOs 3 Ownership Structure 3 State Policy 4 Political Will 5 Government Pressure 1 Determinant 1 Institutional Policies 6 State Institution 9 New Editorial Rules 1 103       Raising eye brow 3 Pre Warning 20 Command 2 Post Warning 11 Investigation 1 Audience View 2 Criticism 3 Language Policy 1 Democracy and Freedom of Media 1 Terminology 9 Language of the Institution 10 Subjects 23 Economy 2 Evolution of TV Interpreting 1 Guests 6 Forbidden Guests 9 Questioning 1 Big News 1 Russia 1 US 8 104       Neighbor Countries 16 EU 4 Culture and Art Program 3 World News Program 1 High Level Visits 1 Focusing on Domestic Policy 11 Axis Shift 3 Elections 3 Award Ceremonies 2 Breaking News 5 Shift in Subjects 4 Hierarchy of Languages 1 Russian 1 Kurdish 13 French 2 Arabic 6 Relay 14 Standing up against Rules 2 Policy of the Screen 3 Repression 1 105       Shift in Policy 4 According to this table, the top ten codes in the list are as follows: Table 5.2 Top ten codes related to the policies of the media outlets Pre Warning 20 Neighbor Countries 16 Relay 14 Kurdish 13 Post Warning 11 Focusing on Domestic Policy 11 Language of the Institution 10 State Institution 9 Forbidden Guests 9 Terminology 9 Figure 5.1 All sub codes gathered under 3 main codes Drawing on the codes assigned in MAXQDA, the translation policy of the four media outlets 106       will be explored in light of the interviews and the language policy theory of Bernard Spolsky, one of the prominent names in the realm of language policy. In this part, the hierarchical stance of languages in terms of interpreting in the media outlets will be explored with a view to discerning the importance placed upon different languages. Moreover, the subject- matters interpreted and the evolution of subjects will be taken up. In order to set the background against which policies are analyzed, first the ownership structure of the news outlets in Turkey will be offered. 5.1.1 Ownership Structure In analyzing the norms and policies of the media outlets, it might prove beneficial to look into the ownership structure of the media outlets in the first place. Since the ownership structure might be closely linked to what comes in through the channels as noted in the theoretical chapter on gatekeeping, one needs to take the ownership structure into consideration. Before going into it, it is worth considering why this issue matters in MO2 Interpreter’s words: Excerpt (1) from Interviews with MO2 Interpreter There are some limits in the mainstream media though it is not like the case in the media that are pro governmental. The people to be aired are determined beforehand; they go through a process, a certain approval process. There are some embargoed people. There are some people who are totally forbidden to be aired. There might be an instruction, or it might just happen, I do not know. Hmm… What I mean by risky names are the people who might impact the commercial relations of the owners of the media outlet and might cause some mini crisis or even scandals. Those people are to be avoided... There is the worry not to make some people sad ((smiling)) and there is the tendency to get approval if you are to make some people sad. What I mean by risk is that the person you broadcast should not make the senior management frown (my translation). Drawing on the recount of MO2 Interpreter, the ownership structure/owners of the media outlets all have a bearing on a. People to be interpreted b. Subject matters to be interpreted 107       c. Lexical choices. Therefore, it stands to reason that a certain approval process applies in media outlets. And in order to grasp what lies beneath the process, it might be beneficial to consider the ownership structure of the news channels. In examining the news channels in Turkey, Republic of Turkey Office of the Prime Minister Directorate General of Press and Information lists the following news channels. Table 5.3 List of the news outlets in Turkey Name of the MO Status Date of Owner In- house Foundation interpreter A HABER Private 2011 Founded by Çalık Holding, no owned by Zirve Holding since 2013 ATV Private 1993 Founded by Dinç Bilgin- no owned by Ciner, TMSF, Çalık respectively, owned by Zirve Holding since 2013 BEYAZ TV Private 2010 Son of Ankara no Metropolitan Mayor, İbrahim Melih Gökçek, Osman Gökçek BLOOMBERG HT Private 2010 Ciner Group yes CNN TÜRK Private 1999 Doğan Media Group yes FLASH TV Private 1992 Göktuğ Group no FOX TV Private 2007 News Corporation no HABERTÜRK TV Private 1999 Founded by Ufuk yes Güldemir, owned by Ciner 108       Media Group since 2007 HALK HABER TV Private 2005 Estetik Broadcasting no KANAL 7 Private 1994 Yeni Dünya Media Group no KANAL A Private 1997 Termikel Group no KANAL B Private 2004 Başkent University no KANAL D Private 1993 Doğan Media Group no MEHTAP TV Private 2006 Samanyolu Broadcasting no Group MELTEM TV Private 1994 Haydar Baş no NTV Private 1996 Founded by Nergis yes Holding, acquired by Doğuş Media Group in 1999 SAMANYOLU TV Private 1993 Samanyolu Broadcasting no Group SAMANYOLU Private 2007 Samanyolu Broadcasting no HABER TV Group SHOW TV Private 1991 Founded by Dinç Bilgin, no owned by Ciner Group since 2013 STAR TV Private 1989 Founded by Ahmet Özal no and Cem Uzan; since 2011 Doğuş Media Group TGRT HABER TV Private 1993 Founded by İhlas Holding, no owned by News Corporation since 2006 109       TRT Public 1968 Legal entity on behalf of yes the state TV 5 Private 2004 Anadolu Communication no Services Inc. TVNET Private 2007 Albayrak Group no ULUSAL KANAL Private 2000 Yeditepe Communcation no Services Inc. ÜLKE TV Private 2008 Yeni Dünya Media Group no 24 TV Private 2007 Es Media Group no 360 TV Private 2002 Es Media Group no Source: Republic of Turkey Office of the Prime Minister Directorate General of Press and Information- Date: 04/17/2016 As might be discerned from the table above, the 1990s saw a boom in the number of private media outlets launched. A glance at the ownership structure shows that most media groups own more than one news outlet. As for the in-house interpreters, out of 29 news channels, only 5 have in-house interpreters. One interesting case regarding the media outlets in Turkey is that the only public entity in this table, namely TRT, owns thirteen channels two of which have been examined in this thesis. TRT currently broadcasts for the audience living in Turkey and abroad with 13 television channels.48 Drawing on the information found on the webpage of TRT, the following table might be drawn: Table 5.4 Channel List of TRT 48 http://www.trt.net.tr/Kurumsal/Tarihce.aspx (accessed on April, 16, 2016). 110       Name of the Chanel Date of Foundation TRT 1 1968 TRT World 2015 TRT Haber 2010 TRT Spor 2010 TRT Avaz 2009 TRT Çocuk 2008 TRT Belgesel 2009 TRT Müzik 2009 TRT El Arabiya 2010 TRT Diyanet 2012 TRT Türk 2009 TRT Kürdi 2009 TRT Okul 2011 Apart from the ones taking place in the table above, TRT had some other channels, as well. TRT 2 was founded in 1987 and closed down in 2010. TRT broadcasts for a wide audience addressing them via different channels. To cite some examples, TRT Avaz targets 13 states scattered across Central Asia, the Middle East and the Caucasus. TRT Türk presents itself as a news and culture channel and commenced broadcasting in the same year. TRT Müzik (Music) and TRT Diyanet (Religious Affairs) are some of the thematic channels under the umbrella of TRT. All in all, given those charts, it follows that there exists a monopoly of some media groups over broadcasting. Secondly, as regards the public channel TRT, it has widened its presence heavily over the last couple of years, preserving its pro-government stance as a public 111       institution at all times. By analyzing two public and two private entities out of those charts, the language policy, subject matters and hierarchical stance of the languages interpreted will discussed. 5.1.2 Translation Policy Translation Policy has to do with “implementing the conduct of their organization by specific rules” (Maylaerts, 2011a: 163). As elaborated in detail in “III. 3 Gatekeeping as Translation Policy”, Maylaerts defines translation policy in official settings as “a set of legal rules that regulate translation in the public domain: in education, in legal affairs, in political institutions, in administration, in the media” (Maylaerts, 2011a: 163). Therefore, translation policy covers language policy. The screenshot below displays the breakdown of terms related to the policies of MOs. Figure 5.2 Breakdown of main codes pertaining to the policies of MOs Accordingly, “subjects taken up in interpreting” is the term that has been coded most, followed by institutional policy, language policy and state policy. Since the terms pre warning and post warning will be considered in the formation of the interpreter’s cultural repertoire, they will be addressed in the following part pertaining to the working conditions of the 112       gatekeepers. 5.1.2.1 Language Policy According to Spolsky, language policy is made up of three elements: ideology, beliefs and practices and thirdly explicit policies and plans resulting from language management or planning activities that attempt to modify the practices and ideologies of a community (2004: 39). In this part, the policy of the management, that is, the third pillar of this definition, will be analyzed. The language ideology or the belief will be analyzed in the part on the interpreters’ perception and in the last part, that is, text- based analysis, the language practices will be taken up. Spolsky puts that “language policy exists even where it has not been made explicit or established by authority” (2004: 8). To him, “many countries and institutions and social groups do not have formal or written language policies so that the nature of their language policy must be derived from a study of their language practice or beliefs.” Confirming Spolsky’s statement, the policies in the private media outlets seem to derive from the ongoing practices regarding the language of news within those media outlets as well as the beliefs of the practitioners, that is, interpreters themselves. This is exactly what I attempt to do drawing on the accounts of the respondents. Regarding language policy, the public institutions might be separated from the private ones. MO4 Interpreter 1 working for a state-owned MO, is of the opinion that the policy of the screen is a highly determinant factor in terms of the terminology employed in interpreting: Example (2) Excerpt from Interview with MO4 Interpreter 1 It is a state institution. And when our voice is heard on the screen, it needs to go in line with the policy of the screen. We need to say the PKK terrorist organization when we talk about the PKK. There is also another term, parallel structure. We need to explicate it, too. The terms that are in line with Turkey’s policy are clear (my translation). She maintains that since the media outlet she works for is a public institution you need to utter everything in line with the state’s policy and it wouldn’t be right to use anything apart from the terms approved by the state. The interpreter adds that the terms differ when it comes to conference interpreting and recounts an instance in which she did not say “the terrorist 113       organization, ISIS” in a conference attended by a group of people from Baghdad. On this occasion she said that she committed a mistake by not adding that it is a terrorist organization. She adds that back then the Turkish state had not yet started calling ISIS a terrorist organization and therefore a terminological difference emerged regarding ISIS between TV interpreting, at least specific to the TV station she worked for, and conference interpreting. As to who communicates them and how those terms are communicated to the interpreters, the respondent maintains that although stylebooks exist everywhere across the world it is not the case in the media outlet that they work for. When the same question was posed to another interpreter working for the same media outlet, namely MO4 Interpreter 2, he explained how they come to learn about the “institutionally correct terms” as follows: Example Excerpt (3) from Interview with MO4 Interpreter 2 Editor: We call KRG Iraq Kurdistan. However, a term was added alongside with the PKK. Normally we would call it the PKK organization. Kurdish Workers’ Party and PKK terrorist organization. Now we need to call it Kurdish Workers’ party PKK Marxist Terrorist Organization. Researcher: How did this change occur? Editor: They asked us to add Marxist almost one month ago. Researcher: Who asked for that? Editor: The manager comes in and informs us about the fact that we need to call the PKK that way in each and every case across all platforms. Marxist terrorist organization. You need to use the term Marxist (my translation). As evident from the lines above, the manager is the person communicating the decisions as to which terms to use. Secondly, it also lays bare that there is no difference between the language of news and interpreting to the senior management given the fact that they dictate the terms to be used in anything and everything including news writing and interpreting handled within the media outlet. When it comes to the explanation behind the terms employed to be used, no explanation is made for the employees. The very same interpreter, or editor, as he calls himself due to his 114       having two titles, maintains the following. Example Excerpt (4) from Interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 The announcement is put on a board. It says that we have to do that. It is not a sealed and approved instruction. Yet, a department gave it to the manager. Probably from the Prime Minister’s office. Those terms are dictated upon us, we need to use them. We have to use a common news language (my translation). Drawing on those lines, it might be claimed that the terms or lexical items that are to be used by the interpreters, just like the any other media professional, is enforced by the managers upon the instruction of some authority. No matter if the authority that gives this guidance is not clear, it goes without saying that since MO4 and MO3 are public media outlets, in their case, what is enforced upon them has to be in line with the discourse of the state and/government in power. To give another example from the same MO as to the way the state exercises authority over the linguistic choices of interpreters, the below sentences are illuminating. Example Excerpt (5) from Interview with MO4 Interpreter 2 For instance, when you say Kobane you know that region is a Kurdish region. When you say Ayn-ül Arab, in a way, you declare that Arabs are also there and they also have their stake there. So names do matter. One of the problems that we went through was related to the names. The names of most of the Turkish cities are in Arabic or Greek. There are only a few cities whose name is Turkish. How are we going to interpret them? In the way that they are pronounced in Turkish or Arabic? For instance, Erzurum means Greek land. It is an Arabic name. I used to render it as Erzurum even when in interpreting into Arabic. Because according to me, when a tourist says Erzurum, he/she may be guided to get there. However, if he cannot say Erzurum, then no Turkish person will understand him. Some names change in time. The news management declared that we should pronounce those city names in Arabic. We call Antep Ayntep, Maraş Meraş, and Hatay Antakya, for instance (my translation). Interestingly enough, even in the pronunciation of the city names, the institutional will comes into play. 115       In examining the answers related to language policy one term that was salient is “raising eyebrows”. Interestingly, both MO3 Interpreter 1 and MO2 Interpreter uttered the very same term. MO3 Interpreter 1 asserts that you need to maintain the government’s policy in journalism; otherwise there would be consequences. Example Excerpt (6) from Interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 Foreign politics and journalism work in parallel with one another. You need to keep up with the policy of the state; otherwise fingers will go up, eyebrows will go up. Researcher: Whose finger or eyebrow will go up? Interpreter: Well, the government’s. The government’s eyebrows will go up (my translation). She goes into further details on this issue as follows: Example Excerpt (7) from Interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 As the number of the countries that you do not get on well with increase, you stop broadcasting them, including Egypt. During the Egyptian revolution in the process that led to toppling Mubarak, we would broadcast on Egypt all the time. There would be a statement when I was live and I would be interpreting those statements. However, as the administration changed with the coup d’état perpetrated by Sisi, Egypt no longer exists for us. Israel does not exist. Syria does not exist. We do not even see Assad. The statements of Assad are no longer broadcast. Therefore, journalism works in parallel with foreign politics. You have to keep up with the state’s policy. Otherwise fingers go up, eyebrows go up (my translation, my emphasis). Those lines are suggestive of the fact that journalism can not be regarded separately from the state’s policy. And as all respondents regard TV interpreting as a part of journalism, what is interpreted on TV is unavoidably part and parcel of state’s policy. However, MO2 Editor-in-chief is of the opinion that there might be differences between institutions: Example Excerpt (8) from Interview with MO2 Editor-in-Chief It is not merely about the political will. Institutions, EACH INSTITUTION has its own 116       preferences. If the face of an institution is towards the west and the other is not, and the political will has lost its enthusiasm regarding the west, then the broadcasting will be shaped accordingly (my translation). In the example above, MO2 Editor-in-chief maintains that the stance and/or policy of the institution might have a bearing on the interpreting. Examining the language policy as a component of translation policy in light of the interviews, I found out that in public institutions the rules seem stricter such as the manager’s dictating the city names. I will move on with the statements of the respondents regarding the hierarchy of languages. 5.1.2.2 Hierarchy of Languages Cambridge dictionary defines hierarchy as “a system in which people or things are arranged according to their importance.”49 What the hierarchy of languages in terms of TV interpreting corresponds to is the importance of the languages in terms of TV interpreting within the scope of this thesis. The strongest manifestation of this hierarchy lies in the fact that the news outlets broadcasting in Turkish hire only interpreter/s whose interpreting languages are limited to English-Turkish most of the time. In order to avoid a huge budget related to interpreting, media outlets not only limit themselves to one language pair but also make the staff interpreter write up news if and when possible. However, in case of a big event, like voting on the bill recognizing the Armenian genocide in the French parliament or the Oscar Awards Ceremony, freelancers are hired. It might be claimed that the scale of the event determines whether any freelancers will be hired. Secondly, apart form English, no matter what the original language is, be it Arabic, Russian, French or German, any major news that has worldwide repercussions is interpreted via CNN or BBC’s English broadcasting, that is relay interpreting is employed. AIIC defines relay interpreting as follows in its webpage: 49 http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hierarchy (accessed on May 2016). 117       In relay interpreting, the ‘pivot’, i.e. the interpreter the other booths are listening to and taking relay from, has a very special responsibility. Apart from those delegates who are listening to the original, everybody else at the meeting is relying on the pivot to deliver the speaker’s message. When you are pivot, all the principles of quality interpreting apply, of course, and a good pivot is, first and foremost, a good interpreter. However, the pivot must also make a special effort to interpret with the needs of colleagues in mind, and to be maximally clear and helpful.50 With respect to the difficulties that might arise in relay interpreting AIIC puts that: Those taking relay cannot hear the prosody of the speaker’s discourse, and therefore cannot rely on its intonation, rhythm, and stress to help them follow the thread. Also, because they do not know the language of the speaker, they may not pick up on cultural referents, allusions, and nuances. Moreover, they may lack familiarity with the local circumstances, political, geographical, and other, of the country that the speaker represents. They may also find it difficult to repeat names of persons and places in a language they do not know. Added to all this is the extra difficulty of feeling cut-off or one step removed from the speaker and the conference room.51 As mentioned by AIIC, relay interpreting brings about various difficulties such as interpreting the proper names. However, “the feeling of being cut-off or removed from the conference room” does not hold true for TV interpreting as the TV interpreter is already cut off from the scene of the real speech. When it comes to relay interpreting on TV, if there is a statement regarding the Charlie Hebdo attacks, then the interpreter of the concerned MO1, whose language capacity is limited to English-Turkish will interpret from CNN International or BBC since an English speaking interpreter will be interpreting from French into English for the English speaking audience in one of those channels. Thus, the interpreter interpreting from English into Turkish will be interpreting into Turkish via the interpreting of CNN International or BBC. 50 http://aiic.net/page/628/practical-guide-for-professional-conference-interpreters/lang/1 (accessed on May 2016). 51 http://aiic.net/page/628/practical-guide-for-professional-conference-interpreters/lang/1 (accessed on May 2016). 118       In none of the interviews conducted with the respondents who are not graduates of translation and interpreting departments did the term relay interpreting come up. MO1 Editor-in-chief puts the case as follows: Example Excerpt (9) from Interview with MO1 Editor-in-Chief If there is a statement from France, since we don’t have in-house French speaking interpreter, what we do is that we take the interpreting perpetuated in BBC or CNN. In one sense it is like the interpreting of interpreting (my translation). Confirming the above sentences, in analyzing the data in MO1, I encountered two instances in which the original language was Arabic in the first case and French in the other case. The statement of Al Maliki on ISIS's occupation of Mosul and the statements made in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack are originally in Arabic and French, respectively. However, an interpreter who can interpret only from English into Turkish rendered them. Thus, it is clear that those intermediary English broadcasting channels were employed in the interpreting. The interviews reveal that relay interpreting in TV interpreting brings about the following difficulties: Example Excerpt (10) from Interview with MO1 Correspondent 1 Each and every interpreting is carried out from English. It a critical point. We have a translator who could speak Arabic and I have rarely seen her interpreting. Yet one of the points that we need to draw attention to is the fact that the Turkish channels are interpreting the interpretation in recent years in which the Middle East is setting the agenda itself and the Middle East is getting more and more hectic. To cite an example, when the ousted president of Egypt makes a statement before he was ousted, BBC interprets from Arabic into English. MO1 and most probably MO4 also interpreted it from English. Here is a big question mark (my translation). To correspondent 1 in MO1 the reason why he sees the relay translation between MOs as risky is as follows: Excerpt Example (11) from Interview with MO1 Correspondent 1 119       Since words are of utmost importance in diplomacy, inter-state relations, in local and international politics, you are up to the interpreter of BBC or CNN International and you take a risk, which you cannot defend. Could you say “Excuse us we take the interpreting from CNN and since the American-Persian interpreter made an error, we had such a problem.” Would it reconcile with a corporate media culture? I think it would not. I am of the opinion that the news channels have accepted this risk in advance. They do broadcast based on an interpreter who they can never know and with whom they cannot interact. I think it is a dramatic example (my translation). Not only might those remarks of correspondent 1 in MO1 be regarded as a sign of the distrust placed on the interpreter of another MO but it also shows a clear difference with respect to the way that relay is understood and taken stock of in MOs. Moreover, the response of the world desk editor when asked as to whether there is a contract between the MO1 and media outlets like BBC or CNN from which interpreting is taken was “definitely no”. Secondly, what this correspondent underscored is that the “pivot” as defined by AIIC has no information that he/she is giving relay to another interpreter. That is why, whereas in conference interpreting the interpreter makes an effort to interpret in the most understandable way possible, it might not hold true for CNN’s or BBC’s interpreter, as he/she has no clue that he/she is giving relay to another interpreter. In this case any error committed by the pivot interpreters shall be repeated in Turkish and the interpreters will not be blamed in this case. Excerpt Example (12) from Interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 (This case) is all pirating broadcasting. It is totally pirate. We Turks do it that way. Actually it has to do with the media vision of the country. If they attach importance to interpreting, then an Arabic, an English and a Russian interpreter have to be in the media outlet from morning till evening. That is how CNN and BBC work however those issues did not become institutionalized in Turkey (my translation). To MO3 Interpreter 1, this case of relay interpreting on TV has to do with the outlook of media towards interpreting and the non- institutionalization of media in Turkey. Therefore, it follows that relay interpreting is undertaken in an unauthorized way. This unauthorized broadcasting and recourse to relay interpreting might be a sign of the non- institutionalized stance of TV interpreting as stated above. 120       To summarize, staff interpreters on TV channels are restricted to the English- Turkish language combination unless those channels broadcast in a certain language like TRT Kurdish or Arabic. Since this is the case, relay interpreting is used heavily from other languages via English channels whenever required. Therefore, it stands to reason that English occupies a higher rank among the other languages, which has to do with the translation and language policy. 5.1.2.3 Subjects Taken Up in Interpreting In what follows I will go on with the subject matters taken up and their evolution. In total the term “subject” was coded 105 times in MAXQDA. The screen shot below displays the occurrences related to the sub codes of the code “subject”: Figure 5.3 Sub code breakdown of the code “subjects” Accordingly, neighbor countries and focusing on domestic issues are the two items that have been coded most in the tool. Both of those items indicate the evolution of the subject matters as the context in which they were uttered reveals. Drawing on this picture, first the subjects interpreted on TV, and secondly the evolution of the subjects will be discussed with a view to 121       manifesting what kind of subjects go through the gates and how gatekeeping becomes operationalized through the subjects. As for the subject matters interpreted in media outlets, politics stands out as the major topic. To cite an example, in MO1, out of 25 interpreting instances, 17 were on politics as the table below indicates52: Table 5.5 Distribution of the interpreting examples of MO1 SUBJECT TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES POLITICS ART ECONOMY INTERPRETED IN- SITU 25 17 5 3 3 The consideration in visiting the archives and taking the interpreting examples from those might be the archives’ not being kept properly. Bearing this in mind, I ensured that I visited the archives that were kept best. As for the cases requiring interpreting, MO1 Editor-in-chief recounts the instances necessitating interpreting as follows: “When there is an interview with the general secretary of NATO, we make use of interpreting. When Obama addresses the nation, we make use of interpreting. In breaking news, like Charlie Hebdo, airplane accidents or the toppling of Hosni Mubarak is Egypt, we make use of interpreting”. MO1 Interpreter 1 confirms those statements as she recounts that Obama is the person she interpreted most. MO1 Editor-in-chief adds EU, Iraq and Afghanistan are among the most interpreted subject- matters. When it comes to the grounds of those decisions, as far as MO2 Editor-in-chief is concerned, the decision to make use of simultaneous interpreting has to do with the scale of the news. Excerpt Example (13) from Interview with MO2 Editor-in-chief 52 To see a detailed breakdown of the subject matters, please have a look at corpus media outlet 1. 122       When the news is big, simultaneous interpreting naturally comes into play. Imagine that United Nations prepared a report on the use of chemical weapons. It will either decide that it was used or not used; you cannot overlook this statement. You will broadcast this statement because you are also curious as to whether they were used or not, or else who used those weapons… If a chemical weapon is used on the Hatay border or 100 kilometers away from the border, will it impact Hatay? The state will take measures accordingly. That is why you broadcast that simultaneous interpreting and reflect it in your news (my translation). Therefore, it stands to reason that the wider impact of the subject matter increases the odds of any subject matter being interpreted live. However, there might be some fluctuations depending on the agenda. For instance, if it is election time in Turkey, then MO1 Interpreter 1 states that she mostly interprets for culture and arts program since international guests are not hosted that often. Nonetheless, as in the case of MO4, where interpreting is rendered from Turkish into Arabic, the frequency of interpreting rises during elections as the political leaders make speeches almost everyday. In this sense, MO2 Editor-in-chief maintains that the frequency of interpreting is closely related to the domestic agenda: Excerpt Example (14) from Interview with MO2 Editor-in-Chief If you talk about the Soma mining disaster for so many days, you do not broadcast a speech delivered by Obama regarding North Korean hackers. Normally (says the name of another MO) broadcasts it. I know about it since I worked there (my translation). Those statements make it clear that the domestic agenda and its intensity have a bearing upon the frequency of interpreting. If the domestic agenda is highly intense, then there might be no room for world news and interpreting. 5.1.2.4 Evolution of Subjects Another issue worth noting is the shift in subject- matters observed over the last couple of years. MO1 Correspondent 1 and Correspondent 2 mention that there have been some certain shifts in recent years. To them, the Middle East has gained ground at the expense of the EU, causing an irreversible change in the subject- matter taken up in interpreting. MO4 Interpreter 123       2 and MO3 Interpreter 1 also state that interpreting on the EU is no longer the case. MO1 Correspondent 1 describes this as follows: Excerpt Example (15) from Interview with MO1 Correspondent I contend that there are two main differences. One is that the subject matters changed as Turkey’s axis moved away from the European Union. However, what is more dramatic is that Turkey shifted its axis from the EU to the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia as a foreign policy move (my translation). According to him, between 2003- 2007 or 2008 Turkey had close ties with the European Union, as a consequence of which EU officials would be broadcasted. Then, between 2007- 2012, we witnessed the development of close relationships with countries in our region as an outgrowth of the strategic depth policy brought about by the former Minister of Foreign Affairs53. MO1 Editor-in-chief also believes that as of the mid-2000s the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq lost their tension, Turkey’s accession to the EU slowed down, the Greek side did not approve the Annan plan, and Turkey turned inwards, thereby reducing the frequency of simultaneous interpreting. MO3 Interpreter 1 states that she mostly interpreted on the Middle East since 2009. MO2 Interpreter, in a similar fashion, maintains that she renders interpreting on ISIS and the Middle East mostly. According to MO2 Editor–in Chief, this shift towards the Middle East regarding the subject matter might be explained as follows: Excerpt Example (16) from Interview with MO2 Editor-in-Chief You come from the Ottoman tradition; you were an empire once upon a time. And there is a political will that is interested in its previous hinterland. Therefore you take those regions more into consideration. Because when the country’s policy considers those regions you can’t be indifferent. And you have to follow up on the agenda. Hence, the subject matters taken up in interpreting change. As I told you there are two effects. One is that both the EU and Turkey are no longer interested in Turkey’s accession to the EU. Secondly, the regional change in nearby geography. Therefore, the change that this region went through determined the world agenda, not only Turkey’s agenda. Since we are very close to this region, including Iraq, our agenda naturally changed and this is reflected in the news. Moreover, foreign politics is not 53 For more detail on this issue see Davutoglu, 2001. 124       longer foreign politics. For instance, the Syrian issue has to do with domestic politics (my translation). Based on those assumptions, it follows that the subject matter, and axis shift have to do with governmental policies and decisions. MO2 Editor- in chief puts the foreign politics turning into domestic policies in more detail as follows: Excerpt Example (17) from Interview with MO2 Editor-in-Chief There are 1.5 million refugees in Turkey. Iraq might look like another country on the map however it is no longer another country, it is no longer foreign politics. Due to the Kurdish issue it is domestic politics AT THE SAME TIME. Because the PKK is settled there. There is an autonomous Kurdish region in Northern Iraq. And the resolution process54 that was initiated is in interaction with this region. This interaction naturally sets the topics that you are interested in. For instance, when Obama speaks about this region and says that he will make an air operation towards ISIS, and then you broadcast it (my translation). Therefore, to him, foreign politics is closely connected to the domestic agenda of the country and what happens in nearby-countries has turned into domestic politics in the eyes of the media, thereby, triggering an evolution of the topics to be interpreted. MO3 Interpreter 2 states this change with the following words: Excerpt Example (18) from Interview with MO3 Interpreter 2 To me EU is over in terms of broadcasting. EU specialists are no longer broadcast. Europeans are no longer broadcast. For one thing, the broadcasting perspective that would require simultaneous interpreting is over. I think there is a huge going back (my translation). Her words remind me of the following words penned by Chomksy: First the voices of the Iraqi democrats are completely excluded and second that nobody notices it. It takes a really deeply indoctrinated population not to notice that 54 By the time the thesis was completed, peace process that was ongoing between Turkey and the Kurds had already come to a halt, in a way manifesting how quickly things change in Turkey. 125       we are hearing the voices of the Iraqi democratic opposition and not asking the question why and finding out the obvious answer: because the Iraqi democrats have their own thoughts, they agree with the international peace movement and therefore they are out (2002: 48) (my own emphasis). The reasons behind excluding the EU go beyond the scopes of this thesis. Yet, the resemblance of those two instances is striking. It looks to me as if the voice of the EU is excluded in line with the government’s policy55. I do not believe that nobody notices it, yet finding out about it is something and standing up against it is another thing. As long as the ethos of the people is not palpably present in society, it is not that easy to disobey the policy of the state and/or government. Not only do the respondents maintain that there is a shift in terms of the subject matters taken up in interpreting but in terms of the guests broadcast and interpreted live, as well. In this regard, MO2 Interpreter recounts that the people who speak harshly against Turkey are no longer broadcasted, thereby, those people do not pass the gates, be it the owner of the media outlet, editor-in-chief or editor. According to MO3 Interpreter 2, it is the managers who would not want such people to appear on the screen. To her, it nearly means the end of the understanding of journalism that she was used to previously. MO2 Interpreter maintains that the people who are allowed to appear on the screen might be reflective of the commercial relations of the owner and it is necessary to get the approval of the senior management to be able to broadcast some people. All in all, it might be argued that the choice of the subject matter that is in line with the policy of the government might be turning into a norm governing TV interpreting. As evident from the examples related to axis-shift, if there is a certain change in policy, then this policy will directly impact the subject matter. In this regard, the choice of subject matter is closely intertwined with the news agenda. Whatever is prominent on the news agenda might have a higher chance of going through the gate of the channel and the management of the media outlet and, accordingly, be interpreted. Thirdly, a point that is overlooked by the management in choosing the topic to be interpreted is the “messages from and about dissidents and weak, 55 For a recent article on the policy of the government towards the EU, please read http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2016/04/19/Turkey-warns-EU-to-stick-by-visa-free-travel- promise.html (accessed on June 5, 2016). 126       unorganized individuals and groups” in Chomky’s terms. To him, those people are “at an initial disadvantage” since they are not in line with the ideology or interests of the gatekeepers and other powerful parties that impact the filtering process (2002: 31). Therefore, it stands to reason that the will of the government, institution, and the management serve as the gatekeepers in the selection of the topics to be interpreted on TV. 5.2 Interpreters’ Perception as a Gate Before setting out to analyze the answers to the questions pertaining to the interpreters’ perception, let me make clear what “perception” means. Merriam- Webster defines perception as 1. The way you think about or understand someone or something 2. The ability to understand or notice something easily 3. The way you notice or understand something using your senses. It reads in its full definition that it has to do with the mental image. Therefore, what this part attempts to ascertain is the mental image in the minds of the interpreters (and to be able to get this picture, the mental image of the other respondents is analyzed, as well) and examine it with a view to exposing the gates and/or the gatekeepers involved. To be able to see the big picture related to interpreters’ perception, I conducted both quantitative and qualitative analysis enabled by the tool MAXQDA. Therefore, I first wrote down the emerging terms and themes manually, then exported the list to MAXQDA, and in the third phase I placed those terms under three headings: interpreters’ role, working conditions and practices and coded them accordingly. Before moving on with those three categories, I would like to give an overall picture as to the outstanding terms. The above chart manifests the terms on the left-hand side and the number of their occurrence56 on the right hand side as the quantitative analysis of MAXQDA provides: Table 5.6 Breakdown of the codes related to the interpreters’ perception Interpreters' Perception 057 56 Occurences diplay how many times they occur within each code. As mentioned in the chapter on Data Collection Methodology in detail, I assigned those codes manually based on the key words and content. 57 Interpreters’ Perception was coded zero because instead of coding any utterance under interpreters’ perception, I opted for coding them under subgroups. 127       Interpreter's Role 3 TV Interpreter 7 Expert Interpreter 1 Non-Confidence placed on the Interpreter 10 Interpreter's Filter 6 Interpreter as a Conformist 0 Interpreter's Sensitivity 1 Protecting the Institution 3 Auto protection 5 Working in a State Institution 16 Interpreter as a Non-conformist 3 Taking Initiative 5 Ethos 2 Interpreter's Conflict 2 Helplessness 1 Auto control 1 Comparison with Conference Interpreting 1 Interpreter as a Journalist 7 Merely Interpreter 1 Newsperson 29 128       Editor 15 Interpreter's Values 3 Interpreting and Presenting 4 Omni talented 3 Working Conditions 2 Different Practices 0 Telephone 6 Skype or Telephone 2 Cadre 4 Stylebook 2 Preparation for Assignment 5 Duration 9 Shift 6 Editor 3 Profit Maximization 5 Practices 0 Risk 23 Goal 2 Adrenaline 3 Freelancer 6 129       Dilemma of the Interpreter 0 Hesitation 1 Distortion 1 Wrongdoing 8 Fear 3 Restriction 3 Censor 2 Worrisome Interpreting 1 Different Versions 2 Toning Down 7 Peculiarities of TV Interpreting 0 Skill 5 Attraction 1 Ease 6 Difficulty 12 News out of Interpreting 9 Voice 3 Goal 1 Instantaneous Practice 1 Audience Sensitivities 2 130       Recreation 1 Fun 4 Toning 1 Emotion 1 Sensitivity 4 Sincerity 1 Acting 3 Alternatives of TV Interpreting 0 Deciphering 1 Dubbing 3 Intonation 3 Contextual Correctness 1 Effort 1 Political Crisis 1 Explaining to the Audience 2 Abbreviations 3 Voice Matching 8 Polishing 1 Lexical Alterations 2 Cyprus 7 131       Kurdistan 11 Name of Cities 1 ISIS 4 Armenian Genocide 13 PKK 7 Drawback of Interpreting 3 Rating 1 Drawing Lessons 1 Gatekeeping 4 Non Professional 33 Arabic Interpreting 15 Q&A 3 How 1 Skipping 1 Kurdish interpreting 9 Change in Footing 1 Necessity 3 Literal Transfer 12 Inconvenient Words 3 Curse 5 132       Editorial habitus 13 Gatekeeping 2 Part of News 11 Ending Interpreting 3 Reflex 7 Self-Development 8 Audience 9 Audience's familiarity 2 Arabic 18 As the chart manifests, the term “non- professional” tops the list of terms. Secondly comes “newsperson” with 29 instances followed by the term “risk” with 23 utterances. Terms that have been coded more than ten times are as follows: non- confidence placed on the interpreter, working in a state institution, editor, difficulty, Kurdistan, Armenian genocide,58 literal transfer, editorial habitus, part of news and Arabic. Bearing this picture and the weight of those three key terms in mind, in the consideration that follows I attempt to examine the way that the interpreters describe themselves, that is, the way their agency and/or ethos is manifested in the interviews. As I did not conduct interviews merely with interpreters but the editors-in-chief as well, the perspective of people holding managerial positions will also be taken into consideration. As Pöchhacker puts it “Culture is embodied as much in what people do and what they know as in how they do it and how they talk about what they know” (1995: 40). Drawing on this approach, first their role and secondly their working conditions as gatekeepers will be analyzed. 58 Since the terms related to Armenian Genocide and Kurdistan shall be examined in 5.3, I will not dwell on them in this part. 133       5.2.1 Interpreters’ Role Merriam- Webster dictionary defines role as 1. The character played by an actor 2. A part that someone or something has in a particular activity or situation 3. The part that someone has in a family, society or group.59 Since I will mainly make reference to the terms as they are used by the respondents in this section rather than agency, ethos, or stance, I opted for the more neutral term “role”.60 In examining the role that interpreters play within MOs, being a newsperson and editor stand out among the various terms that have been taken up as the break down of the code system related to the interpreters’ role displays. Figure 5.4 Breakdown of the codes related to interpreter’s role As might be seen above, interpreter as a journalist is the most coded item. Within it, newsperson was coded 29 times, and editor was coded 15 times. It may therefore be 59 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/role (accessed in May, 2016). 60 See Roy 2000, Angelelli 2004 for detailed information on the role of the interpreter. 134       hypothesized that the journalistic work undertaken by the interpreter is undeniably one of the most crucial aspects to be addressed in this thesis. Therefore, in what follows, the interpreter’s job as a journalist with a focus on the journalistic values adopted/expected to be adopted, and cultural repertoire that comes up throughout this journalism journey will be taken up. I will also examine how conformist and non- conformist interpreters serve as gatekeepers. 5.2.1.1 Interpreter as a Journalist In analyzing the responses to the questions pertaining to the perceptions of the interpreters, the term that came up most frequently was the “newsperson”. Merriam- Webster defined newsperson as a person who gathers, reports or comments61 on the news.62 As mentioned in the section related to TV Interpreting in news outlets in Turkey, staff interpreters in news outlets assume two titles: interpreter and editor on the World News Desk or else – as in the case of MO3 interpreter – anchor woman and/or editor. Not only do they edit news, but they are also active in the selection of the news item. As for the reason behind this dual role, MO2 Editor-in-chief holds that it has to do with cost-cutting in the first place and in the second place it brings about a difference in the interpreting the interpreters perform. To him, to the extent that the interpreter learns about the past, present and evolution of a news item, his/her performance will improve in its subtlety and nuance. MO1 Editor-in-Chief also holds that they can’t pay a full month’s wage to someone who will not perform any interpreting for 15 days at times (in case there are no interpreting assignments for 15 days in a row). Moreover, he adds that those interpreters are very skillful in editing news and as an institution they would like to benefit from them. MO1 Correspondent 1 is of the opinion that the simultaneous interpreter working for a TV channel should have the skills and know-how of a journalist. However, there are only a handful of people in the job market who would accept to work on shift, certain amount of monthly wage and hold dual titles. As for the benefits of this dual role, MO2 Editor- in chief is of the opinion that this dual role helps the interpreter get accustomed to the terminology: 61 I underline the term comment because as the thesis manifests, commenting while interpreting, in a way interediting (interpreting and editing simultaneously) is what some of the TV interpreters responding to the open- ended interview do. 62 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/newsperson (accessed on May 15, 2016). 135       Excerpt Example (1) from interview with MO2 Editor-in-chief Most of them translate the news in foreign agencies into Turkish. Though it is not literal translation, we might call it turning it into Turkish. And in doing so, you somehow start to take hold of the terminology. For instance, when you prepare news regarding the EU negotiations, you get used to the related terminology. When you write up news regarding Cyprus, you get used to the terminology there. And when you do interpreting, those terms are the first ones that come into your mind. Therefore, journalism definitely contributes to interpreting. It is very clear (my translation). MO1 Editor-in-chief holds that as the simultaneous interpreters they start to work with assume an editorial role in time, this editorial perspective brings about a difference in the way they interpret since “they gain an insight into the way that any news item evolves in time”. The question that might be raised regarding this dual role might be: “Is the interpreter regarded as a journalist from the first day on?” As described by MO1 Interpreter 2, it does not happen overnight. She claims that it takes 6 to 7 years to develop the sharpness and perspective of a journalist. Given the fact that the interpreter assumes a journalistic role which has a bearing on the interpreting, two of the most prominent themes in the interviews – interpreter’s values and cultural repertoire – will be taken up in what follows. 5.2.1.1.1 Interpreter’s Values Before attempting to examine the values that are sought in the interpreters, I’d like to establish a common ground as to what value means. Here, what I mean by value is something that is thought to be important or useful.63 As far as MO2 Editor-in-chief is concerned, it is highly important that the interpreter abide by the values that the institution upholds. In this regard, he gives the following example: Excerpt Example (2) from interview with MO2 Editor-in-chief …Anything that we broadcast might have consequences. Kobane is a very good example. 63 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/values (accessed on June 3, 2016). 136       Assume that you can air no one. You do not have a Turkish-speaking correspondent in the region. There is no other Turkish-speaking correspondent that you trust. You get connected to someone from the region. And you come up with someone who can interpret from Kurdish or English simultaneously. This person and I do not abide by the same values. The ethical values, political line, broadcasting line do not bind us. He can talk about what he sees and hears. However, can we transfer it the way we know? If the simultaneous interpreter does not abide by the NEWS understanding and measures, he/she will interpret that literally, because that is his/her job. Hmm… However, the broadcaster has to think of its impact, I am not talking about exercising censor. If he/she is telling the truth there is nothing we can do, WE NEED TO BROADCAST IT. What if she is lying? Therefore, you seek out simultaneous interpreters that you can work with. He/she should be a journalist; it is one of the standards (my translation). To him, the interpreter has responsibility not only over interpretation but also the consequences of interpretation. It is therefore of huge importance that the interpreter be a journalist, upholding the same values as the channel. Moreover, since he talks about the political line and broadcasting line, it looks as if the values are closely related to the policy of the institution. It might therefore be argued that the role of the interpreter cannot be separated from the institutional policy. To him, if the interpreter is imbued with those standards upheld by the corresponding institution, then, he/she will render the interpreting differently, that is, focusing more on nuances. Moreover, the fact that the interpreter works with them and performs a journalistic role helps him/her overcome this obstacle and come up with the right term. Interestingly enough, the difference between an “ordinary interpreter” and “journalist interpreter” does not hold true only in the eyes of the editor- in chief. MO1 Correspondent 2, interpreting in the Arabic- Turkish language pair, also holds that there is a clear difference between acting merely as an interpreter and a newsperson: Excerpt Example (3) from interview with MO1 Correspondent 2 If a person is raised merely as an interpreter, then he/she might say that the duty is interpreting entirely as it is, and do it that way. However since I am not a simultaneous interpreter but a newsperson or a world news desk editor, reflex comes into play. To give an example if there is something about Turkey I might not interpret it or I might not interpret a 137       word. Because at that moment rather than a simultaneous interpreter, the reflexes related to the profession I perform come along and I make a decision accordingly. I do not know whether it is right or wrong (my translation). Going back to the definition of the newsperson, the newsperson is expected to comment on the issue. Drawing on this definition, it is plausible to argue that, as the above excerpt purports, the correspondent interpreter, adopting a newsperson perspective, might comment on the original text by resorting to strategies like skipping some certain parts as a professional reflex. It appears that since she claims she acts on her reflex in interpreting, the strategy that she resorts to seems to be omission based on what she says. Therefore, the fact that she acts as a newsperson might make her omit a certain word and therefore act as a gatekeeper. In this case when she acts as a gatekeeper, the target audience won’t be able to hear what she omits in the target text, thereby, making her the last gate that filters the information.64 5.2.1.1.2 Cultural Repertoire of the Interpreter The cultural repertoire, although sensed by the members of the group as given, and taken by them for granted, is neither generated nor inherited by our genes, but needs to be made, learned and adopted by people – that is, the members of the group. This making is continuous although with shifting intensity and volume. On the one hand it may be made inadvertently (1) by anonymous contributors, whose names and fortune may never be known, but also deliberately (2) by known members who are openly and dedicatedly engaged in this activity (Even-Zohar 2002: 168) (my own emphasis). Inadvertent Acts Departing from this definition of Even-Zohar, I would suggest that in staff interpreters’ learning and adopting the inadvertent part of cultural repertoire in news outlets, their editor title plays a role of paramount importance. As the above excerpts manifest, the action of editing news helps them get inculcated with the language of the institution and terms to be opted for in the eyes of the institution. MO1 Interpreter 2 makes the following statement with respect to “learning by practice”: 64 The very same word reflex is how the MO2 Cameraman accounts for his interpreting when he substituted some part of a speech he interpreted. For a more detailed analysis of the interpreting perpetuated by MO2 Cameraman read the section 5.3 Instances of Interpreting as Gatekeepers. 138       Excerpt Example (4) from interview with MO1 Interpreter 2 You do not only perform simultaneous interpreting. You might interpret heavily at times yet all the interpreters edit news in the news outlets. That’s how you get to know the language of news. I mean which terms are used… There is a certain terminology used and you learn it by editing news. There was no one that guided me that way or told me anything. Based on my own observations, I attempted to use of the terminology of the news. So you train yourself in this regard (my translation). It might therefore be argued that the interpreters learn and adopt the news language through a natural process. MO3 Interpreter 1 dwells on this natural inculcation process as follows: Excerpt Example (5) from interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 I have been involved in the news for many years. Therefore I can see how the world balance changes within the policy of the state so none has to tell me anything about it. Those are the things that we stay up-to-date on in our daily lives (my translation). By the same token MO1 Interpreter 1 also believes that her editorial side forced her to get used to the terminology: Excerpt Example (6) from interview with MO1 Interpreter 1 Since I have an editorial side, there is terminology that I got used to in editing. For instance we say Regional Kurdish Administration in Northern Iraq. It is not something commanded to me. I learned about it in penning news. That’s how this term would come into my mind somehow however I do not know whether saying Kurdistan would cause problems (my translation). It can therefore be claimed that drawing on the statements of interpreters the fact that they edit news for the world news desk, mostly, within the media outlet helps them get accustomed to the news language. In a way this type of familiarization with the news language helps them learn and adopt it though not on a conscious level. Deliberate Acts 139       Considering the deliberate part of forming cultural repertoire by the people whose identity is known clearly, pre-warning and post-warning come to the fore. Accordingly, this part will be analyzed as to whether the warning is made before the interpreting (pre-warning) and after interpreting (post-warning). Pre-Warning Drawing on the accounts of the respondents, pre-warning seems to be one of the ways to transfer the cultural repertoire to the interpreters.65 What I mean by pre-warning are the cases in which the interpreters are warned before they interpret. In MO4, which is a public institution, pre-warning seems a bit stricter in comparison to the private media outlets. MO4 Interpreter 2 holds that the manager puts a document on a board stating that as of that day certain terms have to be employed. To cite an example, whenever any journalist (including the interpreters) writes up or interprets the term “PKK” they need to say “PKK, Marxist terrorist organization”. He cites one more example in the following excerpt: Excerpt Example(7) from interview with MO4 Interpreter 2 Once there was an opening process in our relationship with Armenia. Normally we used to say Nagorno-Karabakh, occupied territories. I directly asked what we should do, since the opening process is operational. Then they said we should name it the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, we shouldn’t name it “occupied territories” anymore (my translation). The above excerpt suggests that the pre-warnings issued by the senior management in MO4 seems to be in line with the language of the state/political will. The pre-warning case does not seem to hold true for the interpreters. The editors are also inculcated via this method, as MO4 Interpreter 1 holds: 65 Pre-warning and post-warning could also be analyzed under the policies. However, as the interpreter is instigated with the cultural repertoire with the instances of pre-warning and post-warning, I deemed it would be right to analyze them under the cultural repertoire of the interpreter. Pre and post warning might be considered within the framework of censorship, as well. To Merkle, the ultimate aim of (prior) censorship is to internalize norms to the point that translators do not think about the issue and post censorship can come into play to remove a work from the system by boycotting it (2010: 20). 140       Excerpt Example (8) from interview with MO4 Interpreter 1 A lot of Arab friends do not pay attention. Sometimes they just write Cyprus and then it is us who correct the mistakes. We immediately explain that we need to make a distinction between the Greek side and the Turkish side and they get used to it over time. Because we have editors from Egypt, Lebanon and Libya who do not speak Turkish (my translation). When it comes to the private institutions, the pre-warnings do not come in written form. Instead, a warning is made verbally. MO1 Editor-in-chief holds that since Cyprus is a contentious term (to Turks Cyprus signifies the Turkish side whereas Cyprus signifies the Greek side for the rest of the world) they warn the interpreter in advance: Excerpt Example(9) from interview with MO1 Editor-in-Chief In interpreting for the EU, Cyprus Republic is not a term established in Turkey. If the interpreter says Cyprus Republic, the audience won’t understand anything (my translation). Although the interpreter is warned on this issue in advance, MO1 Editor-in-chief adds that if the interpreter commits a mistake on the usage of this terminology, it does not cause a huge problem. Excerpt Example (10) from interview with MO1 Editor-in-Chief You might not have warned the interpreter in advance. The simultaneous interpreter might utter Cyprus Republic; it wouldn’t cause a big problem. In this case, we ask the interpreter to render “Cyprus Republic” into “Southern Greek region” (my translation). Drawing on those examples, it might be hypothesized that whereas the pre-warning might come in written form and might be stricter in media outlets owned by the state, in private media outlets warnings might come in a milder form. Therefore, gatekeeping is exercised in different ways by the senior management in public and private institutions. Post-Warning Given that pre-warning and the way it is undertaken by the management in media outlets is addressed in the previous section, I will move on to post-warning. What post-warning within the confines of this thesis suggests is the warning that comes after the interpretation is over. 141       In issuing post warning in state channels, the managers resort to talking in the first place as suggested by MO4 Interpreter 2. Excerpt Example (11) from interview with MO4 Interpreter 2 I used the term Kurdistan, they said North Iraq. The will changed and the new will did not say anything. Therefore we went on with the normal way. Since I said Kurdistan, I received a warning. They said that it would not be that way; it might be misunderstood and asked me to say North Iraq. So in a way, the warning depends on the person (my translation). Moreover, if the interpreter commits a grave error, then he/she might go through an investigation. To him, since broadcasting in a public institution is reflective of the state, then an investigation might be launched against the interpreter. As regards the private institutions, there might be post-warnings due to interpretation of curse words. MO1 Correspondent 2 gives the following example in this regard: Excerpt Example (12) from interview with MO1 Correspondent 2 Let me give you an example. They brought a young man to interpret during the Iraq War. Back then; Muhammad Sahad would make statements every day. He used to curse and this interpreter would interpret everything and then after broadcasting they told him not to interpret when he utters such curses (my translation). Though the above example is related to a freelancer, it manifests the perspective of the institution towards interpreting. Moving on from the above examples, it might be suggested that in public institutions the post-warning might even climb up to an investigation against the interpreter, since the stakes are higher and since it is closely connected to the public image of the state, as put by MO4 Interpreter 2. 5.2.1.2 Interpreter as a Conformist Merriam-Webster defines “to conform” as 1. To be similar or identical to 2. A. to be obedient or compliant b. to act in accordance with prevailing standards or customs. 66 Within the confines of this thesis, what conformist suggests is drawn from Toury’s definition 66 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conform (accessed on June 3, 2016). 142       of “Translator as a Non-Conformist to be” (Toury: 1980). Accordingly, the conformist interpreter follows the norms established by the institution and does not endeavor to stand up against them and the non-conformist interpreter attempts to stand up against them. In what follows I will take up cases of conforming to the working hours and the terminological stance of the institution. When we were talking about interpretation of the American presidential candidates with MO3 Interpreter 1, she stated that she interpreted the debates in their entirety on her own for 4 hours seamlessly. I told her that I also interpreted those debates, however, I interpreted those debates with a colleague and asked her the following question: Excerpt Example (13) from interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 Researcher: When two speakers overlap, it is difficult, isn’t it? Interpreter: You’re right but there is nothing to do (my translation). As far as MO3 Interpreter 1 is concerned, she notes that has to carry on interpreting on her own even though it lasts for 4 hours. Interestingly enough, she does not resent doing so even though she is of the opinion that it should not be the case. She is of the opinion that resisting against it would mean “impertinence”. MO4 Interpreter 2 holds that he asks questions regarding the way to interpret some contentious terms: Excerpt Example (14) from interview with MO4 Interpreter 2 Most of the time I ask them about how I should interpret. What should I do? What shall I do? My aim is to avoid making mistakes. Most of them are related to what the others also experience. I mean they are related to the issues binding the state, that are closely related to the foreign policy of the state like the Armenian question, Greek question, Cypus question, water issues... I generally exercise auto-control on those issues… So if you know the policies of the state or the government, and you need to know them by the way, then you use statements that would go in line with those (my translation). Therefore, it might be claimed that MO4 Interpreter 2 adopts a conformist approach and interpets in line with the policies of the state. 143       In another example, MO3 Interpreter 1, working for a public institution, mentions what she conforms to as follows: Excerpt Example (15) from interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 Well, ((names the umbrella news outlet to which this MO is also connected)) turned into a channel of the state, a channel of the government. Since its inception, it has always been close to the political power however now that our relationship with the surrounding countries deteriorated to the extent that it has, we are now totally under their control. Therefore, for instance, they say that we will not cover Sisi or else they say that they do not want to hear about the letter M of Egypt (Egypt means Mısır in Turkish) or else S of Sisi. With respect to the Armenian question, we say that we would like to have good relations and would like to make a well-intentioned program, they say no. It is not that possible for someone defending the Armenian genocide or sympathizing with it to speak any more. Defending Assad or broadcasting his speeches or his actions regarding the constitution are no longer possible. Thus, it is not solely related to the ((names the umbrella news outlet to which this MO is also connected)); it is an issue for the other channels, private channels as well. Therefore, the pressure exists. When things do not work out in terms of international relations, pressure steps up as a state policy. And it resonates with everything (my translation). Drawing on the above excerpt, what this interpreter conforms to is the “political will”. It might be suggested that since MO4 is a media outlet owned by the state, all she conforms to has to go through the gates of the political will or the state. Therefore, as she is a conformist, all her interpreting has to undergo the gates of the state. MO3 Interpreter 2 holds that it is normal for the interpreter to be a conformist: Excerpt Example (16) from Interview with MO3 Interpreter 2 You might be supporting the PKK yet you can never ever do it in a public institution. Otherwise you will not be interpreting next time. So in the first instance interpreting goes through the gate of the institution however since you work there you have to necessarily conform to it. Interestingly, all the above examples come from publicly owned media outlets. Therefore, it follows to reason that the tendency to conform to the rules and norms and not resist against 144       the conventions seems to be a prevailing trend among the interpreters working for those institutions. 5.2.1.3 Interpreter as a Non- Conformist In analyzing the cases in which the interpreters stand up against the norms and conventions brought by either the institution or managers, interpreting speeches on economy comes to the fore. MO3 Interpreter 2 puts that she resisted against interpreting anything related to the economy as follows: Excerpt Example (17) from interview with MO3 Interpreter 2 I do not interpret in the field of economy. I don’t hold sway over terminology related to economy. There were periods in which they thought I was moody. Because they do not understand that it is a separate profession. The managers could be professional in this case (my translation, my own emphasis). I emphasize the term moody because this statement reminded me of the statement of MO3 Interpreter 1 in the above part. She stated that if she does not interpret for four hours on her own, the managers would assume that she is impertinent. In a similar manner, here, MO3 Interpreter 2 confesses that the managers thought she was moody since she did not want to interpret on the subject of economy. MO1 Interpreter 1 is another interpreter denying assignments if the topic is economy: Excerpt Example (18) from interview with MO1 Interpreter 1 I said “no” to interpreting on the economy for another media outlet of the same institution. If necessary you can lay me off, I said. I struggled with it. I said that I would not do it. It would not be a correct, effective interpreting. That is why I stood up against interpreting on the economy (my translation). MO4 Interpreter 2 defines how he takes initiative as follows: Excerpt Example (19) from interview with MO4 Interpreter 2 145       With respect to political issues, they warn you. You might go through problems. However, I take initiative up until we receive warnings. For instance I did it regarding the city names. And then we received a warning as to the fact that we should no longer pronounce them in Turkish. If you do not obey there might be an investigation opened up against you. You can take initiative on small things. You cannot take initiative related to big stuff that binds the channel (my translation). It follows that if the subject matter is of lesser importance then this interpreter takes up initiative and interprets based on his reasoning, yet, if the issue is of high importance, using rationale is no longer the case. Apart from the subjects, the ethos of the interpreter might make her a non- conformist as in the case of MO3 Interpreter 2. Excerpt Example (20) from interview with MO3 Interpreter 2 That is how I am in my journalistic experience as well. I encountered so many things… For instance they say, “call it terrorist organization” into my ear but I do not. I DO NOT. I am a BBC person. It also caused me some problem but it is something else. Why should I call him terrorist if the speaker does not say so? On the contrary, they sometimes say, “martyr”. Why shall I say “fell martyr” instead of saying “died”? Why should I exert such an effort? In the end it is true, it has to be that way a journalistic stance. It is about my understanding (my translation). She confesses that keeping up this attitude and stance is hard, however, she has endeavored to maintain it throughout her entire life. There, it stands to reason that the way that the interpreter considers herself, such as “a BBC person” in this case, is closely related to her ethos. MO1 Interpreter 2 might also be a non- conformist based on her understanding of the news and what makes news: Excerpt Example (21) from interview with MO1 Interpreter 2 If there is lexical change, then the interpreting loses its quality. Probably what should normally be counted as news will not be news any more, in this case. For instance if Obama 146       were to deliver a speech and say “You know what happened in the Armenian genocide” but the interpreter renders it as “You know what happened in the so-called Armenian genocide”, then it is no longer a piece of news. Because if Obama says genocide, it is news; however, if the interpreter does not render it that way, then, the audience will not be informed as to the fact that Obama said genocide. In this case, news is distorted. If the interpreter renders it into the “so called genocide” just on the grounds of sticking to the institutional terminology then the news is distorted and it leads to graver consequences (my translation). It may therefore be argued that the perspective of the interpreter towards himself/ herself and towards the profession have a bearing on the non- conformist stance adopted. All in all, the subject matter to be interpreted, the ethos of the interpreter, and the importance degree of interpreting all impact the interpreter as a non-conformist to be. Therefore, when the interpreter is a non-conformist his/her own resistance block the functioning of the gates set by the senior management, political will or the owners of the institution. In this case, the non- conformist stance of the interpreter serves a gate. Dwelling upon various aspects of the role of the interpreter as a gatekeeper, I will discuss the working conditions of interpreters and their gatekeeping position in the following part. 5.2.2 Their Working Conditions In analyzing the working conditions, three terms came to the fore: Table 5.7 Three outstanding codes related to the working conditions of the interpreters and the number of their occurrences in the analysis tool Term Number of Its Occurrence in MAXQDA Risk 23 Dilemma 18 Audience 11 Therefore I grouped the findings pertaining to the working conditions under those three terms and set out to examine them accordingly. 147       5.2.2.1 Risk In interpreters’ describing their practice, one of the most forecoming items turned out to be risk, with 23 instances in total. Merriam Webster defines risk as 1. the possibility that something bad or unpleasant (such as an injury or a loss) will happen 2. someone or something that might cause something bad or unpleasant to happen 3. a person or thing someone judges to be a good or bad choice for insurance, a loan, etc. In its full definition, the following definitions take place: 1. possibility of loss or injury: peril 2. someone or something that creates or suggests a hazard 3a: the chance of loss or the perils to the subject matter of an insurance contract; also: the degree of probability of such loss b : a person or thing that is a specified hazard to an insurer c : an insurance hazard from a specified cause or source , war risk 4. the chance that an investment (as a stock or commodity) will lose value. As the above definitions purport, risk might denote something unpleasant, causing a hazard and even resulting in losing value. MO2 Interpreter, MO2 Cameraman, MO1 Interpreter 1, MO1 Correspondent 1, four people assuming a role as an interpreter in total, all seem to associate risk with these terms: live interpreting, subject-matter, losing credibility and strategies to tackle risks. Accordingly, the statements regarding risks will be analyzed under those terms. Before attempting to analyze them, I would like to elaborate on the definition of risk as put by Anthony Pym. Regarding the relationship between risk and translation, Pym, in his paper taking stock of translation within the scope of risk management, holds that “translators tend to be risk-averse; they tend not to do anything to compromise their credibility; they invest more effort in the low-risk items than they otherwise would, and they tend not to offer spectacular, out-of-the- ordinary solutions for the high-risk items” (2015). To Pym, the biggest risk lies in the translator’s losing credibility. However, that is just one type of risk to him. Moreover, the translator’s uncertainty in translating an item gives rise to uncertainty risk, and the texts made up of high- risk and low- risk items lead to communicative risk. Drawing on this definition, I will first examine live interpreting which might be associated with uncertainty risk by its nature. 148       5.2.2.1.1 Live Interpreting Analyzing how the interpreters define risk, it seems as if the definition of risk changes from one interpreter to another. Whereas MO1 Interpreter 1 defines risk as follows: Excerpt Example (22) from interview with MO1 Interpreter 1 I think that the stakes67 are higher. The number of the news channels climbed up later on; however, MO1 was the most watched channel back then. I do not now how many people… I do not have such a figure but its rating was quite high and we interpreted during very critical moments. I mean I recall rendering very critical statements, the war announcement and reaction towards many things…. When you do it.. Hmm… At that moment anything you say matters because it is broadcast live. Moreover, there is no cough button unlike conference interpreting. You directly render it into to the mic and there is no chance of taking a step back. Therefore any mistake is broadcast immediately. Maybe it is not millions but thousands of people hearing you at that moment. Moreover, as I said you could even cause a diplomatic crisis (my translation). As the above excerpt manifests, she associates risk with communication risk in Pym’s terms. To her, what makes interpreting risky is critical terms, critical statements and a high number of audience members. In a similar vein, MO1 Correspondent 1 also associates the risk of TV interpreting with giving rise to a diplomatic crisis. Differently from MO1 Interpreter 1, he goes into relay in TV interpreting and the risk caused by the use of relay in Turkish channels. Excerpt Example (23) from interview with MO1 Interpreter 1 In subjects like politics and diplomacy. We know that even a single word can make a difference within the jargon opted by the subjects of those topics. Therefore, we know how risky a job interpreting is and when interpreting is rendered from a derivative process, that is, from another interpreting, even one single word might cause misunderstanding in public (my translation). As far as he is concerned, relay interpreting itself brings about a risk and one cannot shy away from responsibility by transferring the risk to BBC’s or CNN’s interpreter. 67 The interpreter says risk instead of stakes. However, stakes is a better term than risk in translating it into English. 149       It might therefore be suggested that in definition of risk, one of the most salient items is live interpreting due to the fact that TV interpreting reaches quite a high number of people. Secondly, the fact that it might cause a political or diplomatic crisis also comes out as a communication risk as put by Pym. 5.2.2.1.2 Subject- Matter Another term that interpreters associate risk with is the subject-matter to be interpreted. Accordingly, two interpreters seem to associate risk with the subjects to be interpreted. MO1 Interpreter 1 defines risk as follows: Excerpt Example (24) from interview with MO1 Interpreter 1 I may exaggerate it a bit however some issues, for instance recently it was April 24th, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. For instance, uttering genocide might be right, however, it might cause someone to criticize you or cause a reaction (my translation). To her, interpreting on the Armenian question might be risky.68 By the same token, MO2 Interpreter talks about risky guests as in the following excerpt: Excerpt Example (25) from interview with MO2 Interpreter They were planning to broadcast a speech of Assad (the Syrian President) live and I was waiting in the mixing desk and thinking because I know his earlier speeches. He uses very harsh statements and I was thinking how we could do it and what he could talk about. And then there is the tendency to decrease the odds of risk related to the guests in the media. The guests are local. That is why there is no need to feel that anxiety any more (my translation). When I ask the respondent what she means by risky names she goes into more details: To her, risk is about the limits in the media outlets. Risk is about evading the names that might impact the commercial relationship of the owners of the media outlet. There is the tendency of not making people pissed of. “What I mean by risk is that the people on live should not make the people frown”, she says. Moreover, she adds that the number of the risky guests have decreased to a huge extent recently due to the policy of the state and institution. 68 Armenian Question will be taken up in detail in section 5.3 Instances of Interpreting as Gatekeepers. 150       Drawing on the examples above, it might be asserted that risk might be connected to the guests or subjects to be interpreted if those people or issues are deemed to be risky by the senior management. It follows that the risky subject matters and guests have not been able to pass through the gates and be interpreted accordingly, as put by the respondents. 5.2.2.1.3 Losing Credibility In some instances, the interpreters associate risk with the biggest risk in Pym’s definition, that is, losing credibility. When MO2 Interpreter mentions about an instance of toning down and states that she turned active voice into passive voice when a guest, namely Robert Fisk, the Independent’s Middle East correspondent, uttered a sentence like “Ottomans killed the Armenians”, I asked her about the reason behind it. In return, she responded as follows: Excerpt Example (26) from interview with MO2 Interpreter Interpreter: It is not about protecting the institution. It is like… Hmm.. Of course both are connected to one another. When you do not protect the institution, you pay a couple of times more than the price that the institution pays ((smiling))). It is more like protecting yourself and protecting the institution IN RETURN to protect yourself. Those are interconnected. Researcher: Hmmm…. What kind of a price does that interpreter, that is, the staff interpreter pay when he/she does not protect the institution? Interpreter: Hmm…. How? He/she is dismissed, not liked, falls into disgrace (my translation). According to her, falling into disgrace, that is, losing credibility, is connected to protecting the institution. That is, to her, to the extent that she abides by the rules and norms of the institution and preserves them, she will avoid losing credibility. In brief, it might be hypothesized that the fear of the interpreter of losing credibility in the eyes of the institution might serve as a gate in TV Interpreting. 5.2.2.1.4 Strategies to Tackle Risk When it comes to handling the risk, Pym gives three options to the translators (or interpreters in this thesis): avoid it, transfer it (by cooperating with the client) and assume it. Pym, coming up with a schema for risk management, puts that in handling low risk, omission, explicitation, 151       simplification, generalization, attenuation, or more simply to reduce effort by adopting a literalist approach might be undertaken. In tackling high risk, consultation with the client is undertaken or else you can make an educated guess (2015: 9-10). Regarding the strategies, MO2 Interpreter holds that when there is a risky name, she tends to tone down his/ her remarks. Excerpt Example (27) from interview with MO2 Interpreter Researcher: Any examples in your mind or what do you mean by risky names? Interpreter: Hmm… There was Robert Fisk who I recall from the past. There was a live connection regarding Syria and while talking about Armenians in Syria he broached the Armenian issue. At that time this issue was different… The President extended his apologies but the atmosphere was not like that… He made very harsh statements regarding the Armenian genocide and then I had to tone them down (my translation). Based on Pym’s chart, this incident might take place under the low risk since the interpreter opted for toning down rather than reaching a consensus with the client. However, due to the interpreter’s being already imbued with the institutional norms and constraints since she works as an editor within the concerned MO and prepares news packs as a part of her role, it might be asserted that she already reached a consensus as to what to do under such conditions during her editing process within the institution. Her following remarks regarding a potential interpreting that did not materialize later on also seem to support this hypothesis: Excerpt Example (28) from interview with MO2 Interpreter As far as I understand I presume he (the editor) asked me to censor if he (the guest) speaks too harshly. I do not remember the subject matter, agenda or what he would talk about. Hmmm... Maybe the fact that he (the editor) is speaking as if he is not serious stems from the fact that it should not be like that… He might have smiled since he thought that it is funny. I am not sure whether he joked but it seems to me the case is like what I have been telling you. It is true that when something risky comes up, there is an automatic expectation that you need to tone it down (my translation). The same interpreter also maintains that she endeavors to interpreter as closely as possible to 152       what the speaker says and admits that it is exhausting. MO4 Interpreter 1 holds that anticipation, rendering a sentence or some part of it before the corresponding part appears in the source language,69 is one of the strategies she employs in overcoming the risks: Excerpt Example (29) from interview with MO4 Interpreter 1 I need to interpret correctly. It is a very sensitive job. Even the slightest mistake could cause a crisis. It might cause a problem, crisis among countries. That is, when a Turkish representative talks, you render it for the rest of the world. You need to interpret correctly at that moment; you do not have the opportunity to think it through thoroughly. That is why you need to take hold of the subject matters to be interpreted. I do not want to be a know-it-all however you might guess what a representative will say before he says it and you prepare it in your brain. At the moment he says what you thought, you can utter it immediately (my translation). Therefore, it follows that as a strategy to overcome risk, MO4 Interpreter 1 employs anticipation. Even though she does not say it aloud, she prepares the related part to be interpreted in her brain. In conclusion, live interpreting, subject matter (or guests) and losing credibility stand out in the definition of the term risk according to the informants. As regards the strategies employed to tackle risks, toning down and anticipation predominated. 5.2.2.2 Dilemma Dilemma is described in Merriam Webster as “a situation in which you have to make a difficult choice”.70 In the excerpt below the dilemma faced by the interpreters interpreting is addressed with a view to revealing the gates that interpreting passes by or is blocked by. To start with, MO2 Interpreter defines her dilemma as follows: Excerpt Example (30) from interview with MO2 Interpreter 69 See Setton, 1999 and Chenrnov, 2004 for an extensive reading on anticipation. 70 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dilemma (accessed on June 5, 2016). 153       Interpreter: I feel myself in a dilemma. There are three different interpreting versions. ((Smiling)). The first is the one that a layman would understand. The second is what the speaker says and the third is the one that the executives would like. Researcher: So which one of these three versions do you go for? Interpreter: I mix them all. ((Smiling)). I try to stand close to what the speaker says. And I try to render it in the way that the layman would understand as much as possible. Yet this is difficult, tiring (my translation). In the case of MO2 Interpreter, she mentions three versions of the same source text. In the first version, she takes the layman, that is, the audience, into consideration. Hence, the gate that interpreting passes through is the audience in this case. In the second version, interpreting does not go through any gate, as what she interprets is exactly what the speaker says. In the third version, interpreting goes through the gate kept by the executives. Therefore, the executives keep the gates not allowing certain items to go through. As regards her strategy, the interpreter contends that she collates all those three versions with the sensitivity of making it clear to the audience as much as possible. Moreover, this dilemma might also be analyzed as a form of mediation. Hatim and Mason (1990: 223) hold that “the interpreters mediate between cultures (including ideologies, moral systems and socio- political structures), seeking to overcome those incompatibilities which stand in the way of transfer of meaning”. To them the translator, that is – for the purposes of this thesis – the interpreter, is to determine the problem and endeavor to seek out a solution. Drawing on this definition of mediation, MO2 Interpreter gives an example as to how she practices mediation. To her, there is a discrepancy between meeting the expectation of the senior management and rendering what the speaker says in a simultaneous mode as it is. That is why she resorts to mediation between different versions of interpreting. Regarding her practice, MO1 Interpreter puts that in case of any risk, she thinks about the possible interpretations just like she mentioned in the excerpt on three versions of the same source text. According to her, whenever something risky comes up, they expect you to tone it down, and that is why she feels a dilemma. In a way, her case might be likened to the faithfulness discussion in the history of translation studies. The question might be reformulated in the following way: To whom will she be faithful? To the audience, source 154       text or executives? This question, be it referred to as a question of faithfulness, a struggle of gates or mediation of the interpreter, leaves MO2 Interpreter in a dilemma. She also mentions turning into a censor mechanism as a conclusion of the dilemma she experiences: Excerpt Example (31) from interview with MO2 Interpreter: There are some restrictions brought about by media. There are RTÜK rules for the audience. You cannot interpret everything the audience says for this reason, you turn into a kind of censor mechanism in some certain areas (my translation). The above excerpt manifests that in experiencing the dilemma, the constrictions also comes into play. As she cannot stand up against the rules put by the public institutions, she exercises censorship. In the case of MO2 Cameraman, the uncertainty of the source text or the speaker puts him in a dilemma. Excerpt Example (32) from interview with MO2 Cameraman Because you do not know what you are faced with. In the end those people are fleeing war. The reactions of those people are of crucial importance. I mean… You are alive. They might denigrate your country; you do not have an interlocutor when you interpret it that way. The speaker might deny having talked that way. ALL burden will be yours in this case. I was not scared but hesitated. I said ok, I will go with it but it is risky. They said ok, you could handle the risk they said, they pumped me up (my translation). To MO2 Cameraman, dilemma stems from the uncertainty of live interpreting. That is, anything might happen in live interpreting, and the interpreter might be blamed. To give an example as to the way MO2 Cameraman experiences this dilemma the following sentences stand out: Excerpt Example (33) from interview with MO2 Cameraman Because there might be something that the woman saw in the background. Maybe there was a gas bomb dropped. Maybe something happened to her made her utter this sentence. When I 155       go to bed at night I questioned myself as to whether I should have uttered it. Can you imagine what would happen if I said “Turkish soldiers dropped bombs on us”? We are in charge of live broadcasting at that moment. What do we have to do in this case? We need to think in one tenth of a second (my translation). MO2 Cameraman, though perpetuating the interpreting by resorting to substitution, as will be displayed in the next section, asks himself questions later on. That is, though interpreting is an instantaneous event, it does not hold true in this case. He can’t stop himself from going over it all the time, and asking himself whether this lady whose speech she interpreted was telling the truth or not. Another gate apart form the constrictions is the way the interpreter views things, that is his/her ethos, as the below excerpts manifests: To cite an example, though MO3 Interpreter 1 works for a public media outlet, where constrictions and rules prevail, she does not feel herself restricted at all: Excerpt Example (34) from interview with MO3 Interpreter 1 I never felt restricted. There were some clichés in the past. The Armenian genocide is still in place but apart from that I think of Crimea… No… There are no restrictions. We interpret what the speaker says (my translation). Therefore, it stands to reason that in her case she does not experience any dilemma due to her ethos and due to the way she perceives the atmosphere. All in all, the policy of the institution, the fact that interpreting is performed live stands out as elements resulting in a dilemma. However, dilemma has to with the ethos, as well. If an interpreter does not feel hindered, then it will have an impact on her not experiencing the dilemma. 5.2.2.3 Audience Audience is a term that has been coded 11 times in MAXQDA. In order to be able to analyze the audience’ gatekeeping role in the eyes of the interpreters, I would like to elaborate on the distinction made by Allan Bell. Bell groups the audience in four groups (1984): 156       1. Addressees (ratified participants in the exchange, whose presence is known to the speaker who addresses them directly); 2. Auditors (their presence is known and ratified but they are not addressed directly); 3. Overhearers (their presence is known but not ratified and they are not addressed); 4. Eavesdroppers (their presence is not known). Based on this distinction, what this part refers to as audience covers those four categories, as the interpreter is totally aware of who is listening to his/her interpretation. Since the interpreter is unaware of the people listening MO2 Interpreter states that you need to think of the audience in choosing the terms. MO2 Editor-in-chief also maintains that the conservative people have to be taken into consideration in broadcasting. Another issue that stands out in addressing the audience is their familiarity. MO4 Interpreter 2 holds that they need to explicate the term PKK and say PKK Marxist terrorist organization. To him, PKK is not a very well known term. It is a term used by Turks. That is why, in line with the demand of the executives and in line with his own disposition, he chooses to render PKK as “PKK Marxist terrorist organization” although it might mean giving up on some other certain terms, as the tight rope hypothesis of Daniel Gile suggests (2009: 182). The tight rope hypothesis suggests that if an interpreter allocates too much attention to a certain item, such as uttering “PKK Marxist terrorist organization” instead of PKK, he/she might not pay not pay attention to the upcoming difficulties. When it comes to the strategies used to take the audience into consideration, different strategies stand out. MO2 Interpreter maintains that she analyses the text and in a way recreates it as a strategy. MO1 Correspondent 2 stops interpreting when she believes that the names uttered by the speaker are meaningless for the audience. She puts it as follows: Excerpt from Interview (35) with MO1 Correspondent 2 They cut it somewhere. They (the people for whom she was interpreting) named some people. There was no order as to whether I should utter these names of not. Then if you name them, what do they mean for the Turkish audience? Because... mmm... there was one commission 157       and they would rearrange some stuff related to this death. It was the broadcast of the Syrian parliament. The Syrian parliament started to name those pepople. First I uttered the names, then I hesitated. What would the audience take of them? Let’s imagine someone who has turned the TV on and then there is someone uttering those names. Then there came the order and when they saw that I stopped, they also stopped broadcasting. (my own translation) (my own emphasis). Interestingly enough, MO1 Correspondent 2 asks herself the question what will the audience get out of this interpreting as she interprets. As odd as it seems, she waits for an order or a command in her ear from the technical team. (Though it would be the technical team transmitting this message, it would be the senior management, corresponding to auditors in Bell’s above definition who would give such an order). This example manifests to what extent theaudience is a yardstick in TV interpreting. To wit, though interpreting reaches the audience in the end, they not only stand at the end of the road. In order to reach the intended audience – and thereby cover the four categories described by Bell – interpreting needs to go through the audience gate in its entirety (covering four categories again) though the importance attached to those four categories differs. 5.2.2.4 TV Interpreting Itself In this part based on the forthcoming examples, it is suggested that TV interpreting itself, by its nature, constitutes a gate. In this regard, the concepts of non-confidence placed on the interpreter and voice matching will be taken up. 5.2.2.4.1 Non- Confidence Placed on the Interpreter In the interview I conducted with MO2 Editor-in-chief, he uttered the term sieve eight times in total. One of the interesting terms that came up in the interviews is filter. As far as MO2 Editor-in- chief is concerned, “he does not want the translation to be entrapped in the filter of the interpreter”. To him, filter means know how and information. He explicates as follows: Excerpt Example from (36) Interview with MO2 Editor-in-chief Researcher: You formulated such a sentence, if I heard you correctly: I want to hear myself 158       without being trapped in the sieve of the interpreter you said; however, now you say that the interpreter renders the interpreting as it is. So do you think there is a sieve, if yes, what kind of a sieve? Editor: What I mean by sieve is as follows: I do not mean that the interpreter exercises censorship. What I mean is as follows: There might be some shortages related to the know- how of the interpreter or in the way he/she grasps the related topic. That is why I want to hear it myself. This is what I have been trying to say. When it comes to the example in this case... Let’s take the simultaneous interpreter out. Let’s say that there is someone who speaks Turkish and broadcasts in Turkish. Someone whom I trust is broadcasting from Kobane. “Special Turkish teams are acting with ISIS and decimating the people.” In this case I hear it directly. I do not worry whether the simultaneous interpreter got it right or wrong. I do eliminate the NON-CONFIDENCE placed upon the interpreter. Non- confidence in quotation marks. Am I able to make it clear? And at that moment the decision to further the broadcasting or not is about the news. MO2 Editor-in-chief is of the opinion that the sieve represents the know- how of the interpreter. That is, he does not want the sieve-know-how of the interpreter to hinder his understanding. Since “sieve” does not apply merely to interpreters as far as he is concerned, it has to do with journalism. Therefore, it might be claimed that this non- confidence stems from the nature of the job itself. 5.2.2.4.2 Voice Matching Voice matching within the confines of this thesis means females interpreting female speakers and male interpreters interpreting male speakers. Normally, in TV interpreting voice matching is not considered prominently apart from big shows like the Oscar Awards Ceremony. However, MO1 Correspondent 1 is of the opinion that since voice matching is overlooked by TVs, the audience’s job gets more difficult. Excerpt Example(37) from Interview with MO1 Correspondent 1 I am of the opinion that simultaneous interpreting brings about a difficulty on behalf of the viewers. I do believe that it has some disadvantages for broadcasting. First, there is no fluent text in interpretation. Meaning might be lost or there might be a semantic shift. Next, there is a slight difference between me talking to a NATO chief and the young woman’s voice-over in 159       terms of the performance that the viewers might be provided with. The bottom line is that in broadcasting the voice and the image do complement each other, therefore the closer you get to the reality in voice-over the better the product becomes. Therefore, I opt for voice- over since it allows me to voice-over at a pace that is not tiring for the viewer, it minimizes semantic shifts, and thirdly it provides voice and image integrity. Therefore if I do have the opportunity, I would go for setting up yellow tape and voice-over with an appropriate translation.(my own translation and my own emphasizes). It follows that in the interviews he conducts, he opts for voice-over rather than interpreting based on his perspective towards interpreting. The only media outlet that pays attention to voice matching among the ones I examined is MO4. MO4 Interpreter 1 stated that she previously used to interpret for Davutoğlu or Erdogan. However, then the administration changed the rule. Currently, female interpreters interpret for women and male interpreters interpret for men. She also contended that due to this newly established rule she started to interpret less and less. Therefore, it stands to reason that voice-matching constitutes a yardstick, or even a gate which interpreting needs to go through to be able to reach the audience. As the above examples display, it might either be the managers or the ethos of the correspondent that exercises the gatekeeping function pertaining to voice matching. To conclude, this part addresses how the role of the interpreters and the formation of their cultural repertoire (both inadvertently and deliberately) serve as gatekeepers. Moreover, the conformist stance of the interpreters makes the passage of the institutional or state policy easier, whereas the non- conformist stance blocks the gates. 5.3 Instances of Interpreting as Gatekeepers The goal of this section is to illustrate the findings of the interviews. To this end, interpreting instances are analyzed and compiled with interview findings. The data analyzed, that is the real instances of interpreting, are made up of more than 40 instances of interpreting in three media outlets. I did not take up real instances of interpreting from MO4 since they interpret form Turkish into Arabic for the Arabic speaking community and different gates might be in place in this case since the scope of their considerations might 160       differ a lot. I chose the following instances of interpreting to be able to illustrate the findings of the interviews with the corpus analysis and triangulate the data accordingly.71 In my research, the interviews also guided me to the real instances of interpreting. To cite an example, in the case of MO2 Interpreter, I set out to find the interpreting instance that she informed me about in the interview. In the interviews, she mentioned an instance in which she toned down the daily Independent’s correspondent Robert Fisk’s words. That is why when I visited the archive following the interview I kindly but ardently asked them to provide me with this rendering and was able to find it. The interpreting instances taken up in this part are in simultaneous mode apart from one rendering perpetuated by the MO1 Cameraman in the consecutive mode. It is important to note that in analyzing the instances of interpreting, I will make reference to the interviews and will explore the renderings in light of the interview findings, thereby, adopting a dual approach. The real interpreting cases will be taken up under two groups: government policy as a gate and interpreter’s ethos as a gate. 5.3.1 Government’s Policy as a Gate In what follows I will examine the examples that might manifest how government and/or state policy might serve as a gate in perpetuating TV interpreting. 5.3.1.1 Accession to the EU The first example is from an interpreting aired on MO1 on July 16, 2011. The interpreter is rendering a press conference held by the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton into Turkish. Example 1 Source Text: Turkey’s upcoming constitutional reform process presents an opportunity to address concerns about recent restrictions that I heard about today from young Turks about the freedom of expression and religion, to bolster protections for minority rights, and advance the prospects for EU membership, which we wholly and enthusiastically support. 71 For detailed information on triangulation as a method of analysis please read Hale and Napier, 2013. 161       Target Text: Özellikle yakın zamanda bugün de örneğin genç Türkler’den dinledim. İfade özgürlüğü ve azınlıkların korunması, Avrupa Birliği Üyeliği ki bir kez daha tekrar etmek istiyorum Türkiye’nin Avrupa Birliği üyeliğini tamamiyle destekliyoruz. Back translation of target text: Especially recently… Today for example I heard from young Turks about the freedom of expression and protection of minorities. European Union… I would like to repeat once again that we wholly support Turkey’s European Union membership. Since the goal of the thesis is not to judge the interpreter but merely consider the instances in which TV interpreting is shaped, I will not go into a close comparison as to the missing terms in the target text. What is striking in comparison of the source and target text is that the target text underscores Turkey’s European membership once again though it is not the case in the source text. Going back to the remarks of the respondents, MO1 Correspondent 1 and 2 and MO2 Editor- in- chief claim that the EU became less visible as a topic over time whereas it was of utmost importance previously. Therefore, it might be plausible to claim that the interpreter, in rendering Clinton’s remark that way, acted in line with the Turkish government’s policy since Turkey seemed to be highly enthusiastic to access the EU back then. In the example below dated July 16, 2011 it is again the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Example 2 Source Text: And that is something that the UN has said. That’s something I know Turkey believes. It’s something we believe. And we’re going to do everything we can to support this process and finally try to see a resolution. Target Text: Bu Birleşmiş Milletlerin de söylediği bir şey. Türkiye de bunu istiyor. Bizce gerçekten bir çözüme ulaşılması çok faydalı olacaktır. Back Translation: This is something the United Nations also has said. Turkey also wants it. It would be very beneficial to reach a solution. Similar to the previous example, the interpreter does not shy away from saying Turkey also 162       wants it since it is about accession to the EU, most probably based on the fact that the political tendency back then supported accession. In examining the lexical changes in MAXQDA, the terms related to the Armenian Question and Kurdish issue are salient with 24 codes in total as the screenshot below manifests. Therefore, I will focus on these two contentious issues in what follows. Figure 5.5 Breakdown of the code lexical alterations 5.3.1.2 Armenian Question MO1 Interpreter 1 mentioned the following example in the interview she gave. Armenian singers, Ara and Omni Dinkjiyan joined a culture and arts program on the occasion of the Armenian genocide remembrance day, on April, 21, 2015. In the example below the host of the show asks a question to Ara Dinkjiyan. Example 3 Source Text: What do you want to say about the timing of the concert? How do you feel about the timing? It is the 100th anniversary. Target Text: Peki bu konserin zamanlamasıyla ilgili neler söylemek istersiniz? Zamanlama ile ilgili neler düşünüyorsunuz 100. Yıldönümü çünkü 1915 olaylarının ve Türkiye’desiniz. Back translation: Well, what do you want to say about the timing of the concert? What do you think of the timing because it is the 100th anniversary of the events of 1915 and you are in Turkey. In accounting for this rendering, MO1 Interpreter 1 is of the opinion that rendering this term as the Armenian Genocide might cause someone to criticize her or cause a reaction. “Even 163       airing Ara Dinkjiyan and Ora Dinkjiyan live on a program caused a reaction of some people among the audience let alone uttering the term genocide”, she said. Therefore, it might be claimed that in order to make the 100th anniversary more explicit she added the term the events of 1915, however instead she could have opted for Armenian genocide if it were not for political considerations. It seems as if by avoiding the term genocide she made a conscious decision. The example below comes from MO2. MO2 Interpreter renders the interviews conducted with the Independent’s Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk. Example 4 Source Text: It reminds them of the Armenian genocide of 1915. Target Text: Çünkü 1915’deki sözde Ermeni soykırımını hatırlattılar. Back translation: Because it reminded of them the so-called Armenian genocide of 1915. In accounting for this rendering, the interpreter makes the following statements: Excerpt Example (1) from interview with MO2 Interpreter It was a connection regarding Syria. He talked about the Armenians in Syria and brought up the Armenian question. Back then the atmosphere was different. He had harsh comments about the Armenian genocide and I necessarily had to tone them down. To her, there are two reasons behind resorting to “toning down” her words: protecting the institution and herself as an interpreter. It goes without saying that protecting the institution comes down to “sticking to the government’s or state’s policy” as claimed by MO3 Interpreter 1. To her, the Turkish state and therefore broadcasting institutions do have some restraints. “We still name it the so-called Armenian genocide because we don’t admit the Armenian genocide”, this interpreter said. Drawing on the example and the accounts of interpreters, it stands to reason that adding “so-called” in front of Armenian genocide means accepting the state’s or government’s policy towards this issue and this acceptance comes in the form of a gatekeeper in TV interpreting. 164       The Armenian question does not create a lengthy discussion solely in TV Interpreting but in conference interpreting, as well. Though it is rare that interpreting or the way interpreting is handled takes place in media in Turkey72, there is one quite interesting article, related to the Armenian Genocide. Unsurprisingly, the way that the term is interpreted has caught the attention of the daily Radikal’s columnist Pınar Öğünç.73 The title of the article she penned in 2010 is “Isn’t this so-called interpreting?” In the part entitled “From English to the “State Turkish” she criticizes the way that the speech of the journalist Hari Kunzru was interpreted during the opening ceremony of the European Writers’ Parliament. Öğünç pens the following sentences to make her stance clear: Excerpt Example (2) from Pınar Öğünç’s article At least Hari Kunzru attended the meeting.74 But what happened? He is talking about the article 301; he is mentioning the restrictions to the freedom of expression. The Armenian genocide turns into the “so-called Armenian genocide” in Turkish interpretation. Put aside the content; let’s look into the basics. Does a simultaneous interpreter have the right to change the content of any speech being interpreted? Do they not take an oath or secure the content? It is about censor rather than mistranslation. Moreover, it is different than the subtitling translation of some TV series in an “ethical” manner. It is about national sensitivity. Do they make an agreement with the simultaneous interpreters in such meetings to translate from a foreign language into “state Turkish”? (my own translation). 72 For a lengthy discussion of the way interpreting is taken up by Turkish media please see 2005. “Presenting Simultaneous Interpreting: Discourse of the Turkish Media, 1988: 2003”. http://aiic.net/page/1742/presenting- simultaneous-interpreting-discourse-of-the-turkish-media-1988-2003/lang/1 (accessed on 10.05.2013). 73 http://www.radikal.com.tr/yazarlar/pinar-ogunc/bu-sozde-simultane-tercume-degil-mi-1030405/ (accessed on May, 2015). 74 For the opening remarks of Hari Kunzru you might visit the website http://harikunzru.com/archive/address- european-writers-parliament-25th-november-2010. Here is how he tackles the issue in his opening remarks: Our kind Turkish hosts have invited us here, as an international group, to air our views, and so it is my belief that we must not shy away from recognising the situation here, where we are speaking. I know by doing so, as a guest, I risk giving offence, but it would be absurd to assert freedom of speech in the abstract without exercising it in concrete terms. I want to name two writers who are not present, the nobel-prize winning novelist Orhan Pamuk and the editor Hrant Dink. Both these writers, and many others, had cases brought against them under article 301 of the Turkish penal code which makes it illegal to insult Turkey, Turkish ethnicity or Turkish governmental institutions. In its initial formulation, when it was promulgated in 2005, it was a crime to insult ‘Turkishness’. Pamuk faced trial for giving the following statement to a Swiss magazine “thirty thousand Kurds have been killed here and a million Armenians. And almost nobody dares mention that. So I do.” Dink, one of Turkey’s most prominent Armenian voices, was convicted under article 301 then murdered by a young nationalist, who was subsequently photographed in a police station, surrounded by smiling officers, against the backdrop of the national flag. 165       Öğünç, hinging her conclusion on the way that the Armenian genocide is interpreted into Turkish as the “so-called Armenian genocide” asserts that the original speech is rendered into “state Turkish”, thereby going through a state filter. In this sense, Öğünç via her language separates the Turkish language from state Turkish, thereby creating a sharp distance between those two. Moreover, to her making such a change means breaking the ethical rules for the interpreter(s) and accepting the rule of the state. Taking one step forward, she alleges that the alteration does indeed stem from an unconscious auto-censorship. Excerpt Example (3) from Pınar Öğünç’s article It does not make sense to blame one single interpreter who perpetuated the interpreting. It is clear that he/she intervened feeling that it could cause a burden to him/her almost with a signal of the unconscious mind. Does this necessity of auto censorship not point to an official discourse analysis that has turned into the blood of a person? (my own translation). It follows that the contentious issue of the Armenian Genocide and its interpretation is an issue that draws a lot of attention not only in TV interpreting but conference interpreting as well. Although Pınar Öğünç defines the case as auto-censorship, I prefer to use the term state or “government policy as a gatekeeper” to be able to account for the reason behind the case. To me, censorship might be a strategy exercised in such a case yet what is behind this strategy is the policy. In another example that concerns the translation of the term “Armenian genocide” and its translation, Hasip Kaplan, BDP’s (pro- Kurdish party) member of parliament addresses written translation of a document of the European Commission to the parliament. The proceedings of the Turkish Great National Assembly dated January 8, 2013 reads: Excerpt Example (4) from the proceedings of the Turkish Great National Assembly75 The European Commission is a legal entity. Isn’t it the duty of the ministry to translate what is written in line with the original and inform the parliamentarians accordingly? We need to write down exactly what the commission writes down. Well, I had a look at the translation 75https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/develop/owa/tutanak_g.birlesim_baslangic?P4=21870&P5=H&page1=67&page2=67 (accessed on June, 2016). 166       and the original I acquired from the European Commission. In the original document of the European Union it reads: “Armenian Genocide”. In translation, it says “so-called Armenian genocide”. It is a translated document. Does the word “so-called” exist in the original? No. If it is not there, then why do you put it there? Which ethical translation rule or understanding makes you put it there? Drawing on this excerpt, it might be claimed that this policy does not hold true merely for TV or conference interpreting, but in translation, as well. However, what is different in TV interpreting is that the rendering reaches millions of people, not only a group of people listening to the conference or reading the translated document. MO3 Interpreter 1 holds the following: Excerpt Example (5) from MO3 Interpreter 1 For instance I do work at a government entity and we all know the perspective of the state towards the Armenian genocide. Personally you might think the other way yet it is not only the government channel but also all private channels that employ the same language. Therefore it looks as if the private channels themselves also adopt the current stance of the government but if the state gives up naming the “so-called” and takes up the issue differently, then the others will also give up. The other media outlets also copy this attitude so we might say that it is something determined by the top-level policy. And to tell you the truth, even in the most democratic country of the world, we see that the countries give heads up to the media in line with their interest and the media is already aware of it. It is not something peculiar to Turkey (my own translation, my own emphasis) All in all, it might be claimed that regarding the Armenian question, it is not a rare occurrence to hear the term “so-called Armenian genocide” in line with the government’s/state’s policy in Turkey. In the case of the interpreters, it seems that this case is internalized to a certain extent, which bears on their renderings. 5.3.1.3 Kurdish Issue The Kurdish language, regarded as a non-existent language for many years in Turkey, seems to have been repressed with the goal to establish a “unified, centralized, and ethnically homogenous state with a single Turkish identity,” as put by Kerim Yıldız, and the right to 167       acknowledge their culture and language was not granted to Kurds. (Yıldız 2005: 12-20)76. With the rise of the PKK in 1984, the conflict between Kurds and Turks escalated considerably and is still ongoing with a short period of ceasefire on both sides. When it comes to the relationship between the Kurdish Regional Government based in Iraq and Turkey’s Kurds, Yıldız describes the situation as follows: The very existence of the Kurds within Turkey’s borders soon came to be seen in the eyes of the state as synonymous with national disunity, and ultimately with separatism. The concentration of Turkey’s sizeable Kurdish community along her sensitive frontier with her Middle Eastern neighbors, and the presence of frustrated Kurdish communities across the border in Syria, Iran and Iraq, further fuelled Turkey’s desire to subjugate the Kurds and neutralize their regional dominance (2005: 13-14). Therefore, it follows to reason that even the very presence of a Kurdish region just across the Turkish border seems to fuel the fear of Kurdish secession. The reason why I give this background information is that in order to be able to grasp the government policy behind the interpreting in the following examples, the readers might need it. It is against this background that the term Kurdish is interpreted in Turkey. The example below is from MO2. The interpreting is rendered from Kurdish into Turkish in simultaneous mode. The person interpreting this is not MO1 Cameraman this time. None of the people I talked to within the concerned institution know who this interpreter is. The interview conducted with the Co- President of the Kobane Canton is interpreted. Example 1 Source Text in Kurdish: Nûçevan: Niha qey tiştekî ji tirkiyeyê tê li wir? Enver Müslim:Tu kes tiştekî nake. Gelên Bakur hemû pêwîstiya Kobanêyê dişînin, gelek tengasî derbarê wê de tune ye. Di nav van arîkariyan de tiştên mîna xwarin vexwarinê jî hene. 76 For detailed information on the issue, you might read http://www.rifatbali.com/images/stories/dokumanlar/turkce_konusma_birgun.pdf 168       Ew tiştan tên lê tiştên gelek giring nînin. Back translation of source Text in Turkish Muhabir: Şu an Türkiye’den bir şey geliyor mu size? Enver Müslim: Hiç kimsenin bir şey yaptığı yok. Kuzey Kürdistan halkı Kobani’nin ne ihtiyacı varsa gönderiyor, bu konuda çok fazla sıkıntı yok. Bu yardımların içerisinde gıda, içecek gibi şeyler de var. Bunlar geliyor ama bunlar o kadar önemli değil. Target Text Muhabir: Türkiye’den gıda yardımı yapılıyor mu size? Enver Müslim: Türkiye’nin Güney doğusundan gıda ilaç yardımları sık sık geliyor ama bizim direnmek için askere ihtiyacımız var, ağır silahlara, tanklara ihtiyacımız var. Source Text in English Correspondent: Do you get anything from Turkey right now? Enver Müslim: Nobody is doing anything. The people of North Kurdistan do send whatever Kobane needs, there is no problem related to it. They send food and beverage. We get them but they do not matter that much. Target Text in English Muhabir: Do you get any food aid from Turkey right now? Enver Müslim: We frequently get medicine from southeastern Turkey; however, we need soldiers, heavy artillery and tanks to resist. Apart from the other lexical changes within the text (food and beverage aid turn into medicine aid in the target text), interestingly, North Kurdistan turns into “southeastern Turkey”77. In this case, it seems plausible to argue that the interpreter avoids using the term Kurdistan in line with the state policy. 77 For a similar case on lexical choices please see Morven Beaton-Thome, 2013. 169       However, editor-in-chief of the same MO makes the following statement regarding his stance: Excerpt Example (6) from MO2 Editor-in-chief There might be a difference between the interpreting perpetuated on TRT and our channel as the interpreter on TRT might say “North Iraq Regional Government” because TRT is affiliated with Anatolian Agency, which is a state- owned news agency, it was that way in the past. I am not sure as to whether it changed or not. As for us, it is called North Iraq Kurdish Region… Well, we did not shy away from uttering the term Kurdish. I did not avoid that personally. In the end it all boils down to the depth of your democracy, freedom of the media. MO1 Editor-in-chief, on the other hand, maintains that, instead of Kurdistan they used to say “North Iraq”; however, it changed with the peace process in the last couple of years. It is worthwhile to note that when I conducted the interview with him in 2015, the peace process among the Turkish state and PKK was in full swing, however, by the time that this thesis finished, June 2016, the process already came to a halt and the tide turned against the term “Kurdish” once again. The following example is taken from MO1. It is an interview interpreted from English into Turkish. In the interview dated July 4, 2014 conducted with the ex Prime minister of Iraq – İyad Allawi, the following instance occurs: Example 2 Source Text: The negativity of the government towards the Kurds has resulted in this reaction by the Kurds. Target Text: Kürtlere dönük negatif politikalar bu sonucu duğurdu. Back translation: The negative policies towards Kurds led to this consequence. In the above example, the word “government” is omitted, in a way, erasing the agency78 of the government. Whereas in the source text, it is the government that adopts a negative stance towards Kurds, in the following example, who it is that adopts such a policy becomes blurred. Therefore, it might be claimed that the interpreter, by eliminating the agency of the 78 For a discussion of the term agency please see Chapter 3, Theoretical Framework. 170       government, exercises gatekeeping probably with a view to supporting the governmental policies. 5.3.1.4 Protecting the State The following instance of interpreting is taken from MO1. On September 6, 2011, the interpreter renders an interpreting of an interview conducted with the Israeli Journalist Arad Nir from English into Turkish. Example 1 Source Text: Well it seems that PM Erdogan does not miss a chance to slam Israel and some officials have anonymously of course called the current situation current behavior of the Turkish government as lunacy. Target Text: Öyle görünüyor ki Başbakan Erdoğan bir şekilde İsrail’i kötülemek için eline geçen hiçbir fırsatı kaçırmıyor ve buradaki kimi yetkililer de, tabi ki isimlerini açıklamadan, isimlerini vermeden, mevcut durumu ya da daha doğrusu Türk hükümetinin şu andaki tutumunu biraz da çılgınlık, biraz delilik olarak değerlendiriyorlar. Back translation: It seems as if Prime Minister Erdogan does not miss a chance to slam Israel and some officials have anonymously without stating their names, evaluate the current situation, to put it more correctly, the current stance of the Turkish government as kind of madness, kind of lunacy. It seems as if the statement of Arad Nir is toned down with a view to protecting the stance of the Turkish government. 5.3.2 Interpreter’s Ethos as a Gate Peter Flynn defines ethos as “individual perceptions of the profession of translation including social and textual practices taken together” (Flynn 2007: 29). To him, ethos is about the ideas and attitudes of the translators and textual practices of translators are impacted by “translatorial ethos”. The first example in this part is rendered by MO1 Cameraman. As he states that he is not a professional interpreter but a journalist, the interpreting cases he performed might be taken up 171       to manifest his ethos as an interpreter and his stance as a non- professional. In this sense, it might be beneficial to consider the term “professionalism.” Merriam-Webster defines professionalism as “the skill, good judgment, and polite behavior that is expected of a person who is trained to do a job well”79. As the definition purports a professional is someone trained in the related realm and gains the judgment that is required to perform that profession accordingly. In news pack called “Suruç- Tension” MO1 Cameraman performs interpreting in consecutive mode. The news pack tells the story of the people fleeing into Turkey from the Syrian border. As to how he accepted the assignment, he states that he hesitated initially. When management asked him to interpret he said that it is risky. In response, management said that he could take care of the risk, confiding in his experience as a newsperson. Given this story behind the interpreting based on his recount, in comparison of the interpreting with the original sound I identified the following instances: 80 Example 1 Kurdish Source Text: Îro roja me ye çara ye. Em mirin hemû xwediya me çû. Em çar roje li çolê ne. Em tî û birçî man. Target Text: Biz 4 gündür çöldeyiz. Yaklaşık bütün malımız mülkümüz orada kaldı. Aç ve susuzuz biz şu anda. Allah Türk devletinden razı olsun diyorlar. Back translation in Turkish: Bugün dördüncü günümüzdeyiz. Biz öldük malımız mülkümüz gitti. 4 gündür çöldeyiz. Aç ve susuz kaldık. Target text in English: We have been in the desert for four days. All our goods are left behind. We are hungry and thirsty currently. May God bless the Turkish state, they say. Back translation in English: It is our fourth day. We perished. We lost our property. We have been in the desert for four days. We are hungry and thirsty. 79 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/professionalism (accessed on June 3, 2016). 80 Two Kurdish- Turkish translators translated the text into Turkish. The reason that I assigned two translators is that I wanted to double-check the translation. 172       The most striking substitution or shift in this example is the fact that although the speaker does not say, “May God bless Turkish state” in the source text, the interpreter adds this sentence into his rendering. Moreover, the footing shifts, as defined by Ervin Goffman by adding, “they say”. Hence, the honest spokesperson norm put by Brian Harris81 is broken. In accounting for his interpreting, MO1 Cameraman comes up with the following statement: Excerpt Example (7) from MO2 Cameraman The woman was lying. She was looking right into my eyes. I was there for a couple of days and she said that Turkish soldiers dropped a bomb on them. Maybe I had to render it as it is. Maybe it was my duty to render it as she says. However, since I knew that it was a lie I could not do it. First of all, my duty is not performing interpreting; I am a journalist. Secondly, she was lying and I did not want to be a part of it. She uttered this sentence just to provoke. Thirdly, yes, I did it wrong. I had to render what she says. As a journalist I need to render it as it is, as a journalist if she is lying I need to correct it. I am not a professional interpreter; therefore I don’t have that experience. As the above excerpt manifests, the way that this substitution takes place has to do with a. The non professional stance of the cameraman as an interpreter b. His professional stance as a journalist. In this instance, rather than rendering what the speaker says, he rendered what the people that the journalist team conducted interviews with uttered. He maintained that the people they talked to before moving on with this speaker all thanked the Turkish state and that is why he uttered the sentence May God bless Turkish state, they say. When the MO1 Cameraman went into further details he explained the one reason why he added the sentence May God bless the Turkish state, they say. He said since he did not want the non-satisfaction of one single interviewee to impact the life of the others. In another instance he adopted a similar journalistic perspective, rather than an interpreter’s stance: 81 For a lengthy discussion on the issue please see Harris, 1990, “Norms in Interpretation”. 173       Example 2 Kurdish Source Text: Ew dest davêjin li namûsa me. Target Text: Çok, kadınlarmıza çok şiddet uyguluyorlar. Kadınlarımıza her türlü işkenceyi uyguluyorlar! Back translation in Turkish: Namusumuza el attılar. Target text in English: They have been exerting violence on our women. They commit all types of violence against our women! Back translation in English: They tarnished our honor! When I asked him about this instance, he stated, “There are some sentences that have to be understood by the people watching you, and you need to communicate that.” Therefore, it stands to reason that his stance as a journalist is the reason why he resorted to substitution and addition in his interpreting. The following example is also from the interview: Example 3 Kurdish Source Text: Wenda bûye, wenda bûye. Erê temam. Target Text: Bu çocuk kaybolmuş sahibini arıyormuş. Back translation: Kaybolmuş, kaybolmuş. Peki tamam. Target Text in English: This child is alleged to be lost, he is rumored to be looking for his owner. Back translation in English: He is lost. He is lost. In the example above, the cameraman, assuming the role of an interpreter adds one more sentence “he is rumored to be looking for his owner”. The reason behind this addition might be explained by the fact that he assumes a journalistic stance. Example 4 Kurdish Source Text: Hemû xwedayê me çû, çekên me çûn, zêrên me çûn. Zarokên me hemû 174       şerpeze bûn. Lê binêrin hemû digrîn. Target Text: 2 yaşındakini çocuğunu bırakıp kaçmış. 2 aylık çocuğumu bıraktım diyor korkudan kaçtım diyor. Diyor ki bizim bütün çocuklarımız perişan oldu. Baksana! Şu anda ağlıyorlar, ben de görüntülüyorum size. Back translation in Turkish: Bütün malımız gitti, silahlarımız gitti, altınlarımız gitti. Çocuklarımız hep perişan oldu. Baksana şu anda ağlıyorlar. Target Text in English: She left her 2-year-old child and ran away. She says that she left her 2 year-old child and ran away out of fear. She says that all our kids are devastated. Look! They are crying now and I am recording for you. Back translation in English: All our property is left behind, all our guns are left behind, and our gold is left behind. Our children are devastated. Look they are crying now. In the above example, again rendered by MO1 Cameraman, he again resorts to a shift in footing, by adding she says, I am recording for you. He accounts for this example with the following sentences: Excerpt (8) from MO2 Cameraman I am a cameraman in that instance. So I tell the audience that I am not an interpreter. I am not a translator, I am not a correspondent, I am a cameraman. I am both recording and interpreting for you. It stands to reason that in all those instances, despite acting as an interpreter, MO1 Cameraman does not internalize this role. Instead, he perpetually keeps his position as a cameraman and journalist. Therefore, his unprofessional stance as an interpreter or from a different perspective his professional stance as a journalist impinges on his rendering. The next example is from an interpreting rendered by MO3 Interpreter 1. In interpreting the remarks of Boris Tadic, in the case dated 26.05.2011, the interpreter is working as an anchorwoman in the beginning. The live program that she presents addresses Serbia’s confirmation of Ratko Mladic’s being caught. As a guest is speaking, she interrupts him by saying excuse me, I need to intervene. “Boris Tadic is making a statement let’s take a listen to 175       him” she says and then assumes her interpreter hat. Yet, it seems as if she does not give up her editorial hat in interpreting. First she employs relay interpreting, taking the interpreting from an English-speaking channel. When the speaker switches to English, she, giving up relay interpreting, and continuing with interpretation from English, seems to have skipped a couple of sentences in order not to repeat herself. The following sentences are not rendered in line with this decision: Example 5 Source Text: On behalf of the Republic of Serbia I announce that today we arrested Ratko Mladic. Extradition process is underway. Target Text: - (zero rendition) As for her decision to perpetuate zero rendition it might be claimed that rather than her title as an interpreter, MO3 interpreter 1 acted as an editor and made a decision accordingly in line with her editorial guidance. Moreover, it might also be a sign of her considering TV interpreting as part and parcel of media discourse rather than a one-to-one interpretation in which anything and everything needs to be interpreted. In the same case dated 26.05.2011, the interpreter is heard saying “Bu soruyu duyamadım”. (I could not hear this question). Just a few minutes later she utters “Bu soruyu da duyamıyoruz”, (We can not hear this question, too), confirming and moving in line with her decision related to intervention. This decision of hers seems to support her statements as she maintained; “the audience always likes naturalness even in interpreting.” Though such a case does not and should not occur in conference interpreting, in TV interpreting MO3 Interpreter 1’s attempts to make herself visible do seem to reflect her approach to TV interpreting and her visibility as an anchorwoman.82 Moreover, the visibility of the interpreter and her decision to announce that she could not hear the question seems to make herself a gatekeeper. Therefore, it stands to reason that by virtue of her being the anchorwoman and interpreter at the same time, these two roles do have a bearing on each other. Tsai maintains that: 82 For a detailed discussion on the visibility of the translator please read Venuti, 1994. 176       Some news translators, when called on to sit in the sub control room, start producing gibberish or simply resort to free chat with the footage as the basis of their narratives, making themselves more like a pseudo-expert or a news program host commentating on breaking news. The original narratives are sloppily rendered (Tsai, 2006: 63). It is plausible to argue that this case is not as extreme as the case taken up by Tsai. However, it might be claimed that the program host stance of the MO3 Interpreter 1 stood out in the example given above. Therefore, drawing on the examples above, it might be claimed that the interpreter’s ethos, that is the way that he/she understands her role, has a certain bearing on the practice. Colucci, in her paper examining media interpreting corpus, draws attention to lexical manipulation and maintains that: every interpreter- mediated interaction entails a filtering process which has an impact on the target text. Indeed, interpreters are professionally committed to excellence and integrity, and their linguistic choices comply with such criteria. Yet, contrary to machine translation, they activate a complex mental process which does not disregard situational factors, interactional conventions and speakers’ intentions (2011: 76). Though interpreting might require a filtering, it is plausible to argue that gaining insight into linguistic choices of the interpreter in order to reveal those filters (gates or gatekeeping for the purposes of this thesis) is required. And this is what I aimed for in the last section of this chapter. 177       6 CONCLUSION This study presented the results of research carried out between 2013 and 2016, which focused on TV interpreting in news outlets. The analysis investigated the gates operational in TV interpreting and how those gates shape TV interpreting. What I discovered is that the interpreting practice is governed by several gates: the policy of the state/government/ institution, which corresponds to the management aspect of Spolsky’s theory, and the interpreter’s perception of his/role, which corresponds to Flynn’s ethos. I should note here that Spolsky’s writing in general inspired the formulation of this study, and his approach to language policy (management, belief/ideology, practice) in particular influenced its execution. After establishing my research questions, I determined that the best way to carry out this study was to undertake an ethnographic analysis. For that purpose I visited the media outlets myself to be able to observe their real working conditions and talked to the respondents face- to-face, if possible. The nucleus of this study are the findings of open-ended interviews conducted with twelve respondents: seven interpreters, two editors-in-chief, two correspondents and one cameraman from two public and two private news outlets. In my selection of the respondents, my criteria in choosing them was their involvement in TV interpreting. And secondly, in my analysis of those interviews, I made use of a tool called MAXQDA. This helped me spot trends in the data as I was able to see the whole picture of the research in one glance. I grouped the terms according to the three pillars of Spolsky. Then, after a clear picture from within the data emerged I undertook the analysis. Previous to the analysis; however, I accessed media archives, and online archives, in order to be able to access transcripts of the interpreting instances described by the interviewees and corroborate their assertions. In my analysis of the policies of media outlets, I determined that it is not only institutional policies, but also the policies of the state/government that play a role in TV interpreting. As MO3 Interpreter 1 put it “journalism works in parallel with the foreign policies of the state”. 178       Hence, in line with the foreign policy of the state, the subjects taken up in interpreting evolve over time. To cite an example, the respondents maintain that whereas the EU was a subject covered extensively in TV interpreting in the past, this is not the reality anymore. Instead, the subjects covered in interpreting are Middle East related ones. Therefore, it is suggested that whereas EU related subjects stand less of a chance of getting through the gates, the likelihood of those linked to the Middle East passing through are higher. In analyzing the policy operationalized by media outlets, it might prove useful to draw on Östgaard as he maintains, “news tends to flow from higher towards lower ranks, both within a nation and among nations” (Östgaard, 1965: 47). It follows that in terms of the subjects interpreted on TV, a certain piece of news from the US, for example, is more likely to be picked up than a piece of news from Cuba. Therefore, it might be claimed that the higher ranking a country holds, the more likely the news of that particular country to make it through the gates. Intercultural power dynamics also manifest in a hierarchy of languages, another gate that is reflected in the policy decisions of media outlets. Drawing on the interviews, it looks as if the English-Turkish pair is the main language pair dominating the TV interpreting market in the Turkish broadcasting channels. When it comes to other languages, either relay interpreting is resorted to or an unprofessional (unprofessional in the sense that he/she is not a graduate of the department of translation studies and holds another job apart from interpreting) is employed. It is plausible to argue that the hegemony of English over other languages is related to and in fact stems from the educational policies of Turkey. Of all of the MOs in the study only MO4 has expressly communicated media guidelines, and those occur in a very informal way. It nonetheless was clear that policy acts as a gate. This relationship between policy and TV interpreting was deducted from interviews and real interpreting instances, for policy documents at these institutions simply do not exist. Let alone a style guide, not a single document has ever been provided to the interpreters interviewed in this research – apart from the case of MO4. Since MO4 is a public institution, unsurprisingly, the rules related to the lexical items and the terminology to be used are much stricter. In the case of MO4, the terms to be used by all journalists working for it are put on a board by the manager. 179       By way of conclusion, it stands to reason that in order for interpreting to reach the general Turkish audience it has to pass through the gates of institutional policy, state/government policy, and hierarchy of languages. Moving on with an analysis of the gate that is the interpreters’ perception, I learned that none of the interpreters hold a single role. They all perform as editors in the world news desk. Due to this dual functioning, they gain insight into the terms (which lexical choices to make) of the institution while editing the news and get imbued with the values of it. It is argued that this enculturation occurs inadvertently. On the flip side of the coin stand the attitudes they adopt deliberately either through pre-warning (before interpreting) or post-warning (after interpreting). The results related to pre-warning and post-warning suggest that gatekeping is exercised in different ways by the senior management in public and private institutions. That is, in public institutions rules are very much binding and an investigation might even be opened up against an interpreter as a consequence of his/her interpreting. These dual perceptions of the interpreter (of their role and of what management wants) act as a gate in the interpreting ecosystem. As regards the perceptions of the interpreters towards the norms/rules/policies, we might group them either as conformists or non- conformists. Non- conformists do not obey the policies and manifest their agency. In the analysis of the answers of the respondents, it is suggested that the subject matter to be interpreted (two of the respondents reject interpreting on the subject matter of economy), the ethos of the interpreter, and the degree of importance of interpreting all impact the interpreter as a non-conformist to be. In interpreter perceptions of the conditions in which they work, the term risk has an undeniable role to play. The respondents associate risk with live interpreting, subject matters, and losing credibility. In terms of tackling those risks, toning down and skipping stand out as predominant coping mechanisms. Secondly, the dilemma of the interpreter is another outstanding issue. To cite an example, MO2 Interpreter mentions her dilemma in choosing among three interpreting versions. “First is the one that a layman would understand. Second is what the speaker says and third is the one that the executives would like”, she says, confessing the dilemma she goes through. The journalistic role of the interpreter, especially if he/she is unprofessional (working as a correspondent in the case of MO1 Correspondent 1 or cameraman in the case of MO2), also 180       functions as a gate. Specifically, in the case of MO1 Correspondent, she might resort to omission if she believes the interpretation does not make sense to the audience. As regards MO2 Cameraman, since he defines himself as a journalist rather than an interpreter, he resorts to substitution and interprets what he sees, rather than what he hears. Drawing on those cases it is plausible to argue that the professional role and belief of the interpreter impinges on the product, that is, the target text. To conclude, it is suggested that the role of the interpreters, the formation of their cultural repertoire (both inadvertently and deliberately) serve as gatekeepers. Moreover, the conformist stance of the interpreters makes the passage of the institutional or state policy easier, whereas the non- conformist stance makes it more difficult or might bring about another gate as in the cases of MO2 Correspondent and MO1. In the analysis of the real interpreting instances, by examining the interpreting examples within the framework of lexical choices, government’s policy and interpreter’s ethos were revealed to be gates. In laying bare the government’s or institution’s policy behind lexical choices made by interpreters, two issues come to the fore: the Armenian Question and the Kurdish issue. As the examples reveal, the “Armenian genocide” might turn into the “so- called Armenian genocide” in interpreting and “North Kurdistan” might be rendered “southeastern Turkey.” On the other hand, if interpreting is related to Turkey’s joining the EU; it might be toned up in line with the policy of the state. In interpreting examples revealing the interpreter’s ethos as a gatekeeper and the institutional policy, the interpreters resort to a. Substitution and addition, b. Change of footing. As a consequence of which the lexical items heard by the audience are no longer the ones heard in the source text. All in all, as the interpreting cases suggest, what the audience assumes to be interpreting actually has to go through the gates of the state/institution and interpreter for it to reach them. In light of those analyses, going back to the gatekeeping theory, if I were to rewrite what Lewin stated: the social happening is considered to be a result of groups (MOs in this case), subgroups (world news desk in this study), members (interpreters, editors, correspondents in 181       this study) barriers (zero rendition cases, lexical choices, unprofessionalism in this study), and channels of communication (the presence/lack of relay in this study) (1947:14). Once I completed the analysis, I wanted to re-read the literature in light of what it revealed. Regarding the interpreters’ roles, Shoemaker and Reese hold that “[w]ithin most media organizations there are three general levels. The front-line employees, such as writers, reporters, and creative staff, gather and package the raw material. The middle level consists of managers, editors, producers, and others who coordinate the process and mediate communication between the bottom and the top of the organization. Top-level corporate and news executives make organization policy, set budgets, make important personnel decisions, protect commercial and political interests of the firm, and when necessary defend the organization's employees from outside pressures” (1996: 145). Returning to the gatekeeping model, it is my contention that if we were to employ the model set by Shoemaker and Reese for interpreters, they would occupy the front line employee position yet there could be exceptions if the interpreter holds a managerial position that is equal to the middle level such as the case in MO3 Interpreter 2. It might be argued therefore that the interpreter undertakes the gatekeeping position as a front line employee in most MOs unless he/she occupies a higher position within the organizational chart. Applying the model of gatekeeping to TV interpreting and/or the production of TV interpreting, it could be hypothesized that there exist a vast number of agents/players in the process controlling the process and the flow of the TV interpreting: the top management, editor-in-chief, editor, world desk editor-in-chief and last but not least the interpreter himself/herself. Moving on from the fact that news is not just facts but the product of institutional structures and professional practices (Bell: 5)83, it might be useful to provide a map of the different agents assuming different roles in the process. Below is a top down line- up of the gatekeepers in an MO. The higher one is, the more power one might exert. Figure 1: Lining up of the gatekeepers in an MO (top- bottom) Owner of the media outlet 83 Please see Vuorinen, 1996 for a similar argument as she states that every organization is embedded in a cultural environment, which imposes constraints on its behavior. 182       ⇓ Senior management ⇓ Middle management (Department Managers) ⇓ World News Desk Editors/ Interpreters* (since interpreters assume two titles). I hold that the owner and management impinge on the policy aspect of TV interpreting and thereby act as a gate. The interpreter also acts as a gate as he/she might either exercise the policy of the media outlet and/or exercise his/her own ethos/agency. As the figure above suggests, I also suggest that the interpreter is the last gatekeeper since: a. Interpreting is the ultimate output, though it might only last for a couple of minutes. That is, the audience hears the interpreting in its entirety and as it is live and then if there is to be made any change the interpreting turns into raw material for journalistic purposes being rewritten again and again for different purposes since it might turn into a voiceover or news package if required to do so. In this case, an inevitably more in-depth and meticulous process comes up as the oral product turns into a written one and the ultimate gatekeeping role is shared with the editor and/or editor-in-chief. However, apart from such cases, the interpreter is the sole and last gatekeeper just as the interpreting is carried out. b. Only when the interpreting is completed do the other gatekeeepers come into play. As discussed, there can exist only pre and post warning. Warning the interpreter once he/she has started interpreting simply does not occur. Therefore, the interpreter enjoys the freedom of being the last gatekeeper, even if only for a couple of minutes. Hence, it follows that in the process of TV interpreting, the interpreter does not perform solely as an internal gatekeeper but as a final gatekeeper since he/she is the person whose words reach the audience directly without being exposed to any more gates. 183       Another conclusion I reached as a consequence of my analysis is that the interpreter serves as an intereditor in TV interpreting. Van Doorslaer, studying the relationship between journalism and gatekeeping, introduces the concept of journalator to depict the role combining journalism and translation with a focus on the “active interventionist attitude” (2012). Following this example, I suggest we might call the people assuming two titles on TVs, “intereditors,” depicting the hybrid profession of interediting since they edit and interpret simultaneously. I suggest that they are intereditors in the sense that a. They edit and interpret the source text in their brains simultaneously b. They first learn to edit the news, learning which terms they should use (such as avoiding the term “Armenian Genocide” and rendering it the “so-called Armenian Genocide” instead), and then interpret according to this internalized terminology. It is hypothesized that as the TV interpreter assumes the role of gatekeeper in producing the output or rendering interpreting, he/she automatically embraces the intereditor role, thereby adding, omitting or substituting lexical items whenever it is deemed necessary on behalf of the related media outlet as a requirement of policy or based on his/ her own decisions (including his/her ethos). The findings of this study challenge the conduit role of the interpreter and contribute to a number of studies by revealing the gates behind TV interpreting in news outlets in Turkey. Doorslaer states that truly being able to grasp institutional translation (or interpreting) thus requires “local explanation”, that is, detailed case studies of different institutional contexts, and that this research has only just begun in Translation Studies (Doorslaer 2011: 59). This study responds to this call by providing a local explanation. Bros-Brann, in her article on AIIC’S website dwells on the difficulty of finding simultaneous interpreters on TV in exotic languages and maintains that 84 On television, non-conference languages are often required because of topical events in the news. This means that requests come in for languages such as Serbo-Croatian, 84 http://aiic.net/page/630/simultaneous-interpretation-and-the-media-interpreting-live-for-television/lang/1 (accessed on June 3,2016). 184       Latvian, Polish, Turkish, Thai, Tagalog, Farsi and/or Persian etc, etc, etc. As there are virtually no professional conference interpreters trained for these "exotic" languages, let alone for live simultaneous interpretation on TV, this is a real headache! However, this study makes it clear that this is not the case anymore. TV interpreting in Turkey is already an institutionalized form of interpreting in 2016. As for the use of this study, I hold that it has both theoretical and practical implications. I hope the practical aspects and conclusion of this study are taken into account by people in the media. I believe the study might prompt an interest in how those gates shape the impressions of the audience. Hopefully we can reveal more pseudo realities in the future! 185       REFERENCES AIIC (Association Internationale des Interprètes de Conferénce) (2004) “Media interpreting – A different sort of world”, Technical and Health Committee