{"title":"Interpreters as Spin Doctors: The Interactional Role of Interpreters in China’s Political Press Conferences","authors":"Ruey-Ying Liu","doi":"10.1177/19401612231204514","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"China’s political press conferences have received increasing academic attention as they provide a revealing window into the workings of the political communication system in the authoritarian context. However, the interactional role that interpreters play in these cross-linguistic press conferences remains underexamined. Taking a conversational analytic approach, this qualitative study empirically examines the interactional import of government interpreters’ practices at the Chinese Premier’s Press Conferences (CPPCs) from 2007 to 2023. The analysis reveals that interpreters consistently transform journalists’ questions with respect to (1) word choices, (2) contextual backgrounds, and (3) question forms. These transformative practices work to soften the critical messages that these questions would otherwise convey while also enabling politicians to more easily address these questions without having to deal with the negative consequences that might otherwise follow. I argue that government interpreters in CPPCs actively intervene in substantive ways consistent with a spin doctor role within press conference exchanges.","PeriodicalId":47605,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Press-Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Press-Politics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612231204514","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
China’s political press conferences have received increasing academic attention as they provide a revealing window into the workings of the political communication system in the authoritarian context. However, the interactional role that interpreters play in these cross-linguistic press conferences remains underexamined. Taking a conversational analytic approach, this qualitative study empirically examines the interactional import of government interpreters’ practices at the Chinese Premier’s Press Conferences (CPPCs) from 2007 to 2023. The analysis reveals that interpreters consistently transform journalists’ questions with respect to (1) word choices, (2) contextual backgrounds, and (3) question forms. These transformative practices work to soften the critical messages that these questions would otherwise convey while also enabling politicians to more easily address these questions without having to deal with the negative consequences that might otherwise follow. I argue that government interpreters in CPPCs actively intervene in substantive ways consistent with a spin doctor role within press conference exchanges.
期刊介绍:
The International Journal of Press/Politics is an interdisciplinary journal for the analysis and discussion of the role of the press and politics in a globalized world. The Journal is interested in theoretical and empirical research on the linkages between the news media and political processes and actors. Special attention is given to the following subjects: the press and political institutions (e.g. the state, government, political parties, social movements, unions, interest groups, business), the politics of media coverage of social and cultural issues (e.g. race, language, health, environment, gender, nationhood, migration, labor), the dynamics and effects of political communication.