IRNA Logo from Google Images

 An Introduction on Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)

Among many important news agencies inside Iran with different goals and political or social orientations such as Fars News Agency (Iran’s leading independent /semi-official), Mehr News Agency, MNA (owned by the Islamic Ideology Organization and is the most multilingual news agency with seven languages), Iranian Student News Agency, ISNA (created and operated by Iranian university students), etc. the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) is the official news agency in Iran and it is said that the organization functions as the primary source of information dissemination within the country to publish various types of news, bulletins, research works, opinion polls and stories of general interests. IRNA is a pro-government news agency which is funded by the current government and controlled based on the regulations and policies of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic guidance. Therefore, it may be obvious that its political orientation is toward the ongoing government and it may be changed in every cycle of four or eight years by changing the government. Its professional activities must set in the frame of securing Iranian national interests and it should focus on the main objectives of the Islamic Republic and Islamic culture.

IRNA: The Official Source of Access to Information

Excluding Iran territory as a region for covering the news, the source of information in IRNA dissemination comes from three other news regions including Middle East and Africa Region, the head office is in Beirut, Lebanon; Europe and America Region, the head office is located in London, England; and, Asia-Pacific Region, the head office is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Furthermore, IRNA cooperates exclusively with some international news agencies like Reuters, Associated Press and so on. Within this contract, the only way of access to their news items and photos within Iran territories is only possible through IRNA. IRNA also has the bilateral cooperation with some of regional agencies such as the news agencies of Russia (Itar-Tass and Rianovesti), Saudi Arabia (SANA), China (Xinhaua), etc. in exchanging news items and photographs.

Beside the news regions with a number of branches in each region, IRNA is also operated by eight main news desks for the purpose of editorial board namely:

-          Europe and America Desk

-          Africa and Middle East Desk

-          Asia-Pacific Desk

-          Indian Peninsula and Central Asia Desk

-          English News Desk: This desk is in charge of sending the most important news gathered from IRNA's various lines, as well as those items acquired through various IRNA cooperation contracts with various news agencies.

-          Arabic News Desk: The similar activities as the English News Desk.

-          Persian Language International News Desk: The Staff are in charge of surveying news items dispatched from various IRNA news lines in the country and selecting those most likely to interest foreign readers. These are then rewritten as new items with information that are not included as being of no general importance to Iranian readers inside the country added and those that need revision altered.

-          Foreign News Desk: This desk is in charge of surveying the various foreign radio, television, satellite, Internet and printed media items and selecting the news items that IRNA is interested in.

The Final Outcome

Providing all the information through news regions and preparing them by news editorials, IRNA publishes eight daily newspapers and periodicals in three main languages of Persian, English and Arabic which are all:
IRAN, a daily newspaper in Persian language which is widely popular among  Iranians;
Iran Daily, an English daily newspaper;
Al-Vafaq, an Arabic daily newspaper;
Iran Varzeshi, a Persian daily newspaper which covers local and foreign sport events;
Iran Javan, a Persian weekly magazine which concentrates on issues related to the youth;
Iran-e Saal, an annual issue which reports the outstanding events occurred in the country;
Iran Sepid, the only kind in the region and the Middle East in Braille language;
Iran Azin, a monthly journal on interior design.

Considering the brief provided introduction about IRNA, this study aims to draw attention only to two IRAN newspaper in Persian and Iran Daily newspaper in English. It is going to compare the news items on the topic of recent 2013 election in Iran in two languages of Persian and English in a specific period of time from before the election to after that. Through this comparison, it’s supposed to understand how different the news with the same concept within the same news agency are published in two languages of English and Persian.

 

If you are still interested, follow this blog for future updates.

Iranian Social Domestic News in English Media:

Recent Election in Iran and the Foreign Interpretation

                          Photo from Aljazeera

          News is the communication of some selected information on current events which is presented by any kind of media including print, television, radio and internet to a mass audience. The nature of news can be defined variously depending on the audience interest and how it is brought the attention to the community in which the news is presented. As the result, the way the news is presented can influence the audience mind and consequently the way it is interpreted. Any single sentence of any news and the style of its writing or even its reading may have a specific role in the different interpretation of the same news in different communities and among different people.Therefore, minor differences in translation can profound consequences.
 

Therefore it can be said that the way the news is interpreted may be signified with the linguistic features of a language including lexicons, grammatical aspects, intonation in spoken news or even the style of writing in print (using punctuations, bold and large fonts and so on). Generally speaking, the style of presenting news may be directly related to the linguistic features of each language among the native speakers of that language. Consequently, the translation of news into any language and the way the translation influences the interpretation and correct understanding of the same news may vary from one language to another and from one community to another based on how the translator translates it and what kind of tools she/he exploits to provide the same influence and interpretation in the target language as it was in the source language/society. 

Paying attention to the effect of strategies in translating news, this research is going to consider a number of important Iranian social and economic domestic news in English media, and if these reports are written, reported or translated in a way to influence the audience interpretation. It aims to take into account various English versions of single social or economic Iranian news pieces in different English media (including CNN, BBC and Aljazeera) in order to examine any difference in broadcasting the same news in different countries such as the United States, Britain and Middle East countries; and, how they differ with the English media inside Iran.

The Upcoming research aims to consider the recent election in Iran, the victory of Hassan Rouhani as a reformist candidate among the candidates of other parties such as hard liners and the related issues affected by his victory. Some topics within a specific time period will be chosen then they are taken into account from the perspective of CNN, BBC and Aljazeera.

As the study of the above mentioned topic goes on, the progress and the temporary results will be posted on this blog.