Evaluative Stances In the book Propaganda Blitz: How the Corporate Media Distort Reality

Abstract

This thesis provides a translation and a commentary on the preface and chapter four from a book titled Propaganda Blitz: How the Corporate Media Distorts Reality (2018) by David Edwards and David Cromwell. The authors examine how popular media news companies deliver news in a way that is beneficial for them and their sponsors by hiding the real issues from public view and often completely reversing the truth. My translation is preceded by a functional, analytical commentary that discusses the strategies followed in capturing the ideological features of the source text and the writer’s and media agencies' concealed stance while ensuring information credibility through the use of Martin and White’s Appraisal Framework, which is based on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar. In my analysis, I examined two areas of focus within the selected appraisal framework: the first area of focus is Attitudinal Assessment, and the second one is Graduation specifically intensification. By using these descriptive tools, I aim to produce a target text that preserves the source text's evaluative stance and rhetorical position. This involves sensitivity to the attitudinal locutions, which must be adequately reproduced or accounted for. The analysis shows that translators need to do comprehensive research for the slightest difference in meaning between two words while translating, and that the significance of those choices cannot be attained without a rigorous theory-driven engagement with the source text to uncover the deep layers of feelings.

Date of Award	2022
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Humanities and Social Science