An Investigation into the Role of Translation in Transcultural Journalism: The Case of Radio Pars Today in German

The advent of radio and the ability to send audio messages to distant parts of the earth have turned this medium into an opportunity for informing and advertising. That is the reason why global media services began to work rapidly, especially during World War II. Translation is the main pillar of the World Service Channels. Radio Pars Today, affiliated with IRIB World Service channels, has been very active in translating various cultural, political and economic texts into 30 languages, especially after the Islamic Revolution. It has however received lesser scholarly attention because it only sends auditory messages. The current case study presents the researcher’s personal accounts and experiences during his presence in Radio Pars Today and analyzes the role and position of translation in intercultural communication and pinpoints the difficulties of cultural translation. The statical population of the research includes Pars Today’s political and cultural programs and the sample was purposefully selected for the analysis. The results show that translation is the main communicative factor in international media services and translating cultural-specific references is of difficulty due to historical and linguistic differences between the languages. Figurative concepts, metaphors and Islamic terms were the main area of difficulty for translation. Choosing wrong translation equivalents, along with using literal translation can prevent the audience from decoding the foreign message. This is also the case of direct transfer of the original structures and genres, which are sometimes unfamiliar to the audience. Therefore, the unit of translation is not “word” or “sentence” but culture, when it comes to cultural translation.