On Simultaneous Interpreting Strategies Of Television News In View Of Uses And Gratification

With deepening globalization in the field of communication media and increasingly advanced technologies, simultaneous interpreting (SI) has been ever widely applied in television live news broadcasting to communicate information more timely and efficiently to the audience. According to the Uses and Gratification theory, TV audience dominates the process of acquiring news and information via television, and choose information sources based on their needs and expectations. From the audience’s perspective, this thesis studies an SI case of the press conference on the MH370event both on CCTV-4and CCTV-13. Guided by the Uses and Gratification theory, questionnaires are handed out to survey the uses, expectations and extent of satisfaction of audience watching television news SI. Analysis is conducted on factors contributing to or diminishing satisfaction, which leads to a summary of SI strategies and techniques, as well as avoidable mistakes. These results aim to improve interpreters’ability to satisfy the audience.This thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one introduces research background and objectives. Chapter two presents a literature review, summarizing the history and status quo of studies related to television SI, introducing the Uses and Gratification theory and its application, and illustrating the significance of the study. Chapter three conducts a case study with experiment,in which the survey objectives, designs, and selection of materials and subjects are explained first, followed by a qualitative and quantitative analysis of results. Conclusions are drawn from the analysis:television audience’s assessment of TV SI is relevant to future choices; interpreters should pay attention to information consistency, appropriate pauses, suitable language style, comfortable delivery, characteristics of TV news language and the presence of audience. Chapter four summarizes research results with practical value, yet points out the limitations of the study and proposes suggestions for future studies on this subject.