Chapter 3 describes how research on text structure, more precisely on text comprehension and production, affected text construction and text comprehension related research: the chapter will discuss research in general linguistics with relevance to Translation Studies and targeted research in Translation Studies. The chapter begins with a short historical overview of the main studies on text processing in the 1970s, describing research leading up to the construction of Kintsch and van Dijk’s (1978) Model of Text Comprehension and Production, and van Dijk’s (1980) Macrostructure Model. After the presentation of the two theories, the application of these theories in recent research will be outlined. This will be followed by the description of Translation Studies specific implications of these theories, including the review of Tirkkonen-Condit’s (1985) research, which adapts van Dijk’s (1980) Macrostructure Model for the analysis of argumentative texts and their translations. The chapter will conclude by stating which aspects of Tirkkonen-Condit’s (1985) Macrostructure Model and in what ways will be used as constituents of the Political Bias Screener.

Chapter 4 provides a brief overview of the relationship between text (including texts created through translation), power and ideology, to be followed by a review of Translation Studies specific research on translated texts and their power, ideology and political bias related features. Since no systematic tool has been developed in Translation Studies for the description of argumentative political texts and their translation concerning power, ideology and politics related textual features, the chapter will provide a brief history of Critical Discourse Analysis and will describe its traditions for the purpose of theoretically contextualising the present research. This will be followed by the foundations, theory and description of van Dijk’s (1993, 1997, 2001, 2003) critical discourse analytical model and his Discourse–Society Interface. The chapter will conclude by describing the Translation-centred Discourse–Society Interface Model of the Political Bias Screener: this model has been developed within the scope of the present undertaking. The Translation-centred Discourse–Society Interface Model is a Translation Studies oriented adaptation of the van Dijkian Discourse–Society Interface for the description of the power, ideology and politics related textual features of source and target language political discourse.

Chapter 5 investigates mediatised political communication with special regard to how the media, and especially the press, can become a source of bias in political mass communication including newspaper journalism and the translation of newspaper articles. Through a constructivist approach to discursive political science, Chapter 5 will centre on political reality, the presentation of political reality and the issue of bias. As an introduction, this chapter will discuss issues related to political influence exerted in the media, especially by political parties. This is followed by a discussion of Mazzoleni’s (2002) Mediatised Political Reality Theory, which describes how objective political reality is presented in the media. Subsequently, Mazzoleni’s (2002) Theory of Bias will be introduced, which relates to journalists’ personal political convictions as well as professional norms and standards of journalism. The chapter will conclude by describing the Translation-centred Political Mass Communication Model developed within the present undertaking, which relies on the theories presented in Chapter 5 and has been devised for the interpretation of the research results obtained with the help of the Translation-centred Discourse–Society Interface Model. As a constituent of the Political Bias Screener, the Translation-centred Political Mass Communication Model will also allow for formulating implications for the description of translator behaviour and translators’ critical awareness with reference to the translation of the argumentative newspaper articles examined.

Chapter 6 describes the analytical tool specifically developed for the current purposes and in the scope of the present undertaking: this chapter will elaborate on the constituent models of the Political Bias Screener and will detail their relationship.

Chapter 7 presents the methods of testing the reliability and validity of the Screener, and describes the research design. Therefore, this chapter extends to the methods of data collection, the selection criteria along which the texts submitted to analysis have been chosen, and the ways the participants of the research have been selected. The chapter also introduces the translation assignment used for testing, and provides a description of the application of the analytical tool. Sample analyses will also be presented. The chapter concludes with the discussion of the reliability of the analytical tool.

Chapter 8 focuses on the results of the analysis of the source and target language argumentative newspaper articles and their discussion. The research results will be elaborated along the four constituent models of the Political Bias Screener and will extend to the description of the properties of source and target language texts and the comparison thereof.

Chapter 9 describes the conclusions and implications of the present research, and will present possible pathways of further research.

As the Political Bias Screener is fairly complicated, the relationship of its constituent models is shown in Figure 1.2, which visualises the relation of these constituent models by outlining the input and output of each constituent. Figure 1.2 also presents the focus of analysis of the constituent models of the Political Bias Screener: the focus targets the superstructure, macrostructure and context.