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During the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium, most COVID-19-related information was communicated to the public through mainstream media such as newspaper outlets, television, and radio. These media had substantial influence over which information was (widely) distributed and how this information was framed, subsequently shaping citizens' interpretations of matters concerning the pandemic. This chapter considers one of the government's endeavors to contain the pandemic: COVID-19 telephone contact tracing. Specifically, we compare the image of such telephone contact tracing generated by the media with the de facto interactional practice. We report on analyses made as part of a 1 year applied conversation analytic and pragmatic study conducted at Ghent University and the University of Antwerp in collaboration with the Flemish Agency of Health and Care. Methodologically, we use thematic content analysis to examine the portrayal of COVID-19 telephone contact tracing in widespread Flemish newspapers and its evolution throughout the pandemic. We then compare this media analysis to our analysis of a corpus of 170 recorded, transcribed, and interactionally analyzed contact tracing calls. Our results demonstrate how the mainstream media's image of contact tracing does not align with the various (interactional) functions of COVID-19 contact tracing calls identified in the study. We argue that this one-sided, distorted image produced by the media may have had considerable consequences for the efficacy of contact tracing, especially because the contact tracing call was a new genre of conversation. It was introduced to the public almost exclusively through mainstream media and, at the same time, its success relied for the most part on citizens' voluntary participation, trust, and willingness to share private information.

In Flanders (Belgium) social interpreters and intercultural mediators help bridge the communication gap between foreign language speaking patients and healthcare workers. This paper reports on a comparative survey among social interpreters and intercultural mediators with a focus on how they perceive their role and tasks as interpreters in a healthcare setting. We examine if this is related to different codes of conduct and task descriptions. The survey showed that intercultural mediators feel that they can take on various roles, and have a whole range of responsibilities and duties, much more than social interpreters. In practice, social interpreters find it difficult to stick to their code of conduct. Another survey among healthcare workers working inside a hospital revealed that, in general, their expectations of an interpreter correspond more to the profile of an intercultural mediator than to the profile of a social interpreter. Resumen: En Flandes (Bélgica), los intérpretes sociales y mediadores interculturales ayudan a cerrar la brecha de comunicación entre los pacientes que hablan lenguas extranjeras y el personal sanitario. El presente artículo pretende informar sobre una encuesta comparativa entre intérpretes sociales y mediadores interculturales, en la que se pregunta cómo perciben su papel y sus tareas como intérpretes en un entorno de atención sanitaria, y si se relaciona con diferentes códigos de conducta y descripciones de tareas. La encuesta demostró que los mediadores interculturales se sienten capaces de asumir diferentes papeles, y que tienen toda una serie de responsabilidades y deberes, mucho más amplios que los intérpretes sociales. En la práctica, los intérpretes sociales encuentran dificultades para apegarse a su código de conducta. Otra encuesta realizada entre personal sanitario que trabaja en un hospital reveló que, en general, las expectativas que tienen del intérprete corresponden más al perfil de mediador intercultural que al perfil de intérprete social.Palabras clave: Mediación intercultural; interpretación en los servicios públicos; encuesta; código de conducta; papel del intérprete. INTRODUCTIONIn the last decades, there have been some major demographic changes all over the world, one of the most prominent of which is a persistent rise in the number of migrants. Since 2000, the number of international migrants has increased by 41% (United Nations 2015). This is also the case in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium, where the number of international immigrants increased by approximately 50% from 2000 until 2010 (Pelfrene & Van Peer 2014. As a consequence, hospital staff members are increasingly confronted with patients who speak foreign languages and have limited or no skills in the language(s) of the host countries.Researchers in the Netherlands studied the importance of language in healthcare and concluded that low language proficiency has adverse effects on health, since it impedes doctor-patient communication. They found that knowledge of the local language(s) is e...

Schmidt-Glenewinkel, A. (2013). Kinder als Dolmetscher in der Arzt-Patienten-Interaktion. Frank & Timme: Berlin. 121 p.Healthcare providers all over the world are increasingly confronted with foreign-language-speaking patients. The resulting language barriers can pose great problems in medical settings, so there is a fundamental need to overcome such barriers, which is where professional community interpreters can help. They are not only trained for these specific settings, but also have a deontological code to follow, which addresses aspects related to, for example, neutrality, confidentiality and accuracy. However, hospitals often do not work with professional community interpreters and, instead, people without any kind of interpreting training (i.e., laypeople) serve as interpreters: bilingual nurses, cleaning staff, family members and even children.In Kinder als Dolmetscher in der Arzt-Patienten-Interaktion, Annika Schmidt-Glenewinkel raises this issue in four chapters. Her aim is to examine the risks and implications of children acting as interpreters for their parents or family members in medical settings. In the book, Schmidt-Glenewinkel uses several studies from different countries and different research disciplines (e.g., linguistics, psychology, public health, communication studies, sociology).Before addressing the main theme of the book, Schmidt-Glenewinkel positions community interpreting within translation studies (pp. 15-24). It was only in the 1990s that community interpreting became a popular research topic. Before this period, all research endeavours were focused on conference interpreters. Unfortunately, doctors and hospitals often call on bilingual laypeople -instead of professional community interpreters -to interpret. The author rightfully remarks that bilingualism does not automatically entail the ability to translate. Laypeople can support the communication process, but they are not trained for the interpreting job. In this book, the author combines research results from different research disciplines, because the field of translation studies is de facto interdisciplinary (pp. 22-24). Translation studies evolved out of different disciplines, such as sociology, public health, linguistics and communication studies.The second chapter (pp. 25-54) focuses on interpreting in a healthcare setting in Germany and in Berlin in particular. First, Schmidt-Glenewinkel provides a statistical overview of the number of migrants and the results of some surveys among doctors (pp. 25-26). When migrants end up requiring medical care, communication difficulties may arise (pp. 27-31). This can lead to 'over-care' (e.g., unnecessary medicine), 'under-care' (e.g., prevention and information) and incorrect care (e.g., wrong medicine and therapy). Doctor-patient communication is a complex phenomenon (pp.

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