Media and political protest in Thailand : a case study of the coverage of the March to May 2010 protest in the Bangkok Post and the Nation

Abstract

Communication is a vital resource for most political actorsand media are an important outlet for social movements, where the quantity and quality of news coverage influence how they are perceived by the public. However, studies showed that mainstream media tend to produce biased coverage of protest groups which challenge the status quo. The present thesis examines whether this tendency is replicated in Thailand’s English-language press. This task is attempted with a case study of the Bangkok Post and The Nation coverage of the 2010 ‘red shirt’ protest. The researcher conducted a mixed qualitative and quantitative analysis of the two newspapers’ daily issues published in the period March 1st to May 31st, 2010 to determine the rhetoric used to describe the protest(ers), the sources of information, the grammar devices and the cultural and ideological frames of reference used. Research findings show that the two print media: (1) over-relied on official sources and gave little voice to the protesters; (2) emphasized violence (and/or the threat of it) as opposing to the issues the protest intended to raise; (3) delegitimized the protest(ers) and framed them as being the Other in an Us-Them framework; (4) covered the protest with a pro-establishment orientation. This study casts light on the discursive structure of BP and TN media message, its cultural, historical and political backgrounds and the rolemedia play in mediating its meanings.