Mediating political dissent: a study of Thai news organisations and southern conflict reporting
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Abstract
The objective of this thesis is to explore the roles of news media in the political conflict in
Thailand’s southernmost provinces by analysing two aspects of Thai journalism: news
content and news production practices. Four news organisations of different platforms and
organisational natures were selected. The content analysis reveals that, despite their
different characteristics, the four organisations’ reports similarly highlight the conflict’s
violent aspect and the preservation of public order via law enforcement and security, rely
heavily on authority sources, and primarily label perpetrators as criminals. Therefore, the
news coverage tends to support the state’s legitimacy in solving the conflict and undermine
other interpretations and proposed solutions.
Interviews with news workers and ethnography of news production show that journalists
encounter several difficulties in reporting about the conflict, from physical threats, limited
access to information, and organisational constraints to the pressures from market
competition and predominant beliefs in Thai society. The journalist-source relationship is
also instrumental in shaping the aforementioned portrayal of the conflict. In all, these
elements contribute to journalists’ different stances on the conflict and the various roles
they perform.
Three prominent roles of Thai journalism in the southern conflict are identified: 1)
journalism as a presenter of truth, 2) journalism as a forum for every party, and 3) journalism as a
supporter in conflict resolution. These disparate roles reflect the dynamic power play, debates
about news professionalism, and reflexivity among journalists. They also signal the
interplay between journalism and other political and social institutions. The thesis argues
that, while the news coverage still largely endorses the authority’s perspectives and
legitimacy, the shifts in the discursive contention and political consensus, as well as
diversity and complexity in Thai news ecology could provide opportunities for the counterhegemonic
accounts to emerge and facilitate healthy democratic debates about the
southern conflict