A Corpus-Informed Appraisal Analysis of Thai Media Representation and Attitudes Towards Red-Shirt Protesters in Political Conflicts in Thailand

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze and compare representation and attitudes of media towards Red-shirt protesters in the political conflicts in Thailand between two Thai English-language newspapers: Bangkok Post and The Nation. The data were retrieved from Political online news in Thailand written in English published from 31 October to 31 December 2013. Terms related to red-shirt protesters were selected on the basis for high frequency and high keyness scores, suggesting that they played a key role and received media attention during the political turmoil. Collocations, and connotations associated with the selected terms were analyzed to show how much they reveal media attitudes. Appraisal (Martin & White, 2005) focusing on attitudinal positioning: affect, judgement, and appreciation were employed as the main analytical framework in this study. The results, based on the Appraisal analysis, showed that red-shirt protesters were evaluated in terms of affect: desire, undesire, insecurity, and dissatisfaction in Bangkok Post, and The Nation; happiness in Bangkok Post; and unhappiness in The Nation. Red-shirt protesters expressed affect on political activities, politicians, and political organization in Bangkok Post and The Nation. Types of judgement included: incapacity, and impropriety in Bangkok Post and The Nation; and tenacity, veracity, and inveracity in Bangkok Post. Red-shirt protesters were appraised by Red-shirt member opponent, and news reporter in Bangkok Post; and opponent and news reporter in The Nation. The results from judgement revealed that The Nation expressed higher negative attitudes towards Red-shirt protesters than Bangkok Post. In terms of implications, Corpus Linguistics and Appraisal Theory are beneficial for discourse analysis, particularly textual evaluation of media discourse.