onflicts in Thailand during 2013-14:
An Analysis of Conflict News in Mass Media
Thailand’s current conflicts have strikingly increased political, social, and economic
instability, reduced legitimacy of governance, and undermined the rule of law. The
purpose of this research was to examine types of conflicts in 6 social situations in
Thailand during 2013-14. A sample of 1,200 conflict news reports from 3 daily
newspapers, 2 weekly newspapers, and 3 television news channels were analyzed
using content analysis and discourse analysis. The findings revealed that the conflict
news reported from the deep southern regions of Thailand showed more violent
behaviors than the other five conflict situations- the political conflict, the economic
conflict, the environmental conflict, the public policy, and the violence against
children and adolescents. All conflict news showed higher proportion of structural
conflicts rather than other types of conflict. Moreover, conflict news during the 3
political periods showed differences based on writer’s biased opinion and personal
ideology.
Keywords: news analysis, conflicts in Thailand