Online Media Discourse of Racism toward Rohingya Refugees in Thailand

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to study how Rohinya refugees are imaged by online medias discourse in Thailand.  An analytical paradigm, Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA), is proposed to explore the relationship between discourse and system of discursive practice from media. This study collects the data from the news headlines related to Rohingya issues during the year 2013 to 2016 that the issues has become problematic in Thailand. The selected data are from the most famous Thai online newspapers (i.e. Thairath, Daily news, Matichon, Siamrath and other several online news sites). The findings reveal that the discursive strategies used in online Thai medias represents Rohingya image both positively and negatively. Rohinyas are expressed symphatically, while the representation of crime and humanlessness are also found at the same time. (Abstract)

Keywords- Critical Discourse Analysis; racism; Rohingya refugees; online media discourse; Thailand