การสะท้อนภาพกลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ต่าง ๆ ในสังคมไทยของหนังสือพิมพ์รายวัน / เบญจวรรณ อุปัชฌาย์ = The portrayal of ethnic groups in Thai society through daily newspapers / Benjawan Uputchar
The objective of this research is to study the role of daily newspapers in portraying different ethnic groups in Thai society in news. Major research questions inquire about the following: ethnic groups that are portrayed, frequency of representation, nature of representation, similarities and differences across different newspapers in portraying ethnic groups, and editorial guideline in reporting about ethnic groups in news. The study draws upon a content analysis of two newspapers – Thai Rath and Matichon. The former represents a popular newspaper while the latter represent a quality newspaper. Random sampling of both newspapers is carried on an alternative month basis from January 1st to December 31st of 2000 to yield a total of 368 issues - 184 from each newspaper. The research has the following findings: 1) portrayal of ethnic groups in Thai society is mostly found in the form of news report. Most of these reports are negative in nature, dealing with subject matters such as social unrest, social problems, crime, and terrorism. Elements of newsworthiness commonly found in these sampled reports are significance and impact. The location of the events in the reports are mainly in Bangkok and the Central Region; 2) according to news editors, the general guideline in reporting about ethnic groups in Thai society is to present the story or events as they really happened. However, influence from news selection process, as well as political, economic, social, cultural, and situational factors in Thai society may also contribute to a distorted report or one that deviates from real events.
