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Mediating Political Dissent: a Study of Thai News Organisations and Southern Conflict Reporting

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Mediating Political Dissent: a Study of Thai News Organisations and Southern Conflict Reporting Mediating Political Dissent: A study of Thai news organisations and southern conflict reporting Phansasiri Kularb School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies Cardiff University This thesis is submitted to Cardiff University in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2013 Acknowledgement This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance, assistance, and advices from many kind people and organisations that contributed to the completion of my PhD study in one way or another. My sincere thankfulness goes to the managements of Chulalongkorn University and Faculty of Communication Arts who made my pursuit of the doctoral degree possible by granting the scholarship and agreeing to my leave of absence. I owe the profound gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Simon Cottle, who never fails to provide insightful advices and prompt supports. While Professor Cottle’s exemplary scholarly works and invaluable views tremendously enhances the development of my own academic outlook, his consistent understanding, encouragement, and patience render the daunting tasks of PhD study much less stressful and much more inspiring. I am truly thankful for Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen and Roger Dickinson of University of Leicester who shared their time and constructive feedbacks. My appreciation also goes to the JOMEC faculty members and administrative staff for their accommodation to the preparation and completion of my study. The crux of this thesis rests upon the interviews with journalists and observations of their works. I am grateful to every interviewee and informant who spared their precious time to share their thoughts and allow me to enter ‘the backstage’, which enabled me to witness the dedication to their works in their own way. Many thanks also go to Khun Sopit Wangwiwattana and Khun Yenjit Sathiramongkolsuk at Thai PBS, as well as Khun Srisuda Jantarasima at Matichon who helped coordinate for my observation and interview. I am very much indebted to Khun Nasurah Jeh-ha and Khun Abdullah Wangni. In spite of their personal and occupational struggles, these two journalists were eager to provide me with kind support and input, without which my fieldwork in the southern border provinces would have been unachievable. My senior colleagues at Faculty of Communication Arts and my friends at home all deserve a massive heartfelt thank for their continuing moral support. I am also truly blessed to have known a number of delightful friends here in Cardiff, who made my years away from home never short of great company. Additionally, I am very grateful to Khun Padcha Tanta-obas iii and my sister Orntima for their meticulous editing and proofreading. Many thanks to Khun Merisa Skulsuthavong for helping me with tying up the loose ends before submitting the thesis. My deepest appreciation goes to Aornsuda Anna Phairatt for the friendship that stands the test of time. Last of all, my utmost gratefulness is bestowed to my parents, who have always been my rock. Their noble work ethics, unconditional love, and unwavering care enable me to embark upon any journeys and overcome any obstacles in life with integrity. This thesis is dedicated to the people of Thailand’s southern border provinces and those affected by this enduring conflict. Their plights and sufferings brought about the research idea and kept me focused on my work, in hopes that this thesis can one day be among the bricks that build a path to peace in the region. The merits of this thesis are contributed by the disparate people who dedicate themselves to solving this conflict, and I fully hold accountable for any inadequacies that may remain. iv 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 counter- hegemonic accounts to emerge and facilitate healthy democratic debates about the southern conflict. v Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The historical and current contexts of the political conflict in Thailand’s southern border provinces 2 1.2 The research theoretical framework 5 Chapter 2 The Contending Discourses of the Political Conflict in Thailand’s Southernmost Provinces 10 2.1 Discourse and the discursive contention in political conflicts 10 2.2 The enduring discontent: the contested histories of insurgency in the southern border region 11 2.3 The contending discourses concerning the political conflict in southern Thailand 14 2.3.1. Crime and conspiracy discourse 15 2.3.2. Minority’s grievance discourse 17 2.3.3. Malay nationalism and Islamism discourse 19 2.4 Conclusion 27 Chapter 3 News Media and Political Conflict/Violence 29 3.1 Definitions of political conflict, political violence, and the discursive contestation of political violence 29 3.2 Understanding (and questioning) the relations between news media and political conflict/ violence 31 3.3 Countering the mainstream: peace journalism and other forms of journalism in political conflict reporting 36 3.3.1. Peace journalism: promoting ‘ideal’ journalism in a cynical world 36 3.3.2. ‘Thick’ journalism: going beyond daily news updates 38 3.4 Thai journalism and southern conflict 41 3.4.1. The analyses of news reports on southern conflict: news media as purveyor of violence and state propaganda 41 3.4.2. Alternative means of journalism in reporting southern conflict: challenging the conventions 45 3.5 Conclusion 49 Chapter 4 The Sociology of News Production 51 4.1 Defining the sociology of journalism 51 4.2 Inside the world of journalism 54 4.2.1. Journalist as a distinctive profession 54 4.2.2. Objectivity as professional ideology and occupational necessity 56 4.2.3. News values and news selection 58 4.2.4. Routines and organisational structure 59 4.2.5. The journalistic presentation styles 61 4.2.6. Peer pressure: interaction and competition among news organisations 62 4.3 News access: balancing on the tightrope 63 4.3.1. Interviewing as occupational craft and professional identity 64 4.3.2. The elite sources as primary definer of events 64 4.3.3. The ‘exchange’ system: the reciprocal relationship between journalists and their sources 66 4.4 Outside looking in: the external forces that shape news production 67 4.4.1. Political engagement: the power play between news media and political actors 68 vi 4.4.2. Media ownership and market demands: the newsroom’s “Church versus State” conundrum 70 4.5 Conclusion 72 Chapter 5 Statement of Aims and Research Methodology 73 5.1 Research questions 73 5.2 Research methodology 74 5.2.1. Content analysis 75 5.2.1.1. The unit of analysis and data sampling 75 5.2.1.2. The coding scheme 77 5.2.2. News framing analysis 77 5.2.3. Ethnographic studies of news production 80 5.3 Conclusion 84 Chapter 6 The representation of the southern conflict in news content 85 6.1 The volatile deep South: the news themes and frames in the southern conflict coverage 85 6.1.1. The themes in the southern conflict coverage 86 6.1.2. The news frames in the southern conflict coverage 89 6.1.3. The news media’s labels of the southern conflict and antagonists 105 6.2 ‘In authority, we trust’: the analysis of news sources in southern conflict reporting 108 6.2.1. Police, government, and military: the trinity sources of information in southern conflict reporting 108 6.2.2. Law enforcement, national security, and policies: principal perspectives in the southern conflict coverage 110 6.2.3. A national problem: the use of national-level sources in southern conflict reporting 112 6.3 ‘Thin and straight-forward’: the news genres and visual presentation in southern conflict reporting 113 6.3.1. Summarising what happened and what people said: the common mode of southern conflict reporting 113 6.3.2. Seen but not heard: the visual presentation of southerners and insurgents in news content 114 6.3.3. The fluctuating and oscillating coverage: The dynamic and variability of southern conflict reporting 117 6.4 Different media, similar outputs: the Thai news ecology and southern conflict reporting 120 6.4.1.
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