Critical Discourse Analysis of English News Headlines on Thai Transgender Individuals from Thai and International Websites

Main Article Content

Siwanon Ninpanit

Abstract

This study explores the dialectical relationship between language use in English online news headlines and their possible effects to news readers in society. By deploying Critical Discourse Analysis, known as CDA (Fairclough, 1989), representational strategies (van Leeuwen, 1996), and transitivity analysis (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004), the study aims at examining the representations of Thai transgender individuals. Twenty four online news headlines, half of which from Thai websites and the others from international websites, were randomly selected by using Google and analyzed. The findings indicate that, according to the representational strategies, Thai transgender individuals are collectivized rather than being individualized. Moreover, through the transitivity analysis, they are usually depicted as doers of violence and done-tos of being victimized in the Thai websites. Rather, they are portrayed more positively in the international counterparts. Finally, it can be argued that Thai transgender people’s representations are also disproportionately affected by the newsworthiness issue.

Article Details

Section
Research articles
Author Biography

Siwanon Ninpanit, English for International Communication, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University under the Royal Patronage, Thailand

A lecturer at the English for International Communication Program, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University. Pathum Thani

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