The underlying ideologies in news articles: The study through the use of direct quotations and lexical choices in an English newspaper in Thailand and an American newspaper

Abstract

The qualitative study investigates the different ideologies underlying in news articles on the red shirt demonstration during March-May, 2010 that were published in the Bangkok Post (BKP) and the New York Times (NYT). The Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is used as the major instrument to analyse news texts. The research studies two aspects, namely, direct quotations and lexical choices of word with a different connotation. The study found that the ideologies in both newspapers are transmitted through these linguistic perspectives. NYT tends to use direct quotations and lexical choices to support and argue for the demonstration of the red shirt protesters, whereas BKP is likely to take side of the Thai government. The demonstration in 2010 in NYT's view seem to be the fighting for the true democracy by the poor, who are the majority of the country's electoral bloc, while BKP does not support the violence caused by the Red Shirt protesters.