The generic structure of the Thai Prime Minister’s weekly address

Abstract

This study examines how the weekly Thai prime ministerial address constitutes as a genre and explains its implications against the Thai socio-political backdrop. Drawing on data derived from Thaksin Shinawatra’s, Abhisit Vejjajiva’s, Yingluck Shinawatra’s and Prayut Chan-ocha’s weekly addresses, the study applies an integrated framework of genre analysis based on Systemic Functional Linguistic and Critical Discourse Analysis perspectives. The findings reveal that although the format of the Thai weekly address is emulated that of the US president’s, this unidirectional, weekly televised communication differs from other world leader’s addresses. Following an interpretation of the findings, the paper argues that the weekly address has become ritualised in Thai politics since almost all post-Thaksin prime ministers have employed this political marketing strategy to justify their rule and promote their administration’s performance in such a way as to embody the ‘senior-cum-leader’ trait that has become a major Thai tenet. The generic structure of the show is loosely organised around a long-running time slot and imbued with a strong sense of positivity and glorification of the century-long concept of Thai nationalism.