Abstract:
This research aimed at examining the representation of Isan people through the use of language in the national and local newspapers between 2004 and 2013 adopting the approach of critical discourse analysis. In addition, the research aimed to compare the representation of Isan people in the national newspaper with that in the local newspaper during a 10-year period, commencing from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2013. The analysis reveals that the national newspaper had adopted 8 major linguistic strategies in order to construct the representation of Isan people, which comprised of: 1) lexical selection; 2) using metaphor; 3) using implication; 4) using conditional sentence structure; 5) using the cause and effect sentence structure; 6) using rhetorical questions; 7) using passive sentence structure; and 8) using intertexuality . These linguistic strategies were used in the national newspaper to represent Isan people in three different aspects, consisting of: 1) characteristics and behaviors, which indicated that Isan people were full of dignity, endurance, and generosity. They were proud of their community and loved their friends and relatives; 2) social and economic aspects, which depicted that Isan people lacked knowledge and opportunity. They were regarded as the working class and the victim of higher social classes, while Isan people in large cities had higher financial status; and 3) political aspect, which suggested that Isan people were the major voices and played an important role in politics. They were also regarded as the victim of politics. Alternatively, the local newspaper had adopted 6 linguistic strategies for constructing representation of Isan people, which included: 1) lexical selection; 2) using metaphor; 3) using implication; 4) using passive sentence structure; 5) using intertexuality; and 6) using rhetorical questions. The aforementioned linguistic strategies were used in the local newspaper to portray Isan people in three aspects, comprising of: 1) characteristics and behaviors, which indicated that Isan people were proud of their identity and local wisdom. They respected and adhered to the royal institution. They were generous and loved their friends and relatives; 2) social and economic aspects, which described Isan people as lacking knowledge and opportunities they were the working-class population. Isan people in large cities also had higher financial status; and 3) political aspect, which represented Isan people as a major voice in politics. They played an important political role and they were not in favor of party division. In addition, they were in favor of the government policies. This research illustrated that the representation of Isan people was related to the sociocultural context and signified social inequality. Although the numbers of representations of Isan people that appeared on both the national and local newspapers were equal, each type of newspaper emphasized such representations in a different way. That is, the national newspaper mainly portrayed Isan people in a more sympathetic and unfavorable way, rather than in a positive and favorable way. On the other hand, the local newspaper depicted Isan people in a more positive and favorable way, rather than in a sympathetic and unfavorable way. The participants, the standpoint, the ends of the national and local newspapers, along with sociocultural factors such as historical background and differences in language and culture, might influence the representations of Isan people that conveyed a sense of social inequality.