Abstract:
The topic on elderly has become a subject of academic studies in many fields since Thailand entered aging society. This study aims at examining representations of Thai elderly people presented through linguistic devices in two media discourses in Thailand's society, namely newspapers and television programmes. The data are analyzed by using a three-dimensional framework of Fairclough (1995). The findings indicate that discourses from newspaper highlight negative representations of elderly people. Thai elderly people are represented as dependent and needing care, and thus becoming the countrys problem and burden. Such stereotypical emphasis could lead to a discourse of fear or denial against aging in the Thai society. Discourses from TV programme, on the other hand, focus on positive representations of elderly people in order to compete with the negative view shared by some people in Thai society. The aging population is depicted as valued personnel resources and empowering citizens who can help improve the society. The positive representations support the government policies of encouraging elderly people to depend on themselves and make contributions to the society to ease the burden on the government. However, TV discourses represent only one aspect of elderly people the aspect of those who are capable of taking care of themselves and benefit the society. This might result in a stereotype in some aspects as well. These representations are constructed by adopting six linguistic devices, namely referring term selection, using of certain types transitivity, defining, giving details, implication, along with intertextuality. It is worth noting that the representations of elderly people constructed in the two media types do not depict the elderly as grandparents who play an important role in their families as a supporter, a mentor and a caregiver for the young. The analysis of discourse practice shows that discourses transmitted to the society in the two media genres are all related to the government. This means that the government might somewhat take control over the texts in newspaper and TV programmes examined here. Representations of elderly people are, therefore, in accordance with the government policies. The analysis of context indicates that sociocultural factors such as aging society, medicine and public health policies, concepts in Thai cultural society, concept of gratitude, seniority, values of elderly people along with international influences may have some crucial influences upon the texts. At the same time, representations of elderly people might distort the societys thought and perception toward the elderly. In conclusion, this study reveal that representations of Thai elderly people in both media discourses are selected so as to accord with ideology and standpoint of the discourse producers. Awareness of representations of Thai elderly people in public media could lead to better understanding of aging population issues.