Representations of Polyamorous Relationships in Thai Online Media
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Abstract
This research article aims to explore how polyamory is represented in Thai online media through language, and how the representations reflect Thai society, by employing qualitative content analysis, agenda-setting framework and theory of representation. The sources of the data included 22 publications of Thai online media between January 2018 and February 2020. It was found that there were both negative and positive portrayals of polyamory which could be categorized into seven categories: unrelated to cheating or other non-monogamous practices, intricacy, the revolution of sexuality, deviance, infidelity and immorality, viable alternative, and better. These findings reflect that Thai people are not yet familiar with and do not accept polyamory since Thais strongly adhere to the norms of monogamy. They also believe that polyamorous practices are against the doctrines in Buddhism which Thai people have a strong faith in. Moreover, there were 11 linguistic strategies, including lexicalization (modification, verbs, and terms of address), rhetorical question, presupposition, referencing, metaphor, negation, modality, repetition, proverb, imagery and idiom, employed by the media to construct and to spread discourses, influence, manipulate and persuade audiences to believe in what is being represented.
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References
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