Roles of discourses and the meanings of same-sex marriage communicated in the news of mass media in Thailand

Abstract

The research, entitled “Roles of Discourses and the Meanings of Same-Sex Marriage Communicated in the News of Mass Media in Thailand,” reflects the study of meaning construction and power through discursive practice on same-sex marriage via the presentation of news of mass media in Thailand, including the study on the perception and interpretation of receivers with different social experiences and backgrounds. The concepts of sexual diversity, marriage, same-sex marriage, discourse, and discourse analysis, including audience analysis by a cultural approach, are used as a theoretical framework for the study. Qualitative research based on cultural studies was conducted to analyze two principal components in a communication process by 1) discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough, comprising text, discursive practice, and socio-cultural practice, and 2) audience analysis from a cultural approach.

The findings reveal that when couples of same-sex strive to seize the meaning and righteousness related to the marriage field, the competing force of the other side also tries to maintain the traditional social structure of heterosexuality or male-and-female marriage. Thus, it is a collision between a homosexual and heterosexual agency in using words and defining their meanings in the sphere of mass media news. The findings are divided into four levels:

The institutional power and the creation of righteousness in the meaning of “marriage.” Typically, when a couple just voluntarily lives together, it seems that no argument is raised. However, an argument takes place once a marriage discourse is constructed to create some righteousness for some groups of people with some institutions involved. In other words, a problem occurs when a change in the mode of production enters the capitalist economic system. Namely, capitalism plays a role in organizing human factors involving the family institution, based on several institutions: religion, medicine, law, etc., including mass media. Since same-sex couples cannot produce any heir as a production laborer into a social system to mobilize such a society. Eventually, the meaning of “marriage” of people in a society is defined with a focus on only heterosexual marital relationships to respond to the goal of capitalism.

A clash of marriage discourse of homosexuality. Same-sex marriage is one of the tactics in expressing power in constructing the meaning of a "bride" and "a groom." It is another struggle concerning sexual relations that rejects male-female sexual relations at both individual levels or by a homosexual agency and at the societal level via social institutions or structure. A group of same-sex couples inclines to negotiate with social structural systems through ritual activities, which brings about a tendency of introducing power in releasing or struggling oneself from the dominance of social structure systems. Besides, it is found that homosexuals can appear in mass media news, but are presented exclusively and repressively with restricted news and connotative-meaning language within the sphere of homosexuality.

Same-sex marriage presented in the news. Generally, news can arouse the audience's attention, but it can also be mingled with biases and prejudices. News can present their paradox through language usage that identifies certain types of columns for categorizing news, i.e., miscellaneous news, weird news in a society, or funny columns by adding emotional language or puns, to distinguish them from general news. It is a kind of repression through the power of social structure via news. Furthermore, news also tries to insert and maintain the status quo value of male-female marital relationship and the related marriage traditions.

Audience’s perception and interpretation on same-sex marriage. The samples reflect their views as an audience. They view that the way homosexuals stand up to organize a wedding for their couple indicates their rejection and protest against the mainstream male-female sexual relationship. On the other hand, mass media may also present the news only partially, attempting to induce the audience to accept same-sex marriage. Besides, some social and cultural factors have been emerging to play a role as a mechanism for determining “the acceptance of homosexuality,” with meanings behind the acceptance.