Abstract:
This research aimed to examine the process of social construction of reality, the news value theme and the construction of meaning, ideology, and socio-cultural practices in Thai newspaper coverage of the Olympic Games. This study included qualitative analysis of news photos, captions, and headlines from Thairath, Daily News, and Khaosod newspapers and websites, as well as in-depth interviews with news directors. The results were as follows: 1) The process of social construction of reality included a news framework for selecting issues, a personal concept framework pertaining to professional ethics, an institutional policy framework, and a social and cultural concept framework; 2) The news value theme is the glorification of heroes, national pride, allegiance to the king, belief and trust in the holy, family relationships, male identity, feminine identity, and patronage. Methods exist for the construction of meaning, such as the employment of antonyms, intertextuality, metonymy, metaphors, color symbolism, technical visual language, and hyperbolic rhetoric; and 3) Socio-cultural practices and ideologies consist of nationalism, democracy, capitalism, feudalism, religion and holy faith, family reunification, and the body's worth as cultural capital.