Analyzing on Newspaper’s Editorials during General Prayut Chan-o-cha being the Head of Government

Abstract

There are coup d’état in Thailand on May, 22, 2014 by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), leading by General Prayut Chan-o-cha as the head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) in the first period. Then he became the Prime Minister of Thailand in second period. The role of newspapers is to reflect the government’s performance. Thus this study used a comparative quantitative content analysis to examine and analysis of the Thai Newspaper’s Editorials during General Prayut Chan-o-cha being the Head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and the Prime Minister of Thailand. The content are from Thairat, Matichon and Komchadluek newspapers. This paper chooses the purposive sampling in both periods with total of 522 articles. Purpose of the research is to analyze the objectives, agendas and directions of Thai Newspaper’s Editorials. The results revealed that editorials’ objectives from 3 newspapers in two period is to urge to performance, editorials’ agendas from Komchadluek and Matichon newspapers in two period is to report the political agenda very much but social agendas from Thairat newspapers, and editorials’ direction from 3 newspapers is neutral in 2 period but there are more positive than negative in the first period and more negative than positive in second period.