Language Usage in the News of the COVID-19 Pandemic from Online Newspapers

Abstract

Apart from drawing out the characteristics of language used in mass media, language usages in Thai mass media delivering news and the social milieu and situations during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Thai online newspapers, also played a role as a reflection of society and the events that occurred during that particular time. In this research, the aims were to analyse the language usage, particularly the use of words and marks, in online news relating to the COVID-19  and  to show  the language usage influenced by social situations and events. Words and marks were collected from 523 headlines published from 2 online newspapers, including Thairath and Khaosod, that written on the situations of the COVID-19 in Thailand issue between April 1, 2020 and May 31, 2020. The words and marks used in these headlines were classified by characteristics on language usage. Then the amounts and percentages of words and marks usage characteristics that occurred in the headlines were summarized. Finally, full explanations of each language usage characteristic on words and marks were presented in narrative form. The investigation showed that there were 6 characteristics of language usage found in the news, including, emotional words to make interesting headlines, word terms relating to the measures of government and private sector, synonyms, transliterated words, English words, and various marks. These language usages reflected the situations and impacts on people in Thailand during the pandemic of COVID-19.