Soft Power Discourse of Thai Government

Abstract

This research was qualitative research that focused on content analysis, whose objective was to study the news analysis about the government's soft power by using the concept of discourse as a framework for analyzing the type of discourse and analyzing the method of creating that discourse. The results showed that soft power discourse consisted of these followings: 1. The issue of soft power which included 5 issues: the issue of origin, the issue of definition or meaning, the issue of the responsible person, the issue of the guideline and the issue of results 2. The type of discourse which included 9 types of soft power discourse as follows: Soft power discourse as the cost of culture to develop a national development; Soft power discourse as Thai to the world; Soft power discourse as creativity; Soft power discourse as Thainess; Soft power discourse as part of attracting tourists; soft power discourse as legal legitimacy; Soft Power discourse as driven by the government; Soft Power discourse as born from the cultivation and created to be; Soft Power discourse as power. 3. The way the government creates discourse included the following methods: Create an impact, prominence, re-production, reinforce the illusion / image and refer to the framework of the law. Soft power discourse in the meaning of the government that communicates through the media, therefore, meant the cultural cost of developing people to develop the national development to the global level with creativity, Thainess, which would bring income to attract tourists through relevant laws with the government as a driver to be Soft power. Therefore, it was not just a soft power that to attract" outside people", but was the power to "insiders" through selection, creating and developing skills related to Thai soft power.