Negotiation of Representation of Rohingya in Thailand through Faith-Based Media

Abstract

This article analyzes media representations in Thailand of the Rohingya, an ethnic minority being persecuted in Myanmar, with a focus on those representations in faith-based media like the White Channel. Media representations help form people’s perceptions of others. Representations of the Rohingya as refugees and migrants, as a result of the interaction of rhetoric and ideology within the nation state, demonizes and paints the Rohingya as the ‘Other’, influencing public dialogue. However, individual Rohingya in Thailand are also steering the course for their own future by trying to tell their own stories. Keywords: Rohingya, Media and migration, Representation, Media portrayals, Faith-based organization.