Youth radio programs during the insurgency in three Southern border provinces of Thailand

Abstract

This study aims at investigating 1) the circumstances of radio programs for youth, 2) youth’s exposure behavior, use of media, and needs of radio programs, and 3) the circumstances of preferable radio programs for youth in unrest situations and the mechanisms which accelerate sustainable radio programs for youth. Firstly, in the qualitative part data were gained from 1) 48 records of radio programs, 2) 39 broadcasters, and 3) 46 representatives for a group discussion. Secondly, the quantitative data were obtained from 384 teenagers. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentage, means, t-test, and One Way ANOVA. Findings: Firstly, regarding the policies, three typical types were found; 1) broadcasting sponsored by station directors, 2) broadcasting sponsored by affiliations, and 3) programs without sponsorship. Most of the broadcasters were adults, youth, and collaboration between adult and youth. Next, 2 radio formats were 1) magazine programs and radio talk and 2) mixture of various formats. Most of the programs featured drugs, teen problems, multicultural society, unrest situations, and etc. Next, the methods of presentation involved; 1) the use of Central Thai, Malays translated into Thai for interviews, Thai and the targeted language in language tutoring programs, and the use of Thai with local Malays, 2) styles of talk between friends or between adults and youth, and 3) the use of informal language. Finally, regarding the problems and adjustment of the programs; 1) the presentation of unrest situations in the areas gained little support and collaboration among networks might be helpful, 2) the presentation of the content was controlled by the government and the audience, providing online channels to get the audience feedbacks and the neutral content might be helpful, 3) some youth believed that radio was obsolete and modern technology might be useful in extending channels of exposure and promoting networks, and 4) asking for sponsorship from affiliations, volunteers, or seeking from other sponsors might be effective in dealing with inadequate funding. The findings showed that radio was the second most frequently used medium after the Internet and television. The youth usually exposed to the radio on their mobile phones at homes. Moreover, most audience benefited from exposing to radio programs as they learned social situations, crises, and etc. To be specific, the exposure to the radio programs provided appropriate role models for male youth and they could greatly learn different opinions, while female audience moderately benefited from the programs. In addition, it was found that 1) the most preferable type of radio programs included music and Q&A, 2) 11 areas of the content were needed including religion, drugs, crises in the area, and etc., Concerning the preferable radio programs, 1) NBTC should release the ban on advertising or provide sponsorship, 2) youth and adult broadcasters should be promoted to become professional, 3) youth participation should be endorsed, 4) 20 categories were discovered; volunteering events should be presented for social activities, religion diversity should be presented in order to promote mutual understanding of multicultural society, for turmoil situations, the broadcast should include warning and soothing, 5) for the presentation, (1) varieties of languages should be presented, (2) styles of talk should be pleasant and fun with sincere voice. The mechanisms accelerating sustainable radio programs were; 1) sponsorship by government sectors, local institutions, and etc., 2) promoting networks, 3) releasing ban on advertising, 4) including more broadcasting channels, such as connection to main stream media, broadcasting through online media or through broadcasting towers, and 5) participation of the audience and relevant parties.