The flow of information through social media : a case study of the people's democratic reform committee (PDRC) movement from 2013-2014
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2021
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2564
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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National Institute of Development Administration. Library and Information Center
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Ratana Maknantaphisit (2021). The flow of information through social media : a case study of the people's democratic reform committee (PDRC) movement from 2013-2014. Retrieved from: https://repository.nida.ac.th/handle/662723737/5700.
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The flow of information through social media : a case study of the people's democratic reform committee (PDRC) movement from 2013-2014
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Abstract
This qualitative research aims to study the flow of political information through social media based on the PDRC movement of 2013-14 in the areas of: 1) The flow of information through social media during the movement; 2) Creation of an online public sphere to support the movement; and 3) The roles and reliability of the information flowing through social media.
A content analysis was used to analyze both social-media content and transcriptions from in-depth interviews with communicators of both traditional and new media. Information regarding the PDRC movement from 2013-14 on Facebook was selected based on a purposive sampling method. Samples of information were obtained from the Facebook accounts of 1) “Suthep Thaugsuban” and 2) “Top Secret”, an individual using the alias of Seh Namngoen. Six individuals who worked as communicators in both old and new media were purposively selected to include mass- and social-media communicators and academics.
Results: 1) Based on the flow of political information on mass media and social media while PDRC was mobilizing people for the six major rallies, and the general election on February 2, 2014, it was found that both local and foreign mass media reported a variety of information related to political groups as mediators. The two Facebook Fanpages, which presented the information as stakeholders, performed different duties. “Suthep Thaugsuban” Facebook page, as the movement leader, focused on providing information and mobilizing people. “Top Secret” Facebook page mainly provided information and background analyses of the violent situation. 2) Individuals used social media to create an online public sphere to support the PDRC movement by using their real name and using an alias. Political information on social media that distributed to public played a major role in supporting the rallies and fostering political movement. 3) Key informants had two different opinions on agenda-setting role of social media. Some agreed that social media had the agenda-setting role because the number of likes and shares received of each post and the trend that professional media took issues from social media to communicate to public. Those who disagreed said there were too many media and issues to set any agendas, and only professional journalists can present some issues. Moreover, social media supported the diversity of perspectives in democratic regime, but the filtering system might result in a creation of echo chamber. 4) There is no question about reliability of “Suthep Thaugsuban” Facebook page, which used his real name. While “Top Secret” Facebook page was believed to provide accurate information at a certain level. If it does not provide any reliable information, there will be no popularity and followers.
Findings of this study conformed to the concept of soft technological determinism; there were other factors that might take part in promoting the roles of communication technology. These included individual’s fame on social media and the content’s informational appeal.
To maintain online social media as a quality public sphere, findings indicated the importance of platforms offered by related government agencies to verify whether news is fake or true. Social media technology and mass media in Thailand should also be supported and developed by the government. Mass media should be careful with their choices, ether to present or ignore facts, as well as should operate under their media ethics in order to maintain their reliability.
Educational institution should promote media literacy and ethics in their curriculum. Future research could be implemented in many topics related to online social media including users’ behavior, cultural and social dimensions, roles and functions, recent development of features such as live and filtering system, other platforms such as YouTube and Twitter.
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Thesis (Ph.D. (Communication Arts and Innovation))--National Institute of Development Administration, 2021