Thais 'need to tap into new, social media'
Good governance advocates yesterday urged the government to adopt new media, or social media, to boost the public's access to information because "to learn about a piece of information late is equal to not knowing it at all." The comment was made at
The Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) has already started making adjustments by having both a website and Facebook page to “change society with knowledge”.
While the public has the opportunity for access to content on new media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs), a post’s power and influence still depends on the size of its audience, Foundation for Community Education director Chiranuch Premchaiporn said.
Chiranuch cited US President Barack Obama’s policy that promotes state agencies to use new media in providing information, gathering opinions and promoting public participation – because 80 per cent of American citizens now access social media.
In Thailand, 18 million of the 66 million population use social media, mostly for personal purposes. The quality of social-media use isn’t as high as in other developed countries, Chiranuch said. Saying that most new media users were in big cities, not grassroots people, she warned that people shouldn’t presume opinions shown on Facebook represented the majority.
National Broadcasting and Telecomm-unications Commission member Supinya Klangnarong said access to the new media had become a basic right and the government should provide better Internet connections and use new media to reveal information such as budgets.
She said many matters had an impact on the public, but they often learned about them too late; so she tried to promote “open data”. Supinya said the government, besides being more open, should also simplify information given to the public so they can understand it better.
Though the commission has no control over new-media content, Supinya said there were laws governing it, such as the Computer Crimes Act, while Facebook and Twitter could weed out inappropriate content.
TDRI official Weerapong Prapa said the institute published research online and had set up a team to study research data and gather feedback in a bid to check public policies such as the rice-pledging scheme and the Bt2.2-trillion infrastructure plan.
Affirming the TDRI wanted to “change society with knowledge”, he said they focused on providing “info graphics” on Facebook and interviews with researchers on YouTube.
Isara News Agency editor Sanoh Suk-charoen said his office used websites and new media – but maintained the journalistic ethics code like mainstream media. He urged the government to adopt “good governance” principles and use social media to reveal information.
