The experts shared their views on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the National Press Council of Thailand, which oversees codes of conduct among the print media.

Minister of Science and Technology Pichet Durongkaveroj called on the media to ensure the accuracy of reported content in the new competitive digital era.

The minister said social media had expanded the media landscape and pressured outlets to report content as rapidly as possible through online platforms such as Facebook.

The danger is that this information could be inaccurate, he said.

“Although technology plays an essential role in this era, content is the key,” he said, stressing that technology is just a tool to disseminate the content, although a tool that cannot be neglected.

The media should place high priority on quality content, which affects society, the economy and even individuals, he said.

But to keep up with the trends and use technology maturely and responsibly, the media should study the nature of social media and how it affects their profession, he added.

Chawarong Limpatthamapani, president of the National Press Council of Thailand, said social media had changed readers’ behaviour in obtaining information. Today they consume news more through social media than via conventional TV, newspapers or news websites.

With new technology, ordinary individuals can generate content and become “citizen journalists” or “individual journalists”, he said.

Morality and codes of conduct have become a major concern when dealing with such a changing media landscape, he said.

Pirongrong Ramasoota, head of Chulalongkorn University’s Journalism Department, said more people are being informed by citizen journalists, citing the popular Facebook page “E-Jeab Leoab Duan”. It aggregates links to news websites, garnering up to 1 million followers for some stories.

However, the differences between individual and professional journalists are morality and accuracy, she said.

“I do not mean that professional journalists have higher morality or are superior to individual journalists. But those who call themselves professional should more seriously place a high priority on their codes of conduct and accuracy to maintain reliability,” she said.

Kanokporn Prasitphon, chair of the Online News Provider Association, said content providers should also study target groups’ tastes in news consumption.

“No matter how good content is, it is useless if no one reads it,” she said.

Kanokporn also expressed concern about the “ignorance” of news consumers who do not recognise the accuracy of news sources. This could lead to the further spread of false information and misunderstandings in society, she said.

To deal with this problem, Kanokporn said education was key because it would help people to be more aware of false news and make better news judgements.