“It is undeniable that the sales and circulation of newspapers are plummeting and there is also softness in advertising spending via traditional media because of the birth of new media and changes in the behaviour of media consumers in the last couple of years,” Thepchai Yong, president of the Confederation of Thai Journalists, said on Wednesday.
“This has had a massive impact on media businesses like we have never encountered before. Therefore, it is the right time to review and change our role,” said Thepchai, who also editor-in-chief of Nation Multimedia Group.
The seminar on how to survive in the digital age or “Media 4.0” was co-organised by the Foundation of Professor Bumrongsook Siha-Umphai on Communication Arts in collaboration with the faculty of communication arts of Chulalongkorn University and Nitade Chula Alumni. Since the arrival of online media, the role of mainstream media has diminished in importance both to individual audiences and society in general because online users are able to be serve as news reporters or content generators.
Kanokporn Prachayaset, the head of media solutions at Sanook Online, said that apart from mainstream media, online portal sites were also challenged by user-generated content, particularly content producers who were eager to get high traffic from viewers for commercial benefits without any responsibility to society.
“Being a good medium is always a tough job. So we need content verification in place,” Kanokporn stressed.
Media scholar Chumpol Rodkhamdee, who is chairman of the policy committee at Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS), said social-media networks granted freedom of speech and expression to all users but, unlike professional traditional media, had no self-regulation.
Therefore, mainstream media should educate and enlighten consumers about how to verify content properly before sharing it with others. In the meantime, professional media should jointly promote the prevention of plagiarism, Chumpol urged.
“Mainstream media will cease to exist if it cannot maintain accountability, responsibility and trust,” he said. PM’s Office Minister ML Panadda Diskul suggested that Thai media should maintain their role as a key compass for society to bring back common happiness, understanding and unity.