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Community-based Media in Promoting Identity and Culture: A Case Study in Eastern Thailand


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1 Griffith University, Australia
     

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This paper analyses the role of community-based media in information distribution in the Riverside community, a cultural tourism destination in Chanthaburi, Eastern Thailand. It has started to produce its own media, and to use social networks to promote itself to the nation. Exploring the role of community media produced by locals will reinforce the idea that community media have provided much more effective communication channels for local people in a community environment. By using ethnographic action research as a methodology, this research gains strength through a rich understanding of the community by following an ongoing research cycle of planning, doing, observing and reflecting. Moreover, this study reflects the idea of 'hyperlocal' media. With approximately one hundred households on which to focus, it is much easier for 'hyperlocal' to reach local people by providing local news, covering local politics and engaging people in the affairs relevant to their area.

Keywords

Community-based Media, Hyperlocal, Thailand, the Public Sphere
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  • Community-based Media in Promoting Identity and Culture: A Case Study in Eastern Thailand

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Authors

Pisapat Youkongpun
Griffith University, Australia

Abstract


This paper analyses the role of community-based media in information distribution in the Riverside community, a cultural tourism destination in Chanthaburi, Eastern Thailand. It has started to produce its own media, and to use social networks to promote itself to the nation. Exploring the role of community media produced by locals will reinforce the idea that community media have provided much more effective communication channels for local people in a community environment. By using ethnographic action research as a methodology, this research gains strength through a rich understanding of the community by following an ongoing research cycle of planning, doing, observing and reflecting. Moreover, this study reflects the idea of 'hyperlocal' media. With approximately one hundred households on which to focus, it is much easier for 'hyperlocal' to reach local people by providing local news, covering local politics and engaging people in the affairs relevant to their area.

Keywords


Community-based Media, Hyperlocal, Thailand, the Public Sphere

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.15655/mw%2F2015%2Fv6i1%2F55389