Journalism and Communication Transformation in Thailand under the Disruption of Digital Technology in the 21st Century

Abstract

“Journalism and Communication Transformation in Thailand under the Disruption of Digital Technology in the 21st Century” aims to study: 1) The current situation relevant to competency development in Journalism & Communication in Thailand, and 2) The future demands relevant to competency development in Journalism & Communication in Thailand. Mix methods are quantitative research with e-questionnaire among 48 academia and qualitative researches by Focus Group Discussion among 10 stakeholders from all levels. Descriptive statistics and narration were used for data analysis. Findings and discussion are: 1) The current situation relevant to competency development in Journalism & Communication in Thailand found a) most of teachers working as the full-time basis in the public universities followed by the private universities; and b) subjects taught are General Communication, Media theories, Research, and Project-base implementation. 2) The future top demands relevant to competency development in Journalism & Communication in Thailand found: a) the importance task is “get information to the public quickly”; b) the position of journalists is “be transparent about the working process”; c) the un-acceptable professional ethics are; i) “claim to be somebody else”; ii); “use confidential government or personal documents without authorization”; and iii) “publish a story with unverified content”; d) the direction of professional journalism that should be “redefined” in the 21st century is: “more about social responsibility and less about earning money”; e) the qualifications of the journalists in the next Communication labour market for Journalism students within the next 10 years found most in “freelancing; and g) the qualification of the Journalism teachers in the next 10 years is “having knowledge in a specialised field”. The overall findings found aligned with the current demands of this digital disruption era, the functions of journalists, communicators acquiring the qualities of digital multimedia, digital multi-tasks or mastering with digital media capacity such as working with information via modern digital technologies. Thus, journalism and communication education in this digital era must be integrated designed agilely among all sectors in the digital technology ecology: humanism, digital technology and media with its well fit designed by all appropriated educational pedagogies.