EXPLORING THE USE OF DATA-DRIVEN JOURNALISM IN THAI MASS MEDIA

Abstract

Technology and mobile devices allow many news consumers become news senders?prosumer (i.e. being both consumers and producers of news and information at the same time). Anyone could be a reporter. Also, there are tons of news and information flow around us every day. The differences between media reporting stories and information running around social media are the quality of news and information. If the media do only report ?who what when where why how,? they did not accomplish their task as a journalist. Data-driven journalism becomes significant in news reporting process. It needs not merely Big Data, but also analysis process and presentation. This paper intends to explore the use of data journalism among the mass media in Thailand. Whereas social media become more and more popular and drawing attention among Thai news consumers, the professional media need to differentiate their news reporting to focus on in-depth or investigative reporting. How the professional media apply data-driven journalism; to what extend did they use data for reporting a story; and what are the obstacles affecting their application of data journalism. Factors affecting the use of data-driven journalism included: data sources (incomplete, unstructured, and difficult to access), data compiling, time consuming and limitation of technology for data analysis and presentation.