With an urgent need to reach thousands of tourists and ex-pats in Thailand in English, who did authorities and the public turn to? It wasn’t the English-language media but a blogger who gives up his time for free to help others.
Richard Barrow has been a great source of information and lightening-fast at breaking stories in English. He has helped countless people and stood up for the rights of foreigners based in Thailand during this difficult time. However, seeing immigration contact him directly to share information with foreigners, and the speed at which he has done so, must feel like a kick in the teeth for English-language media based here. They have often been left to publish stories hours later and their shares and comments pale into insignificance compared to the man who broke the news. Is this a sad indictment of media here, or just a case to highlight the way and sources from which we want to read the news?
Social Media and Bloggers
With people demanding updates and news ASAP, bloggers and social media have come to the forefront of reporting. Many of these people are not journalists but give up their free time to share information, translate or bring up causes/highlight wrongs.
Indeed, many professional media outlets here do have correspondents posting on social media, it’s a necessity for them. Posting official reports a few hours after events isn’t good enough anymore. For niche events or interviews, it’s all well and good, however, for important information, we need to know right away.
What we have seen recently though is criticism of “social media journalists” where some people, paid journalists and others, have basically said the word of social media sharers is worthless and they should leave the reporting to “real journalists”. Like many things on Thai social media, it has put people in two camps and there’s been a lot of petty bitching. Mud has been thrown in both directions and, in the end, nobody really comes out looking that good. There are some great media journalists and great social media accounts putting out news, there are also bad examples in both camps too.
Social media isn’t going to go away, it’s up to news media to react and find the best way to take advantage of it here in Thailand. I would guess they would feel they could have done better over the past few weeks. However, it would be nigh on impossible for anyone to do more than Richard Barrow has, so it maybe isn’t fair to judge media here on that. Indeed, he is a fan of the media here in Thailand and shares countless stories from them. Could it be that their role is changing?
The Role of Media
Whilst it’s easy to lay into the media at times, there have been quite a number of interesting takes and well-researched stories over the past few weeks. I find myself reading these articles, not for the news itself, but more for the background to it. I already know the main facts from social media, these news reports just fill in the gaps and add secondary information.
This probably speaks more to my lifestyle that I check my phone too often and prefer to find out news on social media. It takes me twenty seconds to read a social media post on my phone, I don’t want to read a huge article most times. When I’m home and have some time, I’ll sit down to read news sites though and I enjoy doing so. For me personally, the role of the media has changed, it’s all about being there for the longer reads when I have time, I don’t go to news sites for breaking news anymore.
Another issue is that ever since I’ve been in Thailand some people have said that journalists, and their employers, are often not willing to dig deep into stories. They let their subjects off and either don’t ask pressing questions or are too scared of the consequences of what may happen. Readers are looking for media where tough questions are asked, people are held accountable, and no stone is left unturned. Social media seems to be a more likely place for this right now. If you look at the case of ‘visa amnesty’ it’s easy to see that social media is where that was won, not in the media.
We all know there are laws and restrictions the media face here. I understand why they don’t report on certain topics or feel they can’t ask certain questions. A lot of people in Thailand have recently found their voice on social media, it’s changed in a way that news sites can’t for now.
New Kids On The Block
What I will say is that I do enjoy reading several media sites here in Thailand. They often have interesting articles and the comments sections are usually great for a few “What the hell…” reactions.
Over the past six months or so there have been several new English-language media outlets open. Some claim to be trying to be different from more established sites out there and that’s a good start. Time will tell if they set themselves apart or if they fail to ask the questions and do the investigations that people would love to read about.
What I will say is that many of the employees of these sites are active on social media and are trying to share more. However, this has caused some conflict and I’ve seen posts questioning these new sites and journalists already.
As I said, time will tell what route these new sites, and other more established ones, take up over the coming months and years, I think they deserve a little time to grow before being judged too harshly. However, the pressure is on…
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