บทบาทหนังสือพิมพ์กับการพึ่งพาข่าวสารของชาวบ้านที่ได้รับผลกระทบจากโครงการสร้างเขื่อนปากมูล / ธีระพล อันมัย = The role of the newspapers and dependence of villagers impacted by the Pak Mun dum project / Teerapon Anmai
This research has the following objectives: (1) to study the role of newspapers in the case of the protest of their villagers who are impacted by the Pak Mun dam project; (2) to study the exposure of the villagers to the news and their dependence on the news (3) to evaluate the role of newspapers in this protest. The study is divided into three parts: (1) a content analysis of reports from nine newpapers namely Matichon, Khao Sod, Thai Rath, Daily News, Thai Post, Krungthep Thurakit, Siam rath, Pathummalai, and Ubonrat during a one-year period; (2) a questionnaire-based survey of participants in the protest and in-depth interview with 13 leaders of the protest and persons who are interested in the protest (in order to analyze the villagers' dependence on news and to evaluate the role of newspapers); (3) an in-depth interview with seven journalists analyze related factors that may influence the selection of news about the protest. The research has the followings: 1) based on the content analysis of the sampled newspapers, there are 61 items of news about the Pak Mun dam protest. Of these, 31 are in news report form, there is not presentation in the form of editorial or special interview. Special emphasis is placed on incidents about conflicts and opposition to the building of the dam. Most of news items are negative in nature particularly towards the government and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). Major points of newsworthiness lie in the conflict and the impact. 2) The studied protesters tend to be exposed to rely on news from general newspapers and television more than other forms of media. Leaders of the protest are the most important human medium that the villagers rely upon for information. Meanwhile, villagers are least exposed to and dependent on local newspapers and local leaders for information. 3) Judging from their evaluation of general newspapers, protesters have a mediocre feeling towards newspapers (average value of 2.77) but there have a negative evaluation towards local newspapers. Individually, Khao Sod is the only newspaper that was positively evaluated (average value of 3.72) while Matichon and Thai Post were evaluated with mediocre feelings. Krungthep Thurakij, Siam Rath, Thai Rath, and Daily News are negatively evaluated with a statistical significance. 4) Interested persons in the protest and protest leaders analyzed that newspapers do not give much importance to the protest. Some also felt that some newspaper reports gave distorted information or failed to report the truth. This is attributed to the journalists' limitations in the following areas: standpoint, ethic towards socially disadvantaged people, ability in evaluating newsworthiness, and ability in event interpretation. Other factors which may impede journalists from fulfilling their role include influence, vested interests, economic problems and protesting strategies. This corresponds with the attitudes of journalists who view this protest as not very newsworthy. They tend to regard the event as ordinary and routine. Some journalists also lack profound understanding about the problem that give rise the protest.
