PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION OF 4 PROTOTYPE COMMUNITIES OF ‘MEDIA AS SOCIAL SCHOOL’ PROJECT

Abstract

A study of participatory communication of 4 prototype communities under the ‘Media as Social School (MASS)’ Project deployed the participatory action research. It aimed to investigate participatory community communication strategies of 4 communities. Key research informants were three persons including the Art and Culture Plan manager as the mobilizer of the policy and the selector of the prototype communities, the resource person of the Project, and the person in charge of Facebook media of ‘Media as Social School (MASS)’ Project, 4 persons in charge of local areas of the Project, and the following people and youths in the local communities participating in the Project: 101 people and youths from Kong Krailat community, Sukhothai province; 1,300 people and youths from Ban Tin Tok community, Kanchanaburi province; 150 people and youths from Tha Phra community, Khon Kaen province; and 180 people and youths from Ban Thung Yee Pheng community and Ban Langka U community, Krabi province. The data collection process consisted of five steps: Interviewing of community leaders and community members in the aspects of message sending, contents, media, and message receiving; a survey of the community context; a workshop training for strategic planning on communication; the observation of the operation in accordance with the strategic plan; and the meetings for studying of the lessons learned during the B.E. 2559-2562 years.

The findings of this study revealed that the communities carried out the communication strategies in the aspects of Sender (S), Message (M), Channel (C), Receiver (R), and Effect (E)  as follows: For the communication strategy in the aspect of Sender (S), it was found that the senders consisted of the formal and informal groups each of which consisted of both inside and outside community people. The important sender strategy was the giving of importance to personal media who had the ability, skills, inspiration, and could be the prototype for the others. The personal media had to be trustworthy, accessible, and had special characteristic of being familiar with the message receivers. For the communication strategy in the aspect of message (M), it was found that there was the participatory communication message. Community members were involved in all processes of message strategy, starting from surveying the community problems, selecting the issues that they wanted to communicate, and participating in joint-designing and production of the message contents. This would result in the message being relevant to the needs of the community, with flexibility, adjustability, and reflexive of the community identity. For the communication strategy in the aspect of Facebook Channel (C), it was found that real time contents were used in circulating messages on Facebook ‘MASS’ to capture public attention and encourage the sharing of messages. As for the strategy of using the media and communication channels of the community, it was found that there were the uses of diversified channels with the meetings or public forum being the most used method because it enabled the community members to get together. For the communication strategy in the aspect of Receiver (R), it was found that the receiver strategy took into account the three components of the receiver, namely, the communication skills of the receiver, the attitudes towards oneself, towards the sender, and toward the message contents, and the knowledge level of the receiver. There was also the enhancement of the potential of the receivers via the activities. For the communication strategy in the aspect of Effect (E), it was found that all 4 designated communities participated in the Project at all 3 levels as the receiver, as the sender and as the planner. The communication innovation resulted from the ‘Media as Social School’ Project in the prototype areas of all four regions were the paradigm shift technique and the communication with the 5C’s principles of communication: Create, Curate, Contribute, Cross Community, and Consistent.