Political Information Exposure and Political Participation of Undergraduate Students in Bangkok : A Case Study of the Thai Government under the Administration of General Prayuth Chan-O-Cha

Abstract

The objective of this research was to study exposure to political news of undergraduate students in Bangkok Metropolis during the government of Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-O-Cha, as well as the students’ political participation and the relationship between exposure to political news from the mass media and level of political participation. This was a survey research based on samples of university and college students from both social science and natural science fields. The results showed that female students placed importance on news in political participation. Most students who considered political news important were the third year students, while the fourth year students tended to place little importance on political news. Students whose residence were in the central region placed the most importance on political news and political participation, while students whose residence were in the northeastern or northern regions placed the least importance on political news. This indicates that there is still a representation of the hidden political ideals of the former political power base under the Thaksin system, combined with students’ point of view to reject the government’s authoritarianism. As for mass media news reception behavior, the survey showed that most students got most of their political news from social media channels. Since they habitually used social media every day, the students could access political news easily and quickly through this means. At the same time, TV news was influential in re-affirming and adding to the credibility of political news they saw on social media. TV news could be listened to while doing other activities. Radio news was still influential among this sample population, but newspapers seldom reached them because newspaper stories are content-intensive with many details, and the students would have to make their effort to buy a newspaper, making it less accessible. As for students’ awareness of political policy news, overall the samples had the high level of awareness of the government’s news, especially its policies and activities. The frequency of students’ exposure to news and level of awareness of news affected their level of political participation. News from newspapers and television combined could affect students’ level of political participation.