Roles of Local Media for Democracy Quality in Kamphaeng Phet

Abstract

The research purposes were 1) to study the quality of democracy in Kamphaeng Phet  from the roles of the local mass media, 2) to study the roles of the local mass media towards democracy in Kamphaeng Phet, 3) to suggest the local mass media to develop democracy quality in Kamphaeng Phet.  The research was the mix-methods study: the 1^st method was the quantitative research and the 2^nd was qualitative research. The variables that were studied; (Y) = quality of democracy in Kamphaeng Phet, (X1) = knowledge in democracy, (X2)=role in democracy, (X3) = attitude toward democracy, (X4) = work experience, (X5) = status, (X6) = education level, and (X7) = age. The qualitative research was conducted by interviewing 20 experts.  The data were analyzed by Analytic Induction. The quantitative was conducted in the form of questionnaire by asking 194 samples. The data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, and Multiple Regression Analysis. The research findings were as follows:   1. The democratic quality in Kamphaeng Phet province, as a whole was at a high level. When considering each aspect, it was found that the mass media performed their work without racism and religious belief, followed by the mass media and people were as brothers, the mass media and people understood the role of others respectively.  2. The role of mass media towards the democratic quality depended upon the democratic attitude at the significance of .01. The democratic attitude and working experiences involved the quality of democracy in Kamphaeng Phet province at 82.47 percent.  The followings were the equations used in predicting the quality of democracy in  Kamphaeng Phet  from the roles of the local mass media. Regression equation   Y = 2.662 + 0.291X3 + 0.050X4 Regression equation in standardized   Zy = 0.239X3 + 0.105X4  3. The suggestions for local mass media to develop democracy quality in Kamphaeng Phet  were as follows: 1) the local mass media should be aware about the ethics, 2) the local mass media should  think about the accuracy and the rightness for people in receiving the information or democracy news, and 3) people should be careful in receiving the news , they have to check the credibility of news.