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Media Education in Thailand: Contexts and Prospects

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Media Education in Asia

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In August 2005 Thailand’s National Statistical Office released a survey announcing nearly three and a half million Thais to be ‘illiterate’. Another fifteen million, it was discovered, had the ability to read but opted not to, for a range of reasons. One of these was a preference for watching television. Of the total who could read, over twenty five percent were found to be ‘non-reading literates’. Possibly, the most revealing aspect of the survey was not its results but the intense public reaction in the following weeks: was Thailand turning into a country of passive couch potatoes; what did this say about our nation’s cultural sensibilities; where was the potential for growth and change? Letters to daily newspapers flooded in, and column inches were filled with commentary, criticism, alarm, speculation and solutions.

A version of this chapter first appeared in ‘Journal of Communication Arts’, Vol 24, No 4, 2006. We thank the editors for permitting publication here.

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  1. School of Communication and the Arts, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

    John Langer & Nuntiya Doungphummes

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  1. John Langer
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  2. Nuntiya Doungphummes
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    Langer, J., Doungphummes, N. (2009). Media Education in Thailand: Contexts and Prospects. In: Cheung, CK. (eds) Media Education in Asia. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9529-0_14

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