Talk:Media of Thailand

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This page is a work in progress. I will add more information later. - Tettyan

Contents

[edit] Conservative vs. Progressive newspapers

Could somebody please explain what "conservative" and "progressive" mean in the context of Thai newspaper editorial line? It seems that there is one conservative paper (Thai Rath). All other newspapers are listed as moderate to progressive. I'm not sure Thailand's political/social/economic environment can be easily reduced to a 1-dimensional spectrum, with progressive and conservative on 2 sides. Could the person who came up with these labels explain their rationale? Patiwat 22:01, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

I'll take responsibility for that. I was originally skittish about trying to catagorize the political leanings of Thai newspapers, since it is very difficult to impose western labels such as "left" or "right" in the Thai political context. However, I believe it is pretty clear that there's a distinction between what I call the "mainstream" dailies, Thai Rath and Daily News (which account for 1/2 of Thailand's newspaper sales between them), which predate the democracy movement of the 1970s, and the "progressive" (?) papers that grew out of the 1970s student movements, such as Matichon and The Nation.
Because Thai Rath and Daily News were established while the country was still under military rule, by necessity, they had to cultivate good relationships with the army and bureaucracy. As a result, this has led them to have an editorial outlook that, while maybe not "conservative" per se, tends to lean in favor of the status-quo (with a few exceptions of course). On the other hand, newspapers like The Nation, Matichon, and Thai Post, as a result of their roots in the anti-military & pro-democracy movements of the 70s, tend to have an anti-establisment (this is perhaps what I meeant by "progressive") outlook to varying degrees. My opinions are by no means authoratative, but if I had to list Thai papers in order of "pro-status-quo" to "anti-establishment" (in a similar manner that the Japanese media article does), I would say: Thai Rath, Daily News, Matichon, The Nation, Naew Na, Thai Post. Even some publications don't fit neatly into this spectrum, such as The Manager, which takes whichever position it's owner happens to beleive at the time (pro-government 12 months ago, fervently anti-gov't now). An opinion writer for The Nation offers his own catagorization (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/specials/Bangkokians/dec01.php). Again, this isn't authoratative, but worth looking at as we think about how to improve this section.
Overall, I think it's important to make these distinctions (staus-quo vs anti-establshment?) for the benefit of the reader. I havn't looked at this entry in quite a while, and looking over it now, I have some regrets. I'd be open to any ideas about how we can improve on this section. Regards, Tettyan 09:44, 16 March 2006 (UTC)
Sounds reasonable. However, I wish that the article could communicate that "progressive" and "conservative" mean in the Thai political context. The short explanation you wrote above works, but needs some editing. My chief concern is that "progressive" and "conservative" are loaded words anywhere you go, and furthermore, their meaning is often very specific to a particular political environment. While both progressive, Salon.com is very very different from Thai Post; while conservative, Sankei Shinbun is very different from Thai Rath. Patiwat 15:27, 16 March 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the input. When I get around to it, I will incorporate the contents of my earlier note into the article. Regards, Tettyan 02:33, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sources for newspaper circulation

Please note sources for newspaper circulation figures. Patiwat 02:08, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mass-circulation vs. Quality dailies

I don't see any verifiable objective source for the article's delineation between mass-circulation dailies and quality dailies. The border is isn't that clear - Matichon ("quality") has the same circulation as Khao Sod ("mass circulation"). To my understanding, all of these newspapers are distributed nation-wide. I could personally say that any newspaper that has pictures of car accidents and girls in bikinis on the front page isn't "quality", but that's just a bit too subjective for Wikipedia. Besides, Thai Rath, which often has Malai Thai Rath cover girls, often has scathing high-quality political reporting and commentary. Either back up the delineation with a source, or merge the two lists. Patiwat 01:49, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Good points. What does "quality" mean anyway? Wisekwai 03:33, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
It's not about where the papers are distributed. I guess these classifications would be more familiar to Europeans than Americans. In the UK for instance, The Telegraph and The Times are commonly considered "quality" dailies, The Mail and The Express are considered "mid-market", and The Sun and The Mirror are "mass-circulation" (or "tabloids", but you really can't say that anymore now that the Indy and Times have switched to tabloid format). Anyways, classification is based on information from Duncan McCargo's book, Politics and the Press in Thailand. In the case of Matichon, it's pretty easy, it calls itself a "quality daily" to distinguish itself from the likes of Thai Rath. In it's promotional material, the Nation Multimedia Group calls Kom Chad Luek a "mass-circulation" paper, aimed at competing with Thai Rath, Daily News & Khao Sod. As for Naew Na and Thai Post, McCargo notes that like Matichon, these papers focus more on political news and less on the downmarket audience. This classification isn't 100% foolproof, but there is a big difference between Matichon and Khao Sod (otherwise, the same company wouldn't find it necessary to publish both papers!), so it's worth making this distinction for the reader. Regards, Tettyan 15:37, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Then McCargo's work should be cited, and also his criteria for the delineation should also be noted. I definitely consider McCargo to be authoritative and provocative enough to be used as wikipedia reference material. Patiwat 16:27, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Great question Patiwat and a great answer Tettyan. A paragraph to explain quality dailies and mass circulation dailies would definitely help. Wisekwai 18:02, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Phoojadkarn Daily

Phoojadkarn Daily is how ThaiDay states the name of it's sister Thai-language daily. Wisekwai 17:33, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

I've edited the name of the newspaper in the article. However, there isn't a single transliteration in common use. I've seen everything from Phoojadkarn, Phujatkarn, Phoojatkarn, Phoochatkan, Manager, etc. used. In the short article (still a stub) for that newspaper, I've called it Manager Daily and have several redirects to it. Patiwat 20:11, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
It can be frustrating. I think for English-language Wikipedia, the English title is often the best solution. With redirects, people searching for the information, will find what they're looking for. I appreciate your contributions. Wisekwai 21:07, 29 July 2006 (UTC)