Want to know what’s happening in Thailand? Ask the country’s new digital voices
In Thailand, new digital media are by-passing traditional timidity and government pressure to use the power of mobile and social media to report #whatshappeninginThailand, as Christopher Warren and Jacqui Park write.
The nearly year-long Thai protests for political reform has become inseparable from the social media forces that power it — from the meme revolt of yellow rubber ducks and the three-finger Hunger Games salute, to the remaking of Thai media, with new media voices reporting #whatshappeinginThailand powered by the mobile web, video and social distribution.
These voices became the target for government crackdown under the emergency decree announced by the government of Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha in mid October. The authorities moved quickly to use the decree to ban three Thai-language digital media — two of them largely built on Facebook ( The Reporters and The Standard) and Prachatai. They have also banned Voice TV from both terrestrial broadcasting and digital streaming.
It’s an attempt to deprive the protests of oxygen by banning images, including live streaming of protests and selfies of protestors.
This past week, the government has ratcheted up the crackdown with 14 protest leaders called to answer charges under Thailand’s lese-majeste law — the first time the law has been used since 2018. The protest by meme and cosplay has been an attempt to bypass both the law and the emergency decree in support of three demands: the resignation of the Prime Minister, reform of the monarchy and new elections.
Traditional media leave a gap
The new digital players are filling the gap left by traditional Thai media. Founder of thisrupt, Voronai Vanijaka, says: “The mainstream media operates in the typical way mainstream media operates.
“I call it neutered media. Because they rely on corporate advertising which is tied to politicians, there is a lot of self-censorship — both in Thai language and English media. They will kowtow to whoever is in charge for financial reasons, for survival,” says Voranai.
“The media is sensitive with fear of losing audience, fear of losing advertising money or fear of being told not to mention it by the owners who are part of the elites and very sensitive about this issue. So that’s why they self-censor.”
Now, traditional media is hemorrhaging money, says Pravit Rojanaphruk from Khaosod English. In its place, journalism on social media is crashing past the gatekeepers of old media. “As with any reality TV,” Voranai wrote recently, “Facebook Live coverage has turned journalists into stars.”
Even the famously independent The Nation was recently bought out by a group of businessmen who closed the English-language print paper, leaving only the Bangkok Post reporting and analysing in English.
New voices fill the digital space
On-line and mobile, English-language media are building a reporting space that talks particularly to the younger, educated audience who have benefitted from two decades of embedded English-language teaching in the Thai education system. It also reflects a different journalistic style, with Thai practice to lead the reader through to key points lower in the story, while English practice is to open with the main take-away.
The prominent new media digital voices in English include Khaosod English, thisrupt, Thai Enquirer and Pratchatai as well as the regional digital voice in the north-east, The Isaan Record.
Despite the crackdown, Thai language digital news are also growing rapidly. Probably the most successful, says Pravit, is The Standard, part of a multi-media news agency launched in 2017. It’s digital offering employs about 20 journalists.
It’s more than news, as Pravit recently told the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand: “On social media, Facebook group The Royalist Market Place has nearly 2 million members discussing all things critical and negative about the monarchy, some factual, others more like rumours or baseless allegations. They have created an alternative virtual world where royalists are not welcomed.”
On Twitter, he points out, exiled historian and monarchy critic Somsak Jeamteerasakul (@somsakjeam) has over 738,000 Twitter followers while former Reuters correspondent, Andrew MacGregor Marshall (@zenjournalist) has about 261,000.
While the English-language news sites have a clear sense of their journalistic vision, and all are grappling with the challenges and opportunities of the current moment, all are searching for a business model that will outlast the current crisis. They employ between five and ten journalists, each with a different positioning in the growing market.
Khaosod English is the English-language digital arm of the for-profit Matichon group which publishes the leading Thai-language quality broadsheet (Matichon) and Khaosod (“live news”) a Thai-language tabloid style newspaper (in both print and digital). The English-language web-site was launched in 2013 as a step into the market for that language. It is advertising funded, and relies on the broader company for support.
The Thai Enquirer has launched in the past year focusing on politics and culture. It is supported through initial investment and some advertising.
The oldest of the new media is Pratchathai, launched in both Thai and English in 2004 out of the NGO community. It continues to draw support from grants and philanthropy and through some crowdfunding from its base.
Making sense of Thailand: The thisrupt.co case
Thisrupt.co is an emerging voice being boot-strapped by Voranai, a journalist, columnist and journalism lecturer at Thammasat University. Launched in March 2020, it’s been prepared to continually pivot to work out what it needs to be both sustainable and independent.
Voranai says he has a clear sense of what journalism can work: It’s not focussed on news updates. (“You can get updates through social media. They do a better job.”)
“What we bring is analysis,” he says. “We get a lot of engagement and comment because we are part of the conversation. What you have to offer has to be unique and cultivate brand loyalty.”
Thisrupt is focusing on being the place for the “honest conversation”, and Voranai says “you can’t have an honest conversation without talking about the monarchy”. Running under the #CheckThePower banner, the multimedia content platform’s aim is to “inspire people to stand up and speak out for rights, liberty and equality”.
That conversation happens in social media, he says. “We are social media animals. The website is where all the material is, but you push it out through Facebook and Twitter. The comment, the discussion, the share, that is all happening on Facebook. In Thailand, we cannot do media without Facebook.
“What I have found is that you cannot rely on articles to expand your base and monetise. You can if you’re the NYT. You can if you’re a well-established brand.” But he says: “You are competing for the attention of a generation who have a short attention span to begin with. You can’t use articles as a flagship product for people who have the habit of reading only eight lines.”
But understanding the mission of the journalism and the opportunity of social media distribution and engagement leaves thisrupt with the challenge: how to monetise the model?
Before launch, Voranai explored investment funding: “The challenge was to find financing. I had some interesting partners but I said no to all of them.The media, especially in the English language, is not a gold-mine so anyone interested has political ties. That is the reason I said no.”
Instead, he’s invested his own resources (so far “seven figures” in THB): “I figured ‘get the product out’, to get recognition, then we could have the conversation about how to monetise it.”
Advertising is hard on social, he says, because it depends on building an audience and English-language journalism in Thailand is, by definition, a niche product. YouTube, for example, is flooded with content.
Now, Voranai is thinking: “Everyone has articles. Everyone can read this and that. What is the one thing that no-one else has? Because we live in the digital world, there are many technologies at our disposal. Anyone can have their own media channel. If you have an iphone you can do these things.”
As a result, thisrupt is looking at options in digital television, using YouTube for distribution. This could build on their current offerings to include daily news analysis and in depth interviews.
Independence is key, he says. “I am still concerned about the advertising model. Early next year, we will be doing a crowd-funding campaign to launch new products. Moving ahead, we will use the contribution model. Perhaps in the future, if we are able to come up with new products, then we can use the membership model.
“The reason people will contribute is because on this platform you can get independent journalism, which means an honest conversation. You are not paying for a wonderful video. You are paying for honesty. The way we can continue to do this.”
The vibrancy of digital
In Thailand, digital news is a vibrant scene. There’s plenty of scope for new players to carve out a niche. As Thai politics transitions through the current crisis, the media, too, is adapting and changing, building an on-line news ecosystem for a new Thailand. The challenge is to find a revenue model that can support the new digital news players. While this has so far proven elusive new experiments will test the audience’s willingness to pay.
Christopher Warren is a journalist who writes on media and technology for Crikey.
Jacqui Park is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Media Transition at the University of Technology, Sydney and advises the International Press Institute on membership and strategy.
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