Mass communications faculties must address issues of ethics, responsibility in the Facebook age
New media has made a huge impact on mainstream news outlets as well as on people with different perspectives across the country. Members of the media are making adjustments and starting to use social networking websites to disseminate news and get immediate feedback. It is also about time that mass communications faculties braced themselves for the challenges presented by the popularity of the new media in Thailand.
Responsible reporting via the new media, especially during political conflicts, is something lecturers need to address in a bid to produce media professionals in the digital age.
Social media has become very popular over the past few years. More and more people are joining social networks, and the outpouring of thoughts and emotions during the redshirt riots earlier this month proved its popularity. Users trying to keep everyone updated about the situation overwhelmed websites like Facebook and Twitter.
Even reporters used social networks to uptodate news and share their personal opinions. However, spreading unconfirmed news and sometimes rumours so quickly only left people confused. Many users made their opinions known aggressively, thus worsening conflicts among people with opposite viewpoints. Yet, some social media users had a good effect, such as getting volunteers together for rebuilding activities.
The Nation spoke to lecturers from three universities about how they were teaching their students to use this new media outlet responsibly.
Yuttana Wongveerayotin, dean of the Communication Arts Department of Chandrakasem Rajabhat University, said many students and even lecturers had jumped on the socialmedia bandwagon. "We can no longer ignore it, and lecturers cannot just teach from old textbooks."
He said the department was adjusting its curriculum for the next academic year.
"Media has changed and has had a big impact. Technology is developing continuously, and soon 3G technology will be a new tool. Similarly, media will change in the next five to 10 years. Therefore we decided to adjust the curriculum so as to produce students who are ready for this change. We will be teaching them about immediate reporting through the use of new media. We're also discussing whether we should include covering conflicts and crises in the curriculum," Yuttana said.
He added that his department was trying to encourage students to seek indepth information, be analytical and seek resolutions to problems before filing reports. People have direct access to information, like exPM Thaksin Shinawatra's Twitter postings. Therefore, there is not much point in reporting things that have already been disseminated by other sources.
"Some lecturers have set up a social network with their students, and they share their knowledge and assign homework through these sites," Yuttana added.
Assoc Prof Wirat Phongsiri, dean of Faculty of Infomatics of Mahasarakham University, said social media was popular among students and lecturers at his institute as well.
"Our lecturers focus on discussing on bad effects from social media with students in classes, especially what has caused the conflicts. The lecturers act as role model for their students of how to use social media properly. We also make students in public relations field see social media as an effective and fast tool to promote advertisements to direct groups of customers," said Wirat.
Pirongrong Ramasoota Rananand, head of Chulalongkorn University's Department of Journalism and Information Technology at Faculty of Communication Arts said lecturers at the faculty raised case studies about problems caused by social media in real life to discuss with students and arouse them to think and find resolutions.
"To prevent improper use of the new media to attack others with opposite opinions, we need to instil moral instinct in people. Also, we should encourage them to block improper messages or photos posted on their facebook," she said.
Yuttana and Wirat agreed that teaching students to produce indepth contents and follow professional ethics strictly could encourage proper and responsible use of the new media and mass media among students.
"Many universities haven't pay enough attention to professional ethics. If case studies in real life (about professional ethics problems) are not presented to students and they are not encourage to think, they won't be able to solve problems about the ethics when they face at work," said Yuttana. "We keep teaching them to recognise value of news. One with sensitive matters need to be reported with accuracy. There are a lot of unverified news or rumours posted on the internet, mainstream media need to find facts holistically."
Wirat said he focused on teaching students moral instinct along with professional ethics. "They are taught to think reasonably and point out right or wrong things from trustworthy reasons."