Media professionals and academics have urged journalists to study harder and try to understand better the conflicts and situations they cover.
At the same time, they said media organisations should provide better security for journalists in dangerous situations.
They were speaking in a forum entitled "Thai Media in Times of Conflict: A Reflection One Month after Thailand's Political Turmoil."
The forum was organised yesterday to foster a better understanding of the role of media in times of crisis and conflict situations.
Organisers included the Southeast Asian Press Alliance, the Thai Journalists Association (TJA), the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association, the Press Council of Thailand and Chulalongkorn University's Thai Media Policy Centre.
Kavi Chongkittavorn, senior group editor at The Nation and a former TJA chairman, said journalists were being challenged today by the new media, which forced them to compete on both speed and the freshness of information they sent out.
However, despite such pressure they should not forget to fact check and keep their stories accurate.
Journalists, including editors, should keep themselves up to date on laws and history, so they can see the big picture of events around them.
"Perspective for news is very important. It will improve the quality of the news. When the quality of the news is better, people will say journalists' ethics are better, too," Kavi said.
"Report well and understand thoroughly what is happening, understand the nature of conflict, enough to create peace," was his advice to journalists.
"I made a big mistake when I reported from Cambodia 20 years ago. I focused on day-to-day conflict - who won, who lost. I still remember I counted the number of grenades fired for the daily news. Focusing on day-to-day conflict often means overlooking the big picture, and forgetting to recap the essential points results in an incomplete story," Kavi said.
Managing editor of Matichon newspaper Narit Sektheera, Bangkok Post reporter Manop Thiposod, TV Thai reporter Chart Pattanakulkarnkit and Malaysian-based Al Jazeera correspondent Wayne Hay also shared experiences covering Thailand's recent political turmoil. All agreed safety for journalists was a big issue that required attention.
Narit said that like never before, journalists - including photographers - and medical staff were targets of attack this time.
Manop said media organisations should provide better-quality safety gear for journalists and coordinate more with them.
Chart said he was harassed by protesters dissatisfied with his organisation and accused him of biased reporting. He asked them to first listen to what he was reporting, and they would see his reporting was not one-sided.
Wayne said journalists should scrutinise the background to events and try to understand what was happening and why. However, in the latest riot mayhem, his team was assigned to describe objectively what they saw, and the analysis could come later.
Kavi said Thai journalists' safety in their work was improving but that it must be improved to the highest standard.
“Don’t get too explicit as it can provoke more violence,” he said.
Executive member of Thai Netizen Network Supinya Klangnarong said new media was making people feel more personalised and more empowered so they could participate and play a role in society. At the same time, their activist movements could be tracked down by authorities or agencies more easily.