The role of internet and other media in Thailand’s strife

We’re drawing mainly from an article by Evgeny Morozov, probably the world’s best expert on political usage of the internet, now writing for Foreign Policy’s Net Effect.

We’re quoting by media type.

1. YouTube videos

Evgeny writes: Ethan Zuckerman’s post about the infamous video in which Thaksin supposedly acknowledges that he’s been paying his supporters; the video triggered a lot of heated discussions on YouTube and in the blogosphere.”

2. Twitter

Evgeny reports that the Yellow shirts were more heavy users of Twitter, which is not surprising given the middle class nature of the movement, as compared to the worker and farmer background of most of the red shirt supporters:

“the “yellow shirts” were “out-twittering” the “red shirts” and how many inside traditional media – who wanted to get these commentators on air – were unaware of the strong political bias of what they took to be “citizen journalists” without a political agenda of their own:

While the “redshirts” were protesting on the streets, the “yellowshirts” dominated the Twitter accounts – and so influenced media organisations everywhere with their pointed view of the conflict. At least one British TV newsroom spent considerable hours trying to organise live reports from these political activitists without knowing their political agenda. One Tweeter @andrewspooner made a point of revealing the yellowshirts at regular intervals.

More info on the Twitter issue in this post.

3. TV

“the redshirts did use one centralized technology that may have been crucial in helping them gain popular support: teleconferencing. There’s an interesting article in the Asia Times today that examines the role that Internet broadcasts of Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra played in the events.”

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