Research Results
8. The analysis of a correlation results between social media and political movement in Thailand
8. The analysis of a correlation results between social media and political movement in Thailand.
In this stage, Pearson Chi–square Test is applied to examine a relationship between social media and Thai political movements. The result is as follows:
The analysis of the relationship between social media and Thai political movement.
Table 58: The correlation between social media types and roles in political movements
Social Media Roles in political movements
Strongly
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Social Media Roles in political movements
Strongly disagree
Disagree Moderately disagree
Undecided Moderately agree
Agree Strongly agree
Total
Window Live Amount 0 11 5 1 8 1 1 27
Within group .0% 10.0% 4.1% .3% 2.0% .3% .8% 1.9%
Total .0% .8% .3% .1% .5% .1% .1% 1.9%
Multiple Amount 2 7 5 26 26 22 4 92
Within group 5.6% 6.4% 4.1% 7.3% 6.5% 7.0% 3.3% 6.3%
Total .1% .5% .3% 1.8% 1.8% 1.5% .3% 6.3%
Total Amount 36 110 121 355 398 316 123 1459
Within group 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Total 2.5% 7.5% 8.3% 24.3% 27.3% 21.7% 8.4% 100.0%
2 = 202.026ap = .000 < .05
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Table 59: The correlation between social media types and the mainstream tools in organizing political movements
Social Media The mainstream tools in organizing political movements
Strongly
Agree Strongly agree Total
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Table 60: The correlation between social media types and new communication channels
Social Media New communication channels
Strongly
Agree Strongly agree Total
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Table 61: The correlation between social media types and tools in mobilizing people
Social Media Tools in mobilizing people
Strongly
Agree Strongly agree Total
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Table 62: The correlation between social media types and effective tools for political movement
Social Media Effective tools for political movement
Strongly
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Table 63: The correlation between social media types and leading tools for further political movement
Social Media Leading tools for further political movement
Strongly
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Table 64: The correlation between social media types and Thai people’s involvement in political movement
Social Media Thai people are always involved in political movement
Strongly
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Table 65: The correlation between social media types and the tendency of social media to replace the traditional media
Social Media Social media are likely to replace the traditional ones
Strongly
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Table 66: The correlation between social media types and the influence of social media on Thai people in participating political movement
Social Media Social media encourage Thai people to participate political movement Strongly
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According to Table 58-66, Facebook has a significant strong relationship with political movement. It shows that 80.0 percent of respondents agreed that Facebook is the most important role in political movements rather than another social media platform, and 80.0 percent of respondents agreed that Facebook is the mainstream tool in organizing political movements.
Moreover, 80.1 percent of respondents agreed that Facebook is a new communication channel, and 80.0 percent of respondents agreed that Facebook is a tool in mobilizing people. Also 80.0 percent of respondents agreed that Facebook is an effective tool for political movement, and 80.0 percent of respondents agreed that Facebook is a leading tool to a further political movement.
Similarly, 80.0 percent of respondents agreed that Facebook is likely to replace the traditional media, and 80.0 percent of respondents agreed that Facebook encourages Thai people to participate political movement. According to Table 64, it shows that 79.8 of Facebook users thoughtThai people are always involved in political movement. It is slightly lower than others result.
Finally, Facebook is the most popular and important communication tool for political movements. This correlation results supports what is found in pertinent literature and it also supports the current political protest group in Bangkok and other cities across the country. The PDRC is one of the political faction which heavily relies on social media especially Facebook platform to organize political movement. The survey result, in-depth interview result, cross tabulation method and Pearson Chi–square Test clearly indicate that Facebook and other social media platforms have revolutionized social movement, particularly in Thai political conflict.
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Conclusion
Regarding the interview result, most respondents have the social media (Facebook) accounts by choosing the platform according to their friends and their families. They have Facebook accounts or other social media platforms for personal communication and for business. Many respondents have more than one Facebook accounts because they would like to have one account for a private communication with close friends and family and another account for their job and update news, information and order from their bosses. Facebook is a new communication tools, people can receive information and respond at the same time. Moreover, they can post and share political ideology on their Facebook pages and set them as public to allow other people to see them. Facebook users also can multiply and manipulate political activities and persuade an individual to join political collective movement.
Most respondents thought Facebook is a powerful tool and the best tool for communication because Facebook is a free application which everyone can have it.
According to the research result, many respondents earned lower than 5,000 Baht (nearly 200 US Dollar). Therefore, every class in Thai society can have it. On the other hand, most respondents were dissatisfied with the current government, Ms.Yingluck Shinawatra’s government, and did not support it. As we discuss earlier, the current government focuses on amnesty bill rather than a living cost that is going higher and higher. Thai society has been suffered from the corrupt rice-pledging scheme and rising energy and goods price which contrasts to people’s income. Social media such as Facebook acts as an accelerator and amplifies people’s feeling on social media and turns them on the street. According to the research result, most respondents have a negative view on Thai politics by seeing it as being chaotic, boring, partisan and disunited.
Furthermore, most respondents believed that the PAD, the UDD and the PDRC movements have the same objective which is for power and their own group interests. Yet, most respondents believed democracy means participation. Democracy for Thai people is an illusion. Most of the respondents were not able to answer what democracy means until hinting words such as participation, majority, voting, freedom or
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rights were given. All political factions, namely the PAD, the UDD and the PDRC, always use democracy to represent their political ideology. Frankly, we do not have a definite democracy meaning. It is a discourse word that some political groups take advantage from it. Moreover, many foreign and Thai scholars have been trying to explain the political conflict in Thailand as a class war, but in fact, democracy ideology seems to be the main problem that creates political conflict in the country. Most schools of thoughts suggest ideas regarding the conflict based on the Western way of thinking;
however, it is practically impossible to follow the Western ideas because of social and culture differences.
However, most respondents were interested in political participation. They received information such as comment, pictures and clips from their friends and public Facebook pages. They can observe other people’s Facebook pages which were set as public, and they also can repost and reproduce political discourse pictures, clips and comment on their pages. In contrast, they did not discuss politics with their friends and families because political conflict is a sensitive issue which they tried to avoid discussing it. Moreover, most of respondents did not want to join political movements and did not subscribe online political pages, blogs and website. When it was turned into a real action they did not want to join political movements because of safety reasons and inconvenience about location. Furthermore, some of respondents have a family, so they do not want to take any risks that might occur because of violent protest.
Most of our respondents were female with an average age between 21 to 30 years old. According to the research result, young adults were willing to answers the questions because they were familiar with the topic especially on social media platform.
It was a part of their social life, and some of respondents used social media for their own business. Education backgrounds of respondents were in undergraduate level, and marital status was single. Moreover, respondents were middle-class people whose average salary was under 5,000 Baht. This reflects that Facebook platform provides a free communication tool, and it does not require higher education level or skill to access, the whole Thai society in all every classes can thus have this social media platform.
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Moreover, most of respondents spent time online about 1 to 3 hours a day, and they spent most time on Facebook. Facebook is also the most influential social media platform to decision making. Moreover, most respondents’ accessed social media via computer in their home, and Facebook was the social media platform that they used for communication. Furthermore, most respondents agreed that people who use Facebook were able to create an impact on political movements as well as people who did not use it. Facebook is a connector which connects online and offline society. It amplifies people’s voices and makes them louder. Also, they agreed that Facebook played an important role in political movements, and it was also the mainstream tool in organizing political movements. It was also agreed that Facebook is the new channel for exchanging and distributing ideas and information.
Regarding the PDRC demonstration, there was a significant result about social media. People came from many places and took the real action on the street not only in Bangkok but also on their own city in city halls, universities and main streets.
This is the evidence indicating that Facebook platform can organize and mobilize people as well. The administrator will conduct and appoint time and place for real action in both online and offline society. On the other hand, tradition movement cannot offer online activities while social media can. Thus, Facebook is a new channel for people and an alternative press and tools that people can get information instead of the mainstream media, which can be easily controlled by the government or powerful institutions.
Also, Facebook can minimize political conflicts because people can consume information from somewhere else apart from mainstream media. When they can gather more information, they tend to make better decision and are able to organize an effective political movement. Moreover, respondents agreed that Facebook can lead to a further political movement, and they were always involved in political movement through Facebook. The research result found that most respondents believed that Facebook could lead to the further political movement. This means that Facebook and
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other social media platforms can sustain political movement, especially the online activities.
Similarly, the biggest surprise from respondents was they believed that Facebook was likely to replace the traditional political movement, and Facebook encouraged Thai people to participate political movement rather than mainstream media.
Social media have changed the way people communicate. They become increasingly rely on news and information rather than mainstream media. Additionally, traditional social movements can hardly turn individual action into the collective one as social media.
Facebook can be the tool used to improve democracy because it provides more freedom than other media channels. Facebook has changed people’s behaviors to be more aggressive than main stream media has. People use Facebook to publicize political views, attack political opponent by using hate speech, mock comic and sanction on online communities. One of the examples is the political discourses that hurt people feeling such as monarchy scandal.
On the other hand, most respondents agreed to support democratic ruling system as well as strongly opposed authoritarianism. People still believe in democracy system rather than dictatorship system. The Asia foundation’s survey (2013) on the PDRC movements shows different result. The respondents were satisfied with the freedom of speech in Thailand, and they felt that they were not affected by the censorship. As we discussed earlier, social media are the new communication channels which reflect freedom and democracy. Although censorship acts in Thailand remains activated, but it is hard to control and censor social media when compare to the main stream media such as TV, radio and newspaper.
Correlation between social media (Facebook) and political movement in Thailand shows that the respondents have significant correlation with the results of three questionnaires, which are; “Facebook plays an important role in political movement”,
“Thai people use Facebook to participate political movement”, and “Thai people using Facebook as a tool to affect political movement”.
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According to the result collected from respondents in Thailand combined with an in-depth interview with scholars, young adult, local political leaders and businessman, it is clear social media have been changing the way people participate in politics, and they are likely to replace traditional social movements. Consequently, the stage of art in social movements’ theory will go further than it used to be.
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Chapter VI Conclusion
Conclusion
Without a doubt, Thailand has experienced political instability since 2005 until present. The political factions can be divided into four main problems occurred in Thai society which have an impact on political system. The first one is democracy is limited for people, especially poor people who stand in peripheral areas where politicians and constitution are not object to concern, it has thus created diversified perception in democracy among people. On the other hand, Thaksin was threatening the old networks of money politics, which had resulted in weak political parties, corrupt governance and unstable coalition. Also, the populist policies which allowed grass root level to be able to access and reach their rights and public space.
Second, the conflict of interest in classes emerged when Thaksin was threatening the old networks of money politics. The competition over natural resources commenced, and those resources were handed to the private sector through the process which focused on development and national interest rather than environmental issues.
Those who are the most sensitive to the loss of such resources are the little people who deeply depend on nature for their livelihood and culture. When the stir of money network was interrupted by Thaksin, the elite and politicians could not gain their profit as usual, and the burden class could not have power to negotiate neither with their government nor society. As a result, as long as an inequality exists in Thai society the conflict of interest still stands along.
Third, the conflict of power (Acton: 1887) occurs when absolute power corrupts absolutely. The power means everything in politics. However, not all the people can reach the power, only a few or some groups, in the parliament and the government, can reach. Poor people or little people lack of power as they are not the object to services
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only a margin on politics and society. As a result, it means they do not have the power to negotiate or to demand what they want from the government services. As they cannot access the power in representative system in the parliament, the street is the only place where they can explain their needs and rights. However, the street does not seem to be an authorized place for such expression but rather an unlawful place to claim their rights.
Also, the cultures and identities of the poor, the peripheral and the excluded do not receive much attention from the society in developing countries. The conflict in Thaksin period was more intense and generated more impacts to political factions, especially elites, upper class people who had profit and power in politics and parliament.
The forth issue is a coup. Since the revolution in 1932, the coups and army leaders have played quite a significant role in government, the parliament and the crucial meaning of democracy portraying the picture of Thai political history which the coup always gets along with politics and democracy. The coup has, more than often, acted as a formidable political force. Beginning in the late 1930s, the military was politically supreme under Phibun Songkrahm’s power. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the military became a decisive factor in the political system under Marshall Sarit and continued in 1973 to 1992. Fifteen years later, the coup on 19 September 2006 against the government of Thaksin Shinawatra brought the Thai military onto the political stage after its long-standing absence. Its reemergence as a political actor had appeared to be seen as the consolidated, democratically elected government.
Moreover, (Ockey, 2001) cleaning up the political system, removing the corrupt politicians, and then returning to a purified democracy in 2006 led by General Sonti Boonyaratgalin, I suspect many Thais still lack of proper understanding of democracy. The people have to understand their rights and their duties. Some have yet to learn about discipline. I think it is important to educate the people about true democratic rule. Therefore, it seems the coup in Thai politics history plays the main role on democracy whereas parliament and government were accused as corruption or abuse power. The coup and military are seemingly the only way to balance and remake the democracy as it should be. On the other hand, the coup in 2006 was welcomed by some
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factions of people namely PAD or the yellow shirts, who oppose Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra and his supporters, the UDD or the red shirts.
On the other hand, social media have revolutionized the life of people and the way they communicate. The influence of these communication methods has been demonstrated in social movements such as Arab’s spring, Occupy Wall Street, and the faction conflict in Thai politics.Participating in social media encourages the contribution and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between the media and audiences. Moreover, most social media services are open to feedback and participation.
They encourage voting, commenting and sharing of information and thought.
Moreover, social media is one of the channels that reflect the level of democracy. Undoubtedly, social media are important channels for Thai people, politicians and political parties as they open the platform to present political ideas and opinions, allow discussion on political topics and mobilize people for political movements. Social media has thus revolutionized the way people, politicians, government, and NGOs communicate to each other and to the public.
Therefore, this research is aimed to look at the potential social media, specifically Facebook platform, as the tool which affects political movement in Thailand.
It is also aimed to study the relationship between Facebook platform and political movements in Thailand. Thus, they are three main questions for this research which are:
1. What role do social media (Facebook) play in political movement?
2. How do Thai people participate in political movement?
3. How do the relationship between Thai people using social media (Facebook) as a tool to affect political movement.
In order to analyze these three main questions, the methodology and survey questionnaires in this research are adapted from the previous research about social media and political engagement in America which are conducted by different scholars, namely Lee Rainie, Aaron Smith, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Henry Brady, and Sidney Verba (Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project: 2012). This research hypothesizes are:
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H0: Thai people who use social media can create an impact on political movements as well as Thai people who do not use social media.
H0: Thai people who use social media can create an impact on political movements as well as Thai people who do not use social media.