TWEETING ABOUT THAILAND

Generally speaking, social media is the media used for social interaction. Duh, right? Some examples of these include blogs, Facebook, news, photography/art, etc. Social media is slowly beginning to creep it's way into other countries around the world, and this change is taking many communities by surprise.

A reporter, Thanyarat Doksone visited Thailand and made many observations dealing with social media.  The community is beginning to use a variety of outlets to be on top of quickly developing events.  In the past, most people would read newspapers, watch events on TV, listen to the radio, or speak with friends and family to find out what was going on.  Now, they have definitely taken advantage of social medias outlets, like Facebook and Twitter, to share and collect information.

What I found quite funny is that many very important figures in Thailand have Twitters including Prime Minister (Abhisit Vejjajiva), finance minister (Korn Chatikavanij), and nation editor (Sutichai Yoon).

Within the same article, Twitter gets more positivity put to it's name.  Mark MacKinnon, the east Asian correspondent for Canada's The Globe and Mail newspaper, used Twitter in a way most would find astonishing. In the midst of a shooting, MacKinnon tweeted about the shooting and how no one could get out of the hospital.  Many of his followers relayed the message to ultimately get the emergency assistance that was needed.

Nearer the end of the article, Thailand is mentioned as being among the top five fastest-growing Facebook markets globally.  Wow...


http://newley.com/2011/01/25/social-media-and-thailand’s-red-shirt-protests/






This article was written in response to the "Red Shirt Protests".  This was a big deal in Thailand because the inside scoop of the event was passed through the community via Twitter.

Although Twitter is causing a big uproar, Facebook is not far behind.  Thailand has two million members that are part of the Facebook family.  Many believe it has become so popular because of gaming (online gaming is popular in Thailand, multimedia sharing, localization, and word of mouth. 

http://asiancorrespondent.com/37130/politics-drives-record-facebook-growth-in-thailand-2/

In Thailand, both Twitter and Facebook have become so popular due to political reasons.  Twitter allows the community to have a taste of what's going on politically, as does Facebook.  Groups have been created on Facebook dealing with politics to bring those with similar mindsets together. 

This link is a prime example of the one of the groups (not necessarily political) that has been created on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=42121602979