The creation of participatory campaign media to build understanding and reduce the problem of using kratom tea for the youth in the risk areas of Songkhla province

Abstract

The research aimed at investigating the creation and production of a participatory campaign media and verifying its effectiveness in forming understanding on using kratom tea consumption and minimizing its problems encountered by juveniles in Thepa Subdistrict, Songkhla Province. Using research methods by action research. The data was collected from 3 different sources. The first source Interview contained 47 samples: students, parents, community leaders, and those in a drug dependence treatment center. The source consisted of 30 young volunteers taking part in a workshop to produce the participatory campaign media. And The effectiveness of the media was then verified with 400 samples who were upper-primary and secondary education students at 5 schools: Thep Phitthaya Phanumat School, Thepa School, Ban Phraphut School, Wat Nikhom Prasat Mitraphap Thi 149 School, and Chumchon Nikhom Sang Ton-ang Thepa School, all of which were in Thepa District, Songkhla Province. The findings revealed that the media is suitable for the campaign that can meet the needs of the youth in the area. Especially social media have to present how to the juveniles’ prevention from Kratom drink dependence and how to help their peers who were currently independent from Kratom drink consumption to return to a normal life in the society. It was expected that the contents in the media would change audiences’ attitudes towards Kratom drink consumers’ identity as well as enable the audiences to perceive the factual information on it. Moreover, the juveniles might realize the disadvantages of such a drink, eliminating the social identity myth that prioritized its advantages over its disadvantages. The volunteers participating in the workshop and the juveniles in Thepa District played a key role in producing the media. Here, the young volunteers used a fan page as the main media and a picture, clip video, short film, music video as the supporting media. It was found that the influence of the media on the fan page visitors’ understanding on Kratom drink consumption and minimization of its problems was at a very low level (r = 0.040). The most significant predictor was the acquisition of right to see the visitors comments (β=.148), followed by the generation of issues (β=.103). Despite this, the understanding on Kratom drink and the minimization of its problems of the juveniles and the adults participating in the media creation showed a very satisfactory result: they were enthusiastic in taking part in such process. They realized that Kratom drink dependence was a public problem that everyone had to prevent and attempt to solve. Children and juveniles should also be given useful information, encouraging them to become immune to the dependence.