“Stringers” the (Southernmost of Thailand’s) media in the peace process: Reducing bias and hatred towards areas and people in the Southernmost of Thailand

Abstract

“Stringers”  the (Southernmost of Thailand’s) media in the peace process: Reducing bias and hatred towards areas and people in the  Southernmost of Thailand aims to understand the negotiating between the ideology of “Stringers”  the (Southernmost of Thailand’s) media in the peace process and the roles and responsibilities in reducing bias and hatred towards areas and people in the the Southernmost of Thailand by using in-depth interviews and dialogue processes, as well as participant observations, data collection will lead to analysis and writing of qualitative research descriptions. The results showed that 1) “Media” in the southern border provinces can be grouped into 5 groups, 1. Central media representatives 2. Stringers or journalists in the Southernmost of Thailand 3. Independent media who do not belong to any news agency 4. Citizen media and 5. Interpreter and coordinator media foreign journalist. Some media have overlapping status in many groups, but the dominant group is the “stringers”, mostly local residents, have the opportunity and advantage in terms of sensitivity to news sources but do not have the power to decide on issues or publish them. 2) The Role of “Stringers”  the (Southernmost of Thailand’s) media in the peace process found that most of them did not reach the ideology of being a peace jounalism to support the peace process because of 3 main factors: First,  dilemma, as if "between the buffalo horns" because of danger on both sides, both as a local people and as a local journalist, who have to negotiate with media ideology and one's own survival in a life-threatening environment, besides the stringers also lacked knowledge and understanding of peace processes and peace journalism. Second, the structure and policies of the media organization are determined by a centralized, relatively decisive power to decide issues and choose to deliver news sent by media from the southern border, reinforcing the horrors, create bias and cause hatred “otherness” in the imaginary geography of outsiders. The third, challenges in journalism include budgets, news sources, multiple sets of facts, and death. Recommendations from the research, in order to the Stringers to act as a media to support the peace process in the Southernmost of Thailand, it is necessary to train the knowledge and analytical skills base on peace journalism. Restructuring the media organization by empowering the stringers to participate in the formulation of news coverage in order to strengthen the media's role in the Southernmost of Thailand to play a role and responsibility in reducing bias and hatred towards areas and people in the the Southernmost of Thailand.