Cultivating Talented Individuals

Social Integration and Networking

Cultivating Talented Individuals:Support Scheme:Investigative Research Assistance (for student)

Jessada Salathong / Investigation Area: Malaysia and Bangkok, Thailand

2009.12.06

Affiliation: GSAPS
Year: D2
Name: Jessada Salathong
Itinerary: Malaysia and Thailand 12 / 6/ 2009 - 12/ 30/ 2009 (Month/Date/Year)

Destination (Name of city and country)

Penang, Malaysia
Bangkok (and nearby cities), Thailand

Research objectives

  • To attend the International Conference on Communication and Environment (ICCE), organized by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), as a presenter in order to exchange information and meet scholars in environmental communication field especially in Asian context.
  • To find information about climate change and ESD in Thailand.
  • To interview informants such as reporters, government officers and academic staff.


Research project

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Media: Climate Change Coverage in Thai and Japanese Newspapers

ESD is an emerging field in educational development as UNESCO currently held the World Conference on ESD in April of this year in Bonn to mark the mid of UN Decade of ESD. Media have been highlighted as partners to support ESD. However, the studies on Media and ESD are very rare. My research activities will focus on two main points: ESD and Media, especially climate change coverage, in Asia (Japan and Thailand). The expected prime outcomes of the activities are the status quo and situation of ESD and climate change coverage in Asia as well as the cooperation among the Asian countries in areas of ESD and media. These outcomes can be employed for researches in areas of media, education and environment aspects of "Asian Regional Integration and Regional Cooperation".

Visited Places

Malaysia: USM (International Conference on Educational Communication: ICEC)
Thailand: Libraries, Universities, newspaper companies and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment



Achievement

the ICCE in Penang, Malaysia

6-12 December, I spent time of the preparation for the ICCE in Penang, Malaysia, which I presented a paper on 10 Dec. My paper "Climate change coverage in Thailand's newspapers: The case study of Thairath, Matichon and Bangkok Post in 2007" was placed in "Media content and the environment" session together with other works from several established scholars.

My participation in the conference provided four valuable benefits:

  1. outreach of my research;
  2. exchange of information and networking with other scholars in related field;
  3. updated information on environment and media in Asia characteristics of Korean multiculturalism; and
  4. new ideas and approaches on my research.

I was able to engage in workshops and talks which provided me a great opportunity to broaden my academic horizon as well as to share my experiences and thoughts with other veteran scholars and media professionals including Prof. Stephen P. Depoe from University of Cincinnati, USA, who is founding editor of Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture. I also had a chance to discuss with professors from School of Communication, USM and representatives from journalist associations about the possibility to exchange information and possible collaboration in the future.

13-30 December, I conducted fieldworks and interviews in Bangkok and nearby cities in Thailand. These gave me a lot of updated information and some new methodologies and approaches on the research about ESD and climate change in Asia.

  • R&D Centre on ESD, Faculty of Education Chulalongkorn University: I met Assitant Professor Athapol Anunthavorasakul, director of the centre. We discussed on several EE and ESD issues in Thailand. He reaffirmed that the news coverage in the context of ESS needs to be on the three pillars of sustainable development. We and agreed to exchange information for the future research collaboration. We gave me many constructive audiences for my research and introduced some useful case studies in Thailand with research potentials.
  • Department of environmental Quality Promotion (DEQP), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment: I met Miss Savitree Srisuk, Director of Environmental education Section. We talked on ESD and EE projects in 2009 as well as movements in the future. She also kindly introduced Miss Pagaporn Yodplob from Public Relations section to me and she agreed to collaborate with me for the future assistance and information. Another main outcome from the talk is the feedback from Mua Plaa Ca Kin Daaw 2009 (on the left), Thailand's annual environmental situation report by DEQP and Thai Society of Environmental Journalists (TSEJ). I wrote chapter 2 in the report based on my MA thesis entitled Media and ESD: Thailand's newspapers coverage of climate change. Both of them were very satisfied about my work and requested me to write a separate work about how to cover news story in the context of ESD so that they can publish is for the future uses in media training.
  • Bangkok Post: I met Miss Kultida Samabudhi, the head of environmental desk and TSEJ executive board member. I interview her about the trend of climate change coverage especially in 2009 and the situation of environmental journalism as well as media in Thailand. She agreed to assist me for the future research.
  • Department of Environmental Science, Thammasat University, libraries of Thammasat and Chulalongkorn University: I went to find new information and related works on climate change, media and ESD.
  • UNESCO Bangkok and Thailand Environment Institute (TEI): I contacted representatives from the organizations. They preferred to respond me on e-mail as it might take sometime to get requested information.


Confirmed by person in charge of project promotion


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