Thai Investigative News and Way to Survive in the Digital Journalism Era

Abstract

One of the most significant current concern in news environment in Thailand is the decline of investigative news regarding production within the media organisation and popularity among the audience. The aim of this research is, therefore, to examine the way in which the existence of investigative news can be possible through the support from relevant stakeholder. Thirty-eight news professionals, news audiences, and the so-called citizen journalists from Facebook were invited to the in-depth interview for their opinion.

            The result shows four approaches to revitalize Thai investigative news ecology. These include (1) funding from government and private sector for special investigative news project; (2) independent or public funds especially provided for investigative news production; (3) government action in disclosing its information; and (4) effective system in disclosing such information. However, these results are not very encouraging due to the attribute of investigative news itself. Corporate wrongdoing and political corruption are one of the main topics of interest. As a consequence, the support from government seems to be difficult to actualize.