Social Role Communication of the Religious Sites: Public Relations Media Using for Social Role Promotion in Suan Kaew Temple, Nonthaburi Province

Abstract

At present, Suan Kaew Temple has limitation in their media usage. The aims of this research were (1) to study history and social contribution activities of Suan Kaew Temple, Nonthaburi Province, (2) to study the existing public relations media used in promoting social activities of the temple, (3) to study the temple’s need for new media design for promoting its social contribution activities, and (4) to develop new media prototypes for disseminating the temple’s social activities. A productive goal of this research was the digital files of media prototype designed by the researcher for new media production according to the temple’s need. The methods consisted of (1) documentary research, (2) participatory observation, and (3) in-depth interviews. The result included: (1) Suan Kaew Temple, formerly known as Wat Kaew, was an abandoned temple for 80 years. The temple organized 19 social projects for helping the people in need, (2) major problems of using the existing media consisted of unattractiveness and limited types of media which led the target audience to pay less attention to the temple’s message, (3) the temple’s need for new media design focused on the temple’s image as the knowledge donor and moral practice initiator in a manner of simplicity, and (4) the new media prototype, developed by the researcher, emphasized on the temple’s image and delivered to the temple in the form of digital template files for long-run production of various media types according to the temple’s needs.