Bangkok Post : New media to continue growing inimportance

New media will play a more significant role in people's daily lives and offer new opportunities to society, but privacy and security will become matters of greater concern.

Speaking at a seminar titled "How is New Media Beneficial to People", Internet Thailand vice president Morakot Kulatumayotin said the technology is absolutely the future of Thai information, similar to the global trend, especially for the younger generation.

Traditional media providers must adjust themselves and their business model, said Morakot. "New media means not only websites, but any digital technology that combines networks and content," she said, adding that traditional newspapers will not survive unless they change their model.

Amazon has launched a thin e-book and Thailand will be not out of this trend, she said.

Morakot pointed out that most people believe information on the net even it has not been verified, which is worrying, as content on the net has no screening measures.

Supinya Klangnarong, vice-chairwoman of the Campaign for Popular Media Reform (CPMR), noted that as people are more likely to read political news online, the government should focus on regulation to promote freedom of online communications, rather than controlling the same.

"Closing down websites is not an appropriate approach," she said, noting that arrests and prosecution of webmasters has damaged the country.

Citing the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Supinya delivered a list of important trends in law, technology and business that will play a significant role in shaping online rights in 2010. Items include Attacks on Cryptography. Several problems with cryptography implementation should come to the fore, she said, as encrypted communications aren't as safe as users expect.

Books and newspapers are mourning the Internet's effect on their bottom line, much the same as how the music industry has failed to combat the net's effect on its business model. There are other issues of concern, including global Internet censorship, hardware hacking, location privacy, net neutrality, online video, social networking privacy and web browser privacy.

Isriya Paireepairit, a member of the Thai Netizen Network, noted that new media has advantages for consumers as it creates alternatives for consumers and has broken the traditional wall.

He pointed out how conventional television has just six channels, but the Internet has lowered the cost of content production and broadcast.

Meanwhile, said Isriya, one drawback in Thailand is censorship. Today, certain blocked websites still redirect to http://www.mict.go.th.

Social networks encourages people to post their personal information to the public. Isriya pointed out that BlackBerries have automatic GSP, so that when users upload personal data, their location is automatically shared.

He noted that information literacy is critical for Thai society. It cannot depend on the government, so should have a strong accumulation of consumers and user groups.

Thai people are likely to use the Internet more for news and e-learning, according to the survey on Internet User Profile of Thailand 2009, conducted by National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec).

The online survey was conducted with some 20,000 participants.

The survey found ADSL is the most prevalent mode of connectivity (40 percent), but the number this year declined from last year (43 percent), while the portion of mobile Internet increased (10 percent) from last year (7 percent).

Information search is the most common activity on the net, followed by email, news and e-learning.

Nectec deputy executive director Chadamas Thuvasethakul noted that e-learning has increased every year and this year was the first time that online gaming did not appear in the top five Internet activities.

Top three perceived problems concerning the Internet are viruses, connection speeds, and pornography.

In terms of e-commerce, it was found that the number of Internet purchases increased a little over the past year, from 45.9 percent to be 47.8 percent. The top three products/services are books, service reservations and apparel.

Reasons cited for those opposed to Internet purchases include: don't trust merchandisers, untouchable products, lack of confidence in payment system, too complicates, and don't want to reveal credit card numbers.

According to the survey, 40.9 percent of the respondents noted they never use broadband Internet. The reasons against broadband usage are: too expensive, lack of information on how to get the services, technical impossibility to get the services in the area of residence, and not necessary.

The majority (88.5 percent) of the respondents use online news services.

The most commonly read online news services are web boards, e-newspapers, blogs, social networks, news by email, and news by video.

Politics is the most-read news category (35.7 percent), followed by social and general news (20 percent). Respondents noted that factors that draw them to online news are convenience (56 percent), freedom of content (18 percent), participation (13 percent) and low cost (9.8 percent).

Nectec Director Pansak Siriruchatapong said the behaviour of users this year is likely to show an increase in use of online news and e-learning by adopting mobile devices such as e-readers, smart phones and PDAs.

"These will be a challenge for every sector in preparation, both of policy and operation, of digital content filtering without opposing the public freedom of expression," the director said.