USER GENERATED CONTENT AND ITS EFFECTS ON NEWS ROOM IN THAI BROADCASTING MEDIA

News consumers have changed to be prosumers (producers plus consumers), generated their contents and publicized through the internet and social media called user-generated content or UGC. The increase of UGC on the internet and social media, also has effects on newsroom, especially broadcasting journalism. This article intends to explore the broadcasting newsroom in Thai media industry affected by the change of media landscape and the increasing of UGC. Since the shift from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting in 2015 led Thai broadcasting media industry to increase numbers of TV operators from 6 channels to 24 channels meaning the increase of market competition. Competition for viewership (TV rating) is also a key indicator to allure advertising revenue. Thus, almost every channel tries to focus on dramatized news and human interested coverage drawing from UGC. For example, clips from Facebook or Facebook page, Twitter, and popular web board became main news sources and popularly seen on TV. Some newsrooms reorganized its structure to have a section responsible for monitoring some popular social media in order to find news stories from that sources. Dramatized and human interested stories evidently help increasing television rating (e.g. drawing higher numbers of viewership). Some journalism professionals start questioning that watchdog role and gatekeeper role of Thai media has worsened. In contrast, UGC expanded the opportunity of minority groups and laypersons to voice out their issues through this online public sphere. And their problems gained attention from other publics and the state.