Message Designing Strategies for Thai Cultural Communication in Khun Phra Chuay Program

Abstract

Khun Phra Chuay is the name of a television program designed to present various aspects of Thai culture and watched by the Thai audience for more than 18 years.  Marked by creatively designed messages and continuous improvement of program formats, it is able to expand its audience base to include young teen adults, leading to this interesting academic paper.  Its objective is to analyze how this television program employs its message designing   strategies for Thai cultural communication. The study consists of three parts: 1. Textual analysis covering 17 episodes of the program during January-April 2022, 2. Documentary analysis based on studies of books, academic documents, news from various websites, and other online media, and 3. In-depth interviews with people concerned with the program production.

The finding shows that with regard to contents on Thai culture the program employs four message designing strategies to communicate with the audience expanded to cover more teenagers so that they will learn more about Thai culture.  These are 1. Multidimensional message designing strategy, 2. Message designing strategy reflecting on-going trends, 3. Message designing strategy capable of presenting tangible experiences, and 4. Message designing strategy capable of promoting cultural continuation and further creation.  These four strategies are based on the core concept of the program about “cultural variety” that the audience of different age groups and gender can collectively view and understand.