• The New Trend of University Students’ Uniform
  
  
• Cultural Crises and Thai Teenagers
  
  
• Mass Media and Suicide

                “What size are you looking for?” I asked my sister and picked up a university shirt size M for her. “You are old-fashioned. Look! I’ll buy this shirt size S” she showed me her shirt. “But it’s too small. Are you sure you can wear it?” I asked her back. I hoped she would change her mind and choose size M instead.

“Yes! I like it and I’ll buy it. This is the trend and many of my friends wear it” she looked at me a little disgusted.

“All right! It’s your right to wear it.” I answered. I couldn’t force her not to wear it but why does she have to imitate her friends? Why do university students like to wear small shirts? They are now dressing even more sexily. What is happening to the university uniform?

                The trend of university uniform changes every year especially for female students. What fashion is very popular among teenagers has a great effect upon the student uniform. Now most of them like to wear tight shirts with short skirts or shorts. This influences students to wear tight shirts, size S, SS or even SSS, with very short skirts. They think it’s a new trend and more and more students are following it.

                Students have rights to wear whatever they want. This is the age of fashion and fashion is a value for teenagers. They can keep up with the trend but the propriety of wearing their uniform is still considered important. The uniform is still the uniform. They wear the uniform to indicate that they are students. So their uniform should be polite to show their respect to their university.

                Dressed in tight shirts and short skirts, students want to show their shapes and to get attention. Their new uniform trend sends a message to people who see them that they look so sexy and enticing. The tighter and the shorter the uniform is, the more attractive they are. The sexy uniform can be a sexual lure that can be attracted to sex mad people. Students have freedom to wear but sometimes the way they are now dressed can cause them in danger.

                Because of their sexy uniform, the society must separate between being sexy and smart. The way they are dressed can imply what kind of person they are. Actually, students dressed their uniform sexily don’t necessarily mean that they are bad or not smart. But people are often fixed with the image that girls wearing loose shirts and long skirts are good girls. So what they dress can give an image to people who see them dress in that way.

                I didn’t like my sister’s shirt. Because of fashion trends now, she thinks what she wears is proper and acceptable because a lot of her friends wear it. The trends are changing the way her shirt should be. Although she wanted her shirt to be in trend, I think she should dress a shirt that fits her well. How fashionable her shirt is, it’s still a university shirt. University is not a place that requires students to dress fashionably but it’s a place that requires students to dress properly.

                   Under the era of the globalization, Thai culture is dominated by dominated cultures such as American, Japanese and Korean through the foreign commodities. Thai culture is interfered by foreign cultures and Thai teenagers are abandoning their cultural roots. Nowadays the first thing we can see that Thai teenagers consume more and more foreign products and change the behaviors of their eating. According to the article of Cultural Marketing transformed into ‘Culture‘ (Business Thai, 2005) , Thailand is considered as one of the consumerists in Asia, so far America and countries in Europe have influenced on our Thai culture. Many Thai people have turned their way of lives into ‘eating like America and thinking like America ‘. For example, KFC, fast food, Pizza Hut etc become a trend for many Thai people especially young Thai teenagers. Most of them prefer to eat American food more than Thai food. Moreover, they prefer to listen to American hip-hop and rap to Thai music. Also, they adapt American hip-hop and rap to Thai songs.

                   Another thing we can notice is that recently more and more Thai teenagers are crazy about Japanese and Korean cultures. They admire their cultures and imitate some parts of their cultures. The obvious thing is that they are crazy about Korean singers and movies. The more they are crazy about Korean singers and movies, the more they want to learn more about those culture such as studying Korean language and learning to make Korean food and so on. Moreover, nowadays cultures have been transformed into the marketing such as Korean movies; Darejungkuum, Princess Hour and Winter Love Song. These movies show their way of eating, their lifestyles, food and culture etc. These movies activate Thai teenagers want to learn and explore about Korean culture. They try to imitate those cultures and apply them to Thai culture. Ajarn. Sompong Jidradub, a teacher from the Education Faculty from Chulalongkorn University (2007) stated that the situations of Thai juveniles are getting worse. In the next 10 – 15 years ahead, Thai culture is in the severe crises. The roots of Thai culture are rotting because Thai teenagers receive other cultures to mingle with their own culture. Because of the craziness about other cultures such as Korean, this makes Thainess decrease 30%. Ajarn. Sompong further stated that the most worried thing is the roots of Thai cultures are rotting ; especially the sex problems resulting from the Internet. They visit porn websites, porn video clips and porn VCDs. Finally, all of these things activate teenagers to have sex and cause social problems. Furthermore, the penetration of the Japanese trend (J-Pop) and recently the trend of Korea (K-Pop) can affect Thai culture more easily through movies and drama because their cultures and our Thai culture are quite similar in many ways (we are all Asian) so Thai people can accept Japanese and Korean cultures easily.

                   So, the trends of western, Korean and Japanese cultures have a great influence upon the way of Thai people’s life, culture and affect Thai teenagers. This causes the roots of Thai culture to have been transformed; especially the Thai traditions or customs and the way of eating swallowed by the values of western, Korean and Japanese cultures. The new juveniles are fixated with the foreign standard. Now sometimes Thai teenagers are not familiar with their own culture and the Thai uniqueness and finally they will forget their cultural roots.

                   Therefore, it is time that The Ministry of Culture should take a serious action to activate the common sense of Thai teenagers to love their Thai culture and campaign to love Thai uniqueness by watching Thai movies that show Thainess such as Hoomrong and Bung Fai Phrayanak and eating Thai food; not Korean, Japanese, or American food. Moreover, the Ministry of Culture should promote our Thai traditions such as Songkran Day and Loy Krathong Day etc, wearing Thai clothes or Lanna clothes and speaking Thai correctly. All of these may at least help and warn Thai teenagers not to forget their roots and go back to their roots.

References:

Sompong Jidradub. Korean Trends and the Crises of Thai Teenagers. Posttoday. 24 Aug 2007.

Cultural Marketing Transformed into Culture. Business Thai. 15 Dec 2005.

       Suicide has become a very important mental health problem in Thailand because it can cause problems for families, individuals, communities and the nation. As we see via the media, there is a lot of different news about suicide. In 1998, the problems of suicide were not so high. The suicide rate was around 6 people per 100,000 people, but after that it was found that the number of suicides had a sharp increase especially in the year 2000, the suicide rate was 10 people per 100,000 people.
Recently, the Department of Mental Health has shown that one of the most important factors that cause suicide is the mass media. By the media presenting sensational news on suicide, it can cause the imitation of behaviors and it can influence people to commit suicide, which can cause an increase in the number of suicides in our society.  The aim of this paper is to consider the key role of the mass media, the presentation of the news, the responsibility and the lack of creativity of the mass media presenting the news about suicide, which will reflect the influence of the mass media on suicide.

       One major criticism of the mass media is that they should be more responsible for what they present. They should take more care and try to explain the reason why people commit suicide on the headline of the news, e.g. a man who killed himself because of his unhappy marriage. In fact, nobody kills himself because of one reason. Actually, there may be many reasons for those who commit suicide, such as money problems, family problems, working problems or tensions. Thus, the media shouldn’t quickly conclude the reason of death on the headline of the news. Moreover, Thavisin,MD, a spokesman at the Department of Mental Health (2005) points out that the way the media presents the suicide news by specifying the reason of death can reflect a negative image of the society, such as a  student who couldn’t pass the entrance examination decided to commit suicide by jumping from a high building. The result of this is that the media tries to let people know that people’s minds are vulnerable and a relatively small problem can make someone commit suicide. Furthermore, the majority of the people in the society condemn those vulnerable people. They ignore to understand and find a way to help solve the suicide problems and find out the real reason of death why they choose death to be a way out. While the minority of the people are vulnerable, they may be influenced by news story. Besides, the pictures and the details of death on the news can lead people who are desperate to commit suicide. Sukhum,Assist.Prof, at Rajabhat Suandusit University (2003) argues that the media presents the pictures and the details too elaborately. For example, on the picture shows that beside the corpse found 3 bottles of sleeping pills 100 milligram on the dressing table. Therefore, people who want to commit suicide when they read or see this, they can find an example of suicide. In addition, foreign countries clearly state that the media shouldn’t present the suicide news with full details and clear pictures and shouldn’t put it on the front page of the newspaper. However, Thai newspapers do both and the consequent feedback is to activate a group of vulnerable people in the society to commit suicide more easily. For instance, a man who was disappointed with his love hanged himself with the rope under the tree. The newspapers usually present suicide news with graphic details as how one carries out his suicide. Actually, the media should stimulate people who want to commit suicide not to commit suicide, but it’s not the case. The media should be careful with the words they use and the details that can support the imitative behaviors. Thus, the way the media should do is that they should put the news at the back of the newspaper without pictures, a big headline of the news and graphic details to make it less interesting. Moreover, another way for the media presenting the suicide news on television is that the news should be reported as subtitles, which don’t give much information. Hence, the news will be less important because the newscasters don’t report it.

       According to Suandusitpoll in 2003 conducting from Rajabhat Suandusit University, the poll, which was surveyed from many groups of teachers, students and students’ parents, showed that 67 percent of them believed that the mass media presenting suicide news as hot news can cause an increase in the number of suicides. The mass media should focus away from the suicide news. When there is suicide news, all the media will present the same news repeatedly to emphasize its importance. According to Media Influence Theory, it has been shown that what news the media is interested in, they will often present and give much time to them (Phuchit, 2005). Thus, people may think that news is very interesting and they have to pay attention. Moreover, a report of WHO (World Health Organization) on the prevention of suicide specifies that one of the ways to prevent suicide is to reduce the presentation of the news in various media. Many studies indicate that the mass media can cause suicide. For example, after Marilyn Monroe’s death shown to all the media for many days in 1962, it was reported that there were 303 people committing suicide, an increase 12%. Another example is that after Tan, a 22-year-old Thai famous actor’s death in 1996, it was reported that the suicide rate for teenagers increased 9.5% (DMH Staff, 2005). Therefore, it can indicate that the death of celebrities can be another factor that increases the number of suicides more than the death of normal people because the media gives importance to it and the death of celebrities is an outstanding model of imitative behaviors. However, people will see this kind of news almost every day in various Thai media. In fact, it will be presented many times a day. Although we miss watching it in the morning, we can watch it in the evening. It seems that if there were not suicide news, the news of that day would be bland. Thus, it can indicate that the media gives much importance to it.

       In addition, the result of presenting the news can cause people to imitate the behaviors of suicide. David Phillips, a sociologist at the University of California at San Diego conducted a number of studies on suicide and analyzed the data of suicide attempts that appeared in the spirit of imitative or experimental play (Gladwell, 2000). In his case study of suicide, Phillips gives 2 examples of this. Firstly, a boy who attempted suicide reported that he saw or heard about it when he was 8 years or 10 years, so he wanted to imitate. Another example is that one 11- year-old boy hanged himself inside his house and when found he was already unconscious. He later explained that he wanted to “try” out hanging. He said that he didn’t want to die. If someone has decided to commit suicide, he can find a way to kill himself more easily because he can imitate what he sees or hears about it. That’s because the media usually presents the news with clear pictures and details to follow. Therefore, suicide news can make
 people imitate the behaviors in a so-called “ Copy Cat Fashion”, which can be a way out for those who want suicide to follow.
       The recent studies by the Department of Mental Health (2005) have found that the media has never adjusted their role and their presentation of the news in a creative way. The suicide becomes one of the most worrying problems in Thai society. The media tries to present suicide as something relatively normal that can happen. Vuttipong, the head of the hygiene department at Suanprung Hospital points out that by the media presenting suicide as hot news they inadvertently tell people “ suicide is an action that one can do”. When there is suicide news, the media never explains that suicide is not a good way to solve a problem. Thus, people might think that suicide is not a wrong action if they can’t find a way out to solve their problems. Another point is that the media never provides knowledge to people to prevent themselves from suicide, such as the symptoms of depressive disorder, which can be another factor of suicide. The media should cooperate with the Department of Mental Health to exchange thoughts and the way to present suicide news to help solve and prevent suicide as an informed source that provides knowledge about suicide. Moreover, the media should set up programs to solve the problems of suicide, such as a television documentary on the prevention of suicide, a radio program that gives people knowledge about mental health or advice on their unsolved problems or an article in the newspaper about how to stay away from suicide. However, the media forgets about these things and never pays attention to them. They just want to make profits from the news “the more catchy the suicide news is, the more people will read or watch”.

       This paper has explained the central importance of the mass media’s influence on suicide. The tendency for suicide has increased because the way the media presents the suicide news can stimulate people to imitate the behaviors. Consequently, the mass media should be very careful every time when they present the news to avoid explaining the graphic details of how to commit suicide and give it less importance. Moreover, we are living in the rushing and competitive society, people are often stressful and some people are at risk of suicide. Therefore, the media shouldn’t wait until there is a suicide. They should often provide people with the knowledge about mental health and the prevention of suicide to help decrease the problems of the increasing number of suicide in our society.

References
Phuchit Phuripanik,Assist.Prof. “ The Influence of the Media on Committing Suicide.” Dharma Station.  27 Sep.2005.  Khaosod.  <http://www.matichon.co.th/khaosod/>.          9Aug.2006
<http://www.dharmastation.org/newboard/index.php?action=vthread&forum=2&topic=32>.
Sukhum Chaleisub,Assist.Prof. The Violence of Adolescence. 9 Jun.2003. Dusitpoll. <http://www.dusitpoll.dusit.ac.th>. 9 Aug. 2006
<http://dusitpoll.dusit.ac.th/2546/2546_362.html>.
DMH Staff (Department of Mental Health). “ Committing Suicide.” Department of Mental Health.  7 Apr. 2005.   Ministry of Public Health.  < http://www.dmh.go.th/main.asp>.      8 Aug. 2006
<http://www.dmh.go.th/news/view.asp?id=947>.
Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point. New York: Little, Brown and Company,2000.
Phujadkarnonline. “Suicide and Mass Media.” Khunnapapchivit. 4 Jul. 2005. Phujadkarn.
<http://www.manager.co.th>. 25 Aug. 2006
<http://www.manager.co.th/Qol/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9480000088394>.