- Power
- Military-controlled TV and radio channels,
- Animistic magazines,
- Astrologers’columns,
- Monks (as astrologers) and astrologers,
- Grateful relationships, and
- Sexual relationships between starlets and rich business people, media pro-
ducers, and media owners.
- Grateful relationships
- Bribery, kickback, and tea money (such as paying DJ’s and reviewers).
- Social smoothing relationships
- Gossip and rumors and
- Crime and violence.
- Interdependence orientation
- Chinese and English newspapers allowed.
- Social achievement orientation
- Khun ying news and
- Donation lists (on radio, TV, temple walls/window frames, etc.).
- Ego-orientation
- Mercedes and cell phones and
- Media are manipulated by those in power.
- Fun-pleasure orientation
- Human interest news,
- Star gossips on front page of newspapers,
- Jokes in newspaper, and
- Dirty jokes.
4.10 Thai Leaders and Face.................................
As power is essential in the Thai hierarchical culture, I wish to briefly elaborate on
the role and place of Thai leaders in this context, using the new and interesting work
of Larry Persons ( 2008 , 2016 ) as a guide. Persons studied the different types of
leaders with their different faces of power. He joins Mulder ( 2000 ) when he argued
that“power is the central axis around which public life revolves”(Mulder 2000 :
140). However, he prefers to use the related concept of“face”:“Thai leaders use face
as a resource for their personal empowerment in leadership”(Persons 2016 : 134).
64 4 A Village in the Jungle: Culture and Communication in Thailand