59-05-032 Proceeding

118 Proceedings of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Congress APPROACHES TO DEVELOPING TV PROGRAMS FOR ELDERLY Jaruwan Nitipaiboon Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University Abstract: This report is part of a dissertation on the development of television programs for the elderly. One of the objectives of the research was to study the current situation of TV programs aimed at elderly viewers on free TV channels in Thailand. To investigate this topic, a qualitative research approach was applied. The researcher interviewed 30 key informants, consisting of TV administrators, professional experts, academic experts, experts on the elderly, and TV program advertising sponsors. Data were collected using in-depth interviews and analyzed descriptively. This was an interdisciplinary research, drawing from the fields of communication arts, sociology, demography, psychology, management science, and government media policy studies to develop a broad picture of the future of TVprograms for the elderly.Themajor findingwas that TVprograms aimed specifically at elderly viewers are likely to appear in the near future asThai society becomes an aging society. The 3 major factors that will lead to suitable approaches for the development of TV programs for the elderly are 1) the external factors of the rising numbers of elderly people in the population, CSR marketing, and government policies; 2) the internal factors of the free TV channels’ policies and the TV producers’ policies; and 3) the program-related factors of the value of the elderly in Thai culture, the forms of TV programs for senior viewers, the psychology of the aged, and expansion of target viewer age groups. Keywords : TV programs, Elderly, Development. I. Introduction Television is amedium that is present in almost every household, and there is a very diverse range of viewer groups. A 2008 survey of mass media (radio and TV) use among people aged 6 and over found that there are 57.0 million TV viewers inThailand, or 94.6% of the population [1]. The very large number of TV viewers has brought about a large number of types of TV programs with different content. The thing that media organizations should take into account is that the programming has tomeet the needs of the viewers.They should consider groups of viewers whose needs are often ignored by the major commercial media, such as the groups of elderly viewers, children and low-income viewers. The National Economic and Social Development Board has predicted that the percentage of the population aged 60 years and over will rise from11.8% in 2010 to 16.8% in 2020 and up to 20.0% in 2025 [2]. The aging of the population will inevitable require changes in the communications, political, economic and social structure in Thailand. Compared to other segments of the population, the elderly tend to have a rather high rate of exposure to TVmedia, both inThailand and in other countries. In the USA, the Nielsen Co (2009)