59-05-032 Proceeding

121 Proceedings of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Congress access to news and information and beneficial social services. [10] The Declaration of Thai Senior Citizens had an expanded result in the drafting of the Second National Plan for Older Persons 2002 - 2026, which sets strategies for promoting the elderly through six major measures.One of those measures is to promote every kind of media that has programs for the elderly and to support senior citizens in accessing knowledge, news and media. [11] The Act on the Elderly, 2003 A.D., also states that elderly people have the right to access various kinds of protection, promotion and support including education, religions and useful information and news for their living. [12] The research found that the government still has not campaigned seriously formedia for the elderly. One reason is that it is amatter of business. TV stations are dominated by the advertising agencies. Most of the products they advertise are aimed at young people. The government should start building awareness among media executives that Thai society is aging, and should build greater awareness of CSR. The main idea behind CSR is that an organization should do business on the basis of morality, ethics and good governance. Presently, there is a policy of providing media for the elderly but no legal measures to support it. A relevant agency, such as the NBTC, should take on the responsibility of making the policy more tangible. The NBTC’s rules should be consistent with the government’s policy. A certain proportion of TV broadcasting time , it could be less than 10%, should be set aside and dedicated to programs for the elderly. An 2013 NBTC announcement onTVprogramming principles stated inArticle 7 that licensed broadcasters who have been allocated a wavelength frequency are required to broadcast socially constructive programs or programs for children and youth for at least 60 minutes a day at 16:00 - 18:00 every day and 07:00-09:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. Article 10 states that licensed broadcasters must provide services to protect the rights of disabled and disadvantaged people to be able to receive and utilize their programs the same as the general public by providing sign language interpreters, subtitles, or other services for all programs that present public news for at least 60 minutes a day. [13] However, the NBTC announcement does not have any rule or provision for elderly viewers. While there is no clear policy fromthe government, TVstations do not dare to announce that they are providing programming specifically for the elderly for fear that if they did, they might lose sponsors. Some channels already have elderly personnel and actors available. There should be a policy of changing social attitudes to give senior citizens and aging a more positive image. The government should encourage the media to pay more attention to the segment of elders. If society at large places more importance on the elderly, then TV stations will naturally devote more programming to the elderly. B. Internal factors The organization-related factors that can contribute to TVprogramming for the elderly consist mainly of 1) the free TV stations’ policies and 2) TV producers. 1) Free TV station policies: The research found that Channel 3 is a channel for families and youth but also has programs for adults. Similarly, Channel 9 emphasizes programs for children but they are also aimed at viewers of every age group. Channel 5 emphasizes documentaries, which