Media Literate Elderly: Creating Media Literacy Course and Expanding Networks of Communicators for Well-being in 2020
The goal of the 2020 research was to build on, expand, and improve the previous work to promote media literacy for Thai seniors in order to establish the “Wai Petch Media Literacy Curriculum” and a handbook for learning management in conjunction with the curriculum for urban and rural seniors. It was anticipated that this would boost the performance of communication among Wai Petch HCCs, the key group for the 2018 project “Elderly Use of Risk-Free Media: Creating Health Communicators through
Acquiring Media and Information Literacy”.
They were trained to become a Wai Petch HCC, consisting of elderly teachers (led by Khru Koe) from five schools for the elderly, namely:
- The Wisdom Institute for Elderly Quality of Life Development in Chiang Mai.
- The School for the Elderly, Sakon Nakhon Municipality in Sakon Nakhon.
- Chalermprakiet Elderly School in Suphan Buri.
- Home for the elderly in Chamai Subdistrict Municipality in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
- Yannawa Senior Citizens School in Bangkok.
Seventy-two people have received training as Wai Petch HCCs, including 47 Khru Koe and 25 senior students. The project also sought to incorporate the research findings and increase community media literacy. It also emphasized public communication to increase knowledge of the “Wai Petch Media Literacy” and “Wai Petch Health Communicator” programs and to engage policymakers at the national level.