Pak Kret Municipality: Participatory Communication of Public

Abstract

The objective of this research is to study the importance of communication for participation and the guidelines for communication methods to promote active public participation in the development of Pak Kret municipality. It is a qualitative research in which the in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants. The purposive sampling method was used to have totally 10 people who directly involved in communication to promote public participation in Pak Kret municipality area. The sampling was divided into three groups: 1) a group of 3 policy makers and communication guidelines to promote public participation 2) a group of 4 community committees with at least 3 year- working experience with Pak K ret municipality, and 3) a group of 3 academics in the field of communication to promote participation who have at least 3 -year working experience with communication to promote participation. The result revealed that

1. Pak Kret Municipality has given importance to the public participation in developing the municipality at all levels, including the policy, vision, and strategic levels.

2. Pak Kret Municipality has 5-year-guidelines and communication methods (2021- 2025) in place to promote active participation among public and related parties that covered 3 areas of concerns, including developing the basic infrastructure of Information Technology (IT) and communication, developing, and synergizing the IT system and creating the manpower potentials, set up the PR system and communication channel for the municipality that can ensure the right mix of communication and direct to cover all the levels of targeted audiences via both traditional means and new IT channels.