Designing and Developing Digital Advertising Media through
Participatory Research for Conserving South Esan Weaving knowledge
Jirayut Prasertsri
Drarusawin Vongporamat
Abstract
The objectives of this research were: 1) to study and collect information of South Esan weaving wisdom together with people in a community 2) to design and to develop advertising media for conserving the South Esan weaving wisdom and disseminate it in bilingual digital media, 3) to assess the quality and to investigate the satisfaction towards the design and development of the media. This research is a qualitative research. The target group used in this research was the community conserving the wisdom of the South Esan weaving wisdom. The concepts, theories, principles and processes of digital advertising media design were studied. Moreover, the group discussion process was conducted for gaining the comments from the target group. The 12 experts, namely 3 South Esan cultural experts, 3 linguistic experts, 3 communication arts experts and 3 folk music experts, examined and confirmed the quality of the developed media starting from the narrative writing process, designing a storyboard, until composing music. The overall quality assessment of the advertising media showed that the advertising media content was clear; the sequence and the continuity of storytelling were not confusing; the images were beautiful conveying the atmosphere of the community well; voice of the narrator was easy to listen and follow; the English translation was accurate and the sizes and colors of the English subtitles were appropriate and easy to read; and the music was very consistent with the content.
In addition, in terms of the satisfaction of 30 participants from the target group evaluated and analyzed by using mean and standard deviation showed that participants satisfied with the content of storytelling at the highest level (4.74), followed by they satisfied with the beauty of the images at the highest level (4.71), and they satisfied with acting at the highest level (4.68), respectively
Keywords : digital advertising media, silk weaving wisdom, the South of Northeastern (South-Esan) of Thailand
Introduction
Weaving is a local knowledge wisdom of Thai people since ancient times. The archaeological evidences found in Thailand shows that people in the pre – historic period from the neolithic to the metal age know how to use cloth in the minimum 3,000 years. The evidences are the baked clay used for spinning yarns, sewing needles made of animal bones. The evidence in pre – historic archaeological sites at Ban Chiang of Nong Han District, Udon Thani Province is remnant of cloth made with hemp or jute attached to the tool and metal jewelry. It is assumed that humans living in that area already knew how to grow hemp or hemp to use pulp to clothing (Atchara Panurat, research team). Later, people have inherited and developed weaving methods to the generation in each group. In the northeastern region, there are many ethinic groups with different culture such as the northeastern and central northeastern groups, a group of Lao descent originating in the Mekong River Basin region. The Ethnic in southern Isaan, who are descents of Lao, Khmer, Kui (Suy) and other minorities living in a part of Nakornratchasima, Buriram, Surin, Srisaket, and Ubonratchathani. They have their own unique weaving that uses three primary colors; green, yellow and red. They also abide the tradition of weaving as a symbol of diligence, patience and delicacy. Because the weaving of fibers one by one indicates the character of a woman’s age, who are ready to start a family life (Wattana Juthavipat, 2002). Woven fabrics of southern Isaan people are divided into 2 types which are woven fabrics for daily life use, and woven fabric for special occasions. 1) The woven fabrics for daily life use like sarong, loincloth, shawl, hair cover, shawl, blanket, pillows, etc. This woven fabric is patterned without a decorative design. 2) The woven fabric for special occasions uses in Religious traditions, merit events, wedding events, or dancing events. Which are colorful with a decorative design (Pratabjai Sikkha, 2012)
The weaving is a matter that has been accumulated since the past. It is an
Inheritance of weaving procedure from ancestors, which is passed on to offspring until becoming local wisdom. At present, there is a foundation of a handicraft group. It Is a community enterprise in order to produce handicraft products, sell textiles to the market both at home and abroad. Moreover, Thai government has promoted policies for community products under the “One Tambon One Product (OTOP)” project to solve community poverty problems, create jobs and income, strength communities by focusing on bringing the local wisdom and resources to develop their communities (Rattanan Pongwiritthon, 2015).
The issue was taken into consideration together with the study of consumption directions and trends of Francesco Morace, an Italian sociologist and market researcher. He talked about the consumption trend of the goods with hidden cultural values that they have roots and been continuously developed over times until they became a tradition. This makes products of each community and nation has its own charm and personality, drawing consumers to feel passionate about the past and desire to be the owner of these products. Based on the results of the study by Francesco Morace, the researchers came up with the idea of combining the weaving wisdom of the Southern Isan community with the design of digital media in a bilingual system and publicizing it to the people who like to watch video content on social media. Most of them are educated at a standard level, having a stable career (Supannee Inkaew, 2012), as well as the local people in the community. The purpose is for them to be proud of their community and aware of the background of woven products, which will eventually lead to the preservation of the cultural identity of the weaving of the Southern Isan community.
The Objectives of Research
1. to study and collect information on the wisdom of the south of northeastern (south Isan) of Thailand weaving wisdom.
2. to develop 2 languages (Thai language – language description English) digital advertising media for conserving the south Isan weaving wisdom.
3. assess the quality and satisfaction in creating the digital advertising media.
The Scope of Study
The Design and Development of Digital Media Advertising Public Relations for Conserving South-Esan Wisdom organizes the scope of study into 3 sections;
1. Scope of the target group
The target group is the community conserving the weaving wisdom in the South – Esan. The characteristic of weaving is divided according to the ethnic such as Thai-Berng, Thai-Khmer, Thai-Lao, and Thai- Kui.
2. Scope of The Design and Development of Digital Media
2.1 Content; it is about the weaving and identity of weaving of the ethnic groups in the South – Isaan region.
2.2 The design of digital media, which is operated through the process of video production and the advertising promotion through online society.
- Research Methodology
3.1 The interview, which is used to collect data that will support in developing of digital advertising media
3.2 The outline of bilingual digital advertising media, which is for interviewing 3 Southern Isan culture experts, 3 linguistic experts.
3.3 Storyboard which is for interviewing 3 communication experts.
3.4 Subtitle, which is for interviewing 3 linguistic experts.
3.5 Digital advertising media and quality evaluation, which are for interviewing 3 Southern Isan culture experts, 3 linguistic experts, and 3 communication experts.
Research Procedure
Research procedure is processed with the following steps;
Picture 1 shows the structure of research procedure.
1.Data analysis
1.1 Study document of the weaving wisdom of the south of northeastern (south Isan), lifestyle of craftsmanship, and identity figure of the south Isan culture, study the document of design digital advertising media, the result of this study is useful for the focus group.
1.2 Focus group is organized to express views of 30 representatives of the weaving community and 3 Southern Isan culture experts to determine the scope of content and narrative through digital advertising media, the result shows that the factors that affect to the Southern Isan weaving identity are the followings;
1.2.1 The weaving process, in the past the weaving in the Southern Isaan was processed for daily life comsumption such as wearing for festival or religious ceremony, silks will be collected to inherit the descendant. The weaving is processed in freetime with their attempt and caring since the cultivation of mulberry and sericulture until the weaving.
1.2.2 The pattern of woven cloth, it is inherited the original pattern since the past until the present by conservation the ancient silk pattern which is divided into 2 characterisitics;
1) Geometric pattern, which is the process of binding and dying to design a pattern in various ways.There are repetitive patterns of patterns such as mesh, square, triangle etc.
2) Natural pattern, which is created the silk pattern by imitating the shape of nature such as plants, flowers, animals, utensils etc.
1.2.3 The silk color tone, the favourite silk color in the community producing silk cloth are the following;
1) Background color tone of silk is cool.
2) Pattern color tone of silk is warm.
1.2.4 Life style of the weaving community in the southern Isaan has a culture of identity weaving, procedure, and patterns that inherit from their ancestors. The community with weaving culture has sattled in the provinces of Nakhon Ratchasima, Buri Ram, Surin, Si Sa Ket and Ubonratchathani, which refers to Thai – Berng ethnic, Thai – Lao ethnic, Thai – Khmer ethnic, and Thai – Kui ethnic.
1.3 Development of the outline of bilingual digital advertising media, the result of focus group discussion is applied as the scope of content to be presented in the digital advertising media. The bilingual outline is compiled from the result of focus group discussion and ask for opinions of experts who have experienced more than 10 years namely; 3 Southern Isan culture experts, and 3 linguistic experts who correct the content, Thai language usage and the interest of narration. After that the outline of bilingual digital advertising media is edited according to experts’ suggestion.
- Pre – Production
2.1 The storyboard is developed from the outline of bilingual digital advertising media which determines the identity content of the southern Isaan ethnics.The storyboard is used to ask for opinion of 3 communication experts who have experienced more than 10 years to check form of narration, picture orders, camera angle and quality of storyboard which is edited according to experts’ suggestion. It will be shown in the following map.
No | Graphic | Picture | Subtitle |
1 | (Thai – Berng Ethnic) | Thai –Berng dressing (garment and hair style) isis similar to Thai people in the central region. | |
2 | (Thai -Lao Ethnic) | Thai – Lao ethnicis influenced by the ancientVientiance, who is a group of cultural leaders in the northeast. | |
3 | (Thai – Khmer Ethnic) | The young women of Thai – Khmer must learnweaving and sewing by hand before they getmarried. | |
4 | (Thai –KuiEthich) | Thai Kui people like to weave cloth, such as JikkakaNoi, its characteristic is similar to squirrel tail ( a soft silk ) it is only one color as men ‘s clothing during important ceremonies. |
Picture 2 shows the storyboard of digital advertising media.
2.2 The result of primary survey of location, costumes and actors in the area shows that the community culture is related to the outline of digital advertising media and community scenery is concerned with stroyboard such asThai – Khmer ethnic at the weaving cummunity of Ban Sanuannork, Thai – Kui ethnic at the weaving community of Ban Nongjod, Thai – Lao ethnic at the weaving community of Ban Saiyao, and Thai – Berng ethnic conserving Thai – Korat music. The community leaders are asked for courtesy to use the houses and woven fabric products, accepting volunteer actors from the community. After that, researchers prepare to rehearse the role for the actors to make the scene composition and determine the camera’s direction.
2.3 Sound design for the advertising media is studied and collected audio samples from social media. It is required to 3 folk music experts who have experience for a minimum of 10 years. It reveals that each ethnic group has the characteristic of music instruments; the ethnic of Thai – Khmer uses Sor Kantruem, the ethnic of Thai –Lao uses Can and Pin, and the ethnic of Thai – Berng uses Klongterng.
2.4 The recording studio is used for producing folk music by musicians that specialize in playing folk instruments. It is used the image of the storyboard and sound samples for discussion and exchanging ideas with musicians.who have analyzed and designed the music for advertising media with the sound of the Kantorum, Pin, Kaen, and Terng Drum played together with modern instrumental sounds to create the joyful rhythm and melodies.
- Production
3.1 The producing is shot with the various equipments; DSLR cameras and supplementary lenses, camera drone kits, slide rails, vibration reduction devices, camera, voice recorder, and continuous power pack, which are packed to the area.
Location | Behind The Scenes | |
Ban Nongjod | ||
Ban Sanuannork | ||
Ban Saiyao | ||
Community of Thai – Korat |
Picture 3 shows behind producing the scences.
3.2 Music is recorded at the recording room by allowing the musician to play the folk instrument along with recording the sound. Then, mixing various synthesized sounds into the created melody with courtesy of Mr. Chaowarit Chakhamhai, professor of music Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Buriram Rajabhat University, who complete music soundtrack for the advertisement media, 1.30 minutes long.
Picture 4 shows the music recording.
3.3 Recording of narration, which is recorded the sound of ventriloquist whose sound is related to image of advertising media. Male’s sound is chosen for narrating with semi-formal language to invite listeners to recognize the importance of weaving wisdom. The recorded sound is checked its quality by 3 linguistic experts who check reading literally, after editing according to experts’ suggestion, the file of the narrative is completed along the length of 3.30 minutes.
4. Post – Production
4.1 Storage and conversion of data files are stored into the data warehouse system, including image, video and audio files are converted in the form of files that are prepared for editing.
4.2 Editing of digital advertising media is used by the computer program of Adobe Premiere Pro, pictures, sounds, music, narration, graphics and subtitles are mixed into advertising media.
Picture 5 shows the process of editing of digital advertising media.
4.3 Checking and Evaluating the Quality, which is considered by 3 Southern Isan culture experts, 3 linguistic experts, and 3 communication experts who correct the contents of digital advertising media, after editing the experts’ suggestion, the work is evaluated its quality by these experts once again. The interview process will be shown in the following;
Picture 6 Shows themapinchecking and evaluatingquality.
4.4 publicity of advertising media and questioning the satisfaction of target groups, the completed work with the length of 8.12 minutes is uploaded to YouTube’s social networking website in order to benefit in promoting the southern Isaan weaving wisdom of the target community through the digital advertising media. The opinions and interviewing of the target community is also organised with actors and composers of advertising media.
Picture 7 Shows the publicity of advertising media.
Conclusion
The Design and Development of Digital Advertising Media with Public Relations for Conserving South-Esan Weaving Wisdom operates with 4 steps which are applied the study of documents, textbooks, researches and website including 12 experts’ opinion and suggestion, the result shows that;
- The study and collecting data is received the information of focus group opinion from the community representative and the southern Isaan culture experts (total 33 people) who reflect to scope of content and narration of advertising media. It found that the specific identity of southern Isaan weaving cloth is procedure of weaving, pattern and tone of color, including lifestyle of each ethnic related to the traditional weaving since ancient times.
Moreover, the focus group express the method of design of advertising media related the community circumstance as follows: Thai – Khmer ethnic at Ban Sanuannok, Thai – Kui ethnic at Ban Nongjod, Thai – Lao ethnic at Ban Saiyao, and Thai – Berng ethnic at Korat folk community.
The bilingual digital advertising media is produced to promote the weaving wisdom to other, both Thais and foreigners, it includes background, foundation, the art of southern Isaan weaving during 20 years ago, to promote the eco-community tourism.
The media is determined actors traveling to the village to learning lifestyle of traditional weaving and wearing in each community. The outline of subtitle using in the bilingual digital advertising media is taken to question the experts’ opinion whose have experience in the minimum of 10 years; 3 southern Isaan culture experts and 3 linguistic experts correct Thai and English content, and narration to guarantee its quality.
- The Design and Development of Digital Advertising Media with Public Relations for Conserving South-Esan Weaving Wisdom in the procedure of bilingual system (Thai audio – English subtitles), its result find that the storyboard must be a space for filming the scene in 6 community with 4 actors and 6 supporting actors in the length of 10 minutes.
The storyboard is suggested by 3 communication experts who have experienced in the minimum 10 years, it is edited to add the information of weaving and reduce the length of advertising media to 7- 8 minutes.
The advertising media music show the result that each ethnic has the specific music instruments; Sor Kantruem was found in Thai – Khmer ethnic and Thai – Kui, Can and Pin are found in Thai – Lao ethnic, and Terng drum is found in Thai – Berng ethnic.
The producing is shot with the various equipments; DSLR cameras and supplementary lenses, camera drone kits, slide rails, vibration reduction devices, camera, voice recorder, and continuous power pack, which are packed to the area.
The producing folk music by musicians that specialize in playing folk instruments is used by the sound of the Kantorum, Pin, Kaen, and Terng Drum played together with modern instrumental sounds to create the joyful rhythm and melodies with the completed file of the length of 1.30 minutes.
Narrative, which is recorded the sound of ventriloquist who sesound is related to image of advertising media. Male’s sound is chosen for narrating with semi-formal language. The recorded sound is checked its quality by 3 linguistic experts who check reading literally, after editing according to experts’ suggestion, the file of the narrative is completed along the length of 3.30 minutes.
3. Quality assessment ,which is in the post-production phase, is the information of the production process converting file to store in the data ware house for editing with Adobe Premiere Pro computer program.It is arranged the video sequences, add images, music, narration, graphics, and subtitle text into the advertising media until advertising media length 8.12 minutes.3 experts of southern culture, 3 experts of linguistics, and 3 experts of communication express an opinion that the quality of content stimulates the viewers familiar to lifestyle of weaving in the communities. The continuity of the story and the information that is transmitted is appropriate, allowing the audience to remember the qualified content. Local scenery has the warm atmosphere. The local people are actors makes advertising media realistic with their sincerity reflecting the personality of rural people. It is related to the advertising media design concept that presents the environment, and the way of life of the rural people to the urban people.
The quality of text graphics is clear, colorful, and its size is appropriate, beautiful, harmonious with images and content.The timing of the subtitle presentation is appropriate for recognition.The quality of the advertising media music is interesting, has a clear sense of the southern Isaan culture.However, sometime the narration is not exciting because it focuses on the description of the content too much.
Inquiring about satisfaction of design and development of digital advertising media is to promote the community by using the mean and standard deviation of all 30 people. It finds that the most level is a telling story averaged at 4.74, followed by the beauty of the image is averaged at 4.71, and the role of action is averaged at 4.68.
The result of interviewing shows that villagers feel proud and happy to wear the traditional weaving cloth, to be participants in advertising media to let generation know the traditional weaving of community.
Discussion
1. The result of the study and information gathering on the knowledge of Southern-Isan weaving with the community from a group forum conducted to understand a point of view of community representatives and experts in the Southern Isan culture. Provinces in Southern Isan, known as the Southern-Isan culture group consist of Nakhon Ratchasima, Buriram, Surin, Sisaket and Ubon Ratchathani, where their ethnic people formerly called themselves Kuy-Thai (Suay), Khmer-Thai, Korat-Thai (Bueng) and Laos-Thai. The unique method of weaving, pattern and color of woven fabric of these ethnic group is a crucial factor that results in their distinctive weaving identity from the weaving wisdom of other regions. Women in the community have inherited the weaving wisdom from Southern Isan culture and used this weaving techniques and skills for their family to use in daily life and other social contexts such as traditional and merit-making events according to the beliefs of their ethnic groups. Successful weavers require perseverance and caring in every step – from planting mulberry trees and raising the silkworms to silk weaving. Parents and grandparents tend to collect woven as a heritage for their children. This is consistent with the study of Suriya Smutkuth et al (1994), Mae Ying Tong Tum Hook: The development of the weaving process and the changing role of women in nowadays Isan village. The study found that traditional Isan women have a social role to support men. Weaving activities are a part of the “cultural capital” of Isan women who must have skills and expertise in weaving in order to have an opportunity to play a role in family, community and outside the community as children, wife, mother and senior relatives throughout their lifetime. The result of the study is also in accordance with the study of Kruemas Wutikarn (1994) Life, Faith and Fabrics: Inheriting the knowledge of woven fabrics in Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai Province. The study found that the costumes of Mae Chaem people that are exquisite especially the pattern of woven fabric made by weaving expertise, reflect the way of life of Mae Chaem people. The reflection through the fabric is a tool to convey the ideal pattern of the Lan Chang civilization as well as their adherence to Buddhism.
- The result of design and development of advertising media to conserve Southern-Isan weaving wisdom. The researcher used information from the group forums on selecting suitable scenic community and came up with the final design and development of advertising media with the intention to reserve Southern-Isan weaving wisdom. The researcher asked for a courtesy visit to houses and places, and seeing woven fabric products. Moreover, the researcher also recruited actors from the community. This approach is consistent with the research of Charoennet Saengduangkae (2015), Community participation in using appropriate media for community development: A case study of Ko Sarai Sub district, Satun Province. The study found that the focus on using community communication that is reflected from the needs of people in the community, which begins by studying the content of the research, uses a paradigm to work in the context of the community. It is to start with the survey of the needs of the media in the community, then produce media under the format and content that the community needs, and evaluate media quality that is consistent with the needs of the community. The form of media production through participation of people in the community will make it meet the needs of the community. The community feels that they own the media. The implementation of the said project therefore reflects the value in all elements of communication. That is to say, the messengers are the people in the community. They have been selected and the media has been designed from the needs of the people in the community which the ultimate goal is for the audience to truly benefit. Furthermore, it is consistent with the research of Duangporn Khamnawat (2006), Research and development model to increase the potential of local administrative organizations and communities in the publicizing and public relations of health promotion. The research found that by coordinating in the area, organizing activities for the community to select content issues and the persons responsible for the production and distribution who are from communities, local politicians and government officials to be involved from brainstorming the ideas, production to publicize, it allows producers and communities to see the potential of their communities in the production of health promotion media by themselves.
- The result of quality evaluation by a total number of 12 experts in various fields. The evaluation result of the overall advertising media was in a good level. Therefore, it is considered that the defined goal has been achieved. That is because every step in the process of developing the media has been inspected on its quality – since the step of writing the narration, designing a storyboard, composing backing tracks, until obtaining the complete quality advertising media. This is compatible with the research of Subhakthaworn Nitikul (2014), The study of guidelines for the development of public relations media of the Faculty of Agriculture, Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus. It found that the interview with media experts provide guidelines for arranging the media elements that match the needs of the target audience, such as using graphics in a simple and pleasant-to-look-at way will help lead to attention or using large-size letters to suit the target audience.
After the quality evaluation by experts had completed, the researcher published advertising media onto YouTube website, an online social network that helps attract audiences rapidly and spread freely without borders. This approach is in line with the research of Usanee Danklang (2016), Factors that affect the satisfaction of viewers of video content on social media. It concludes that the continuous increase in the frequency of viewing of video content has resulted in a very rapid communication nowadays. The most satisfied video content social media is YouTube, followed by Facebook and other social media such as Line. The results of satisfaction survey from the sample group found that the average level of satisfactions that are at a high level are in 3 aspects. Firstly, it is the content of storytelling since the sample respondents are the people in the community who have a good understanding of the story that reflects the weaving lifestyle. Secondly, it is the beauty of the scene. Advertising media has gone through the filming process according to the composition principles, such as choosing an appropriate location and a suitable time period that gives the best lighting, determining of depth focus distance, and using the camera angle to collect every detail of actors’ clothes, gestures or eyes. Therefore, this results in the scenes that are beautiful and unfamiliar in the sample group’s point of view. Lastly, it is the aspect of the backing track and music from the compilation of folk music knowledge that gives various sound of musical instruments of each ethnic group that are very unique. It includes the sound from So kantruem of Khmer-Thai and Kuy-Thai ethnicity, Khaen – bamboo mouth organ and harp of Laos-Thai ethnicity, and the drum of Bueng-Thai ethnicity, as well as the mixture of synthesizer sounds into music to match the content and scene of the advertising media. This is consistent with Samak Yoolong’s research (2013), Developing a video for self-learning on being a moderator and a television speaker for distance education via satellite. The research found that the sample group was satisfied with the overall video presentation because there are step-by-step presentations, pictures, backing music, demonstration that help them gain more knowledge and understanding.
The interviews were conducted with people in the community, homeowners, owners of woven fabric products and actors. After seeing things that are related to them on a regular basis appearing in advertising media, they all expressed great pride in the beautiful scenic views, the way of weaving in the community, and are pleased to be part of the development of this advertising media. It is consistent with the research of Charoennet Saengduangkae (2015), Community participation in the use of appropriate media for community development: a case study of Ko Sarai sub district. The study found that the reflection of media satisfaction of people in the community makes it known that the media is in line with the needs of the community and useful in the conservation of coastal marine resources. In this regard, conducting the survey to understand community needs before producing media and providing opportunities for people in the community to participate in the production of media at various levels as well as communicating with the community during different media production phases, result in the media being in line with the needs of the community. This kind of participation makes community feel deep pleasure derived from their own achievements that they are closely associated and possess.
References
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