Abstract
“Design for Life” is a documentary program about the health system in Thai society produced by Health Systems Research Institute (HSRI). This program of 47 episodes in total was broadcast every Friday, 11.30 am to 12.00 pm on Thai PBS. Some of the audiences requested additional information as well as commented on the content and the production of the program. This research aims at surveying the opinions and popularity of the program so as to improve the production in the next phase.
This study used 3 methodologies as follows: 1) a telephone survey of the program’s popularity conducted with 400 samples in all regions 2) a questionnaire survey for the audiences’ comments and suggestions conducted with 40 samples, representing 80 percent of the audiences who have given feedback to the program 3) a focus group discussion to check the audiences’ comprehension of the program content conducted with four groups of seven samples.
The popularity survey indicates that eight percent of the samples know this program. The number of subjects who have known and seen this program is only three percent, mostly females, married with children, holding Bachelor’s Degrees, aged over 50 years, business owners, with 5,000 – 15,000 baht per month income. They have accessed to television and it is convenient to watch the program at home. Most of the audiences know the program by chance and they do not watch the program regularly. Their watching behaviors to one episode are discontinuous. They also switch to other programs back and forth. They also do not know the sponsor of the program.
The samples think that the program gives more knowledge and creates health awareness, provides health information and leads to health behavior changes. The program is interesting, reliable and relates to the audiences. The documentary format is appropriate but the television station, broadcasting time and the length of the program are inconvenient for broad audiences to watch.
