John LangerNuntiya Doungphummes2025-03-102025-03-102009Media Education in Asia978-140209528-310.1007/978-1-4020-9529-0_142-s2.0-84892828757https://repository.dusit.ac.th//handle/123456789/5081In August 2005 Thailand's National Statistical Office released a survey announcing nearly three and a half million Thais to be 'illiterate'. Another fifteen million, it was discovered, had the ability to read but opted not to, for a range of reasons. One of these was a preference for watching television. Of the total who could read, over twenty five percent were found to be 'non-reading literates'. Possibly, the most revealing aspect of the survey was not its results but the intense public reaction in the following weeks: was Thailand turning into a country of passive couch potatoes; what did this say about our nation's cultural sensibilities; where was the potential for growth and change? Letters to daily newspapers flooded in, and column inches were filled with commentary, criticism, alarm, speculation and solutions. © 2009 Springer Netherlands.Book chapterScopus