To some people, the coup d’´etat was another opportunity to have fun. People explicitly enjoyed seeking and sharing information during that time. In this perspective, the military sites were viewed as festive spaces where people could attend and had fun (e.g. from taking photos and meeting others). The following was one of those people who enjoyed going to see the situation.
วันนี้ไปเที่ยวมา วันนี้เราไปดูรถถังที่ถนนราชดำเนินมาด้วยหล่ะ ไปกับนุ๊กนิ๊กแล้วก็แบงค์ด้วย สนุกมากเลย หล่ะ ตอนแรกก็ไม่ได้ตั้งใจไปหรอก แต่สุดท้ายก็ไปจนได้ ตอนแรกไปดูที่อะไรก็ไม่รู้อะแถวๆ สนามม้านางเลิ้งอะ ไปถ่ายรูปกัน แล้วก็เดินไปที่ลานพระบรมรูปทรงม้ามีรถถังจอดเรียงเป็น แถวเลยอะ มีคนไปถ่ายรูปเต็มเลย เราก็ไปถ่ายมาด้วย เอารูปมาฝากเพื่อนๆด้วยนะ และก็บังเอิญมากๆเลยหล่ะ พวกเราไปเจอ นักเทนนิสที่มาแข่ง thailand open 2006 ด้วยหล่ะ ดีใจมากเลย ไอ้นิ๊กนี่เบียดเข้าไปถ่ายรูปใหญ่เลยเก่งมากเก็บภาพมาได้ด้วย ส่วนเรานะก็เอากล้องของ แบงค์ถ่ายอะ ถ้ายังไงก็อย่าลืมไปดูรูปกันนะ วันนี้สนุกมากๆเลย
[I had a trip today
Today I went to see tanks on Rachadumnern Rd. I went with Nuk Nik and Bank. It was so fun. At first, I did not intend to go. But we ended up going anyway. We went to see what, I don’t know, around Nang Lerng Race Course. Just to take some photos. Then we walked to King Chulalongkorn Monument. There were a lot tanks parking in straight line. There were tons of people taking photos.
We also took some photos and brought them back to show you too. And it was coincident that we met tennis players who came [to Thailand] for Thailand
Open 2006. I was so happy.
Nick squeezed in there somehow and was able to get some photos. I used Bank’s camera. Anyway, don’t forget to see them. I had a great fun.]
(AbsoluteInsider13 - Blog)
The perspective was also partially evident from those photos and videos that made fun of the situation in Thailand. People in photos posted funny comments. The com- mentators said something that was intended to make people laugh (e.g., sarcastic). A small number of photos were reedited to make a parody of the situation (e.g., inserting a cartoon character). Below is an example of a blog post that used the coup to insult travelers in Thailand.
Thai Coup Strands Thousands of U.S. Sex Tourists
The ousting of Thai Prime Minister Thanksin Shinawatra has thrown Thailand into political unrest, and filled the U.S. Embassy with thousands of American sex tourists seeking safe passage to Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Red Cross is urging all sex tourists to remain calm, and telling families that their relatives need not be suspected of murdering Jon-Benet Ramsey to secure safe passage. New military leader Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin insists his country is still safe for the perverts of the world saying, “Thailand - come for the come, stay for the come.”
(AbsoluteOutsider8 - Blog)
During the early stage of the coup, a Thai blogger observed a web forum in Thailand and found that there were a number of threads that showed how optimistic the Thai people were during that time. I translated the topics of those threads in English and uploaded them on my personal blog.
Optimistic Thais and the coup
[AbsoluteInsider14] posted highlights on jokes and gags about the coup on Pantip.com (Lumpini forum), at least to show how some of Thais think about the situation.
Here are some of post title listed in that forum. Most of them are question- based posts. I translated only the one that would make sense to outsiders: - I want to know a price of the tank.
- One of the replies asked “first or second hand?”. Another one asked “Include air conditioning?”
- Can a tank has NGV engine? - How a tank make a turn?
- I already asked the soldiers. They told me that there is no air conditioning in a tank.
- Do you want go out and take pictures of tanks with me? - Is the lottery working tomorrow?
- This is the announcement of love revolution. Those who are in love, please be calm.
- Is this coup d’´etat or tank show?
In addition to posting non-serious questions, people also shared stories that were unprecedented and unexpected and apparently had entertainment and informative value. For example, people took photos and wrote a blog post about a Thai businessman who sprayed a message on his own car supporting the military and drove around Bangkok. Another example was the fact people took a number of photos in which soldiers and symbols of religion, Buddhism in particular (such as monks and temples), are in the same shots or even monks intentionally took photos with tanks and soldiers.
To summarize, while collecting information about the sitatuion, people observed and evaluated the difficulties that were critical to the effectiveness of communication during that time. The awareness of the obstacles informed different information seeking and sharing strategies which are use to explain information behavior during that period of time. It is noteworthy that various types of information sources and channels played essential roles in the discussion of how people perceived the obstacles and how they came across these issue.