N/A / Thailand has experienced political instability since 2005 until present. The political conflict has divided people into two factions, the supporters and the opponents. First faction is the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). On the other side, the political movements of the anti-government faction are led by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC). Social media such as Facebook, Line and YouTube have become the new tools for communication which are used to create change in social movements and political movements around the world. The new tools have revolutionized the social movements’paradigm and theory. This research thus aimed to study social media by focusing on the relationship between Facebook platform and Thai political movements. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were applied in this research as the tool to find an answer of the main question. The total amount of 1,500 survey questionnaire samples were distributed to respondents nationwide, and Pearson’s chi-squared test was applied to examine the relationship between social media (Facebook) and political movements. Finally, a result of the study showed that Thai people had different democratic ideologies, and that conflict of ideas had been accumulated and turned into the bedrock of political turmoil in this era. Moreover, it was found that Facebook was an amplifier, connector, and accelerator for political movement. Having Facebook as the new communication tool, Thai people in the society were encouraged to participate political movements rather than individual group or class movement presented in Thai history before. Social media such as Facebook linked cyber space and public space together through the new method of idea and information distribution and people mobilization. This motivated citizen to demonstrate on stress occupying government buildings and department stores. Therefore, political reconciliation should be concerned with democracy from the Thai society perspective rather than the Western one.

社交媒體在最近的社會運動中扮演了非常重要的角色，例如阿拉伯 之春、西班牙的Indignants 抗議運動，以及在北美的佔領華爾街運動， 皆凸顯出數位社交媒體的特殊地位與它對促進社會運動的貢獻。而 此篇碩士論文主要探討社交媒體在台灣的「太陽花運動」中所擔任 的角色。文中主張了社交媒體與「新媒體」已經是這個運動的延伸 與成功的重要因素。除了台灣年輕人常用的Facebook、Line 等社交 媒體之外，另一個使用社交媒體的重要因子是抗議者對台灣傳統媒 體的不信任。一般公民也可以透過「新媒體」成為抗議活動的一部 分，發揮和主流媒體相同的影響力。這些「新媒體」會為台灣更清 晰的民主鋪路，並同時提高年輕公民更多的政治意識。本論文的研 究包含來自Facebook 與PTT 還有「新媒體」的資料，此外，此論文 亦透過與太陽花學運參與者的採訪，評估他們在運動時使用社交媒 體的狀況。 / Social media plays a crucial role in recent social movements. The Arab Spring, the Indignants protest in Spain and the Occupy Wall Street movement in North America highlighted the special role of digital social media networks and its contribution to the facilitation of protest movements. This master thesis examines the role of the social media in the “Sunflower Student Movement” in Taiwan. It argues that social media and the “new media” have been a crucial factor to the prolongation and success of this movement. Besides the high penetration rate of social media, such as Facebook and LINE, among young Taiwanese, another important factor for protestors to use social media was the mistrust in the traditional Taiwanese media. Through the “new media” ordinary citizens could become a part of the protest and exert the same influence as the mainstream media. The “new media” may pave the way for a more transparent democracy in Taiwan and raise more political awareness among the young citizens. The research of this thesis includes information collected from Facebook and PTT as well as the “new media”. Additionally, interviews among participants of the Sunflower Student Movement were conducted to assess their use of social media during the movement.