SNS as a Method of Election Campaign: A Case study of the 2015's Special Election in South Korea

정치인들의 선거 캠페인 수단으로서의 SNS 활용: 2015년 4·29 재·보궐선거를 중심으로

Considerable research over the years has been devoted to ascertaining the impact of social media on political settings.In recent days, Social Network Sites (SNS) such as Facebook allowed users to share their political beliefs, support specific candidates, and interact with others on political issues. This study examines the role of SNS as the means of political campaign. The study tasks the case of the 2015'sspecial election, Seoul Korea. The analysis aims to identify how candidates use Facebook or Twitter to interact with voters by applying functional theory of political campaign discourse developed by Benoit. In this study, we analyzed the candidates' SNS messages in terms of political behavior such as self-expression, informing policy, asking voters to participate in political events. Among them the results indicated that two candidates, Jung, Dong Young and Byun, Hee Jae, both of them used SNS to express themselves the most. The study also found that two candidates used mainly the strategy called 'acclaim' which praises their own strengths. In terms of topics of SNS messages (policy versus character) there was different between two candidates. Jung, sent message in relation to 'character' the most, while Byun contained 'policy' message on SNS the most. Based on these findings implications and directions for future studies are discussed.

본 연구는 선거캠페인 도구로써의 SNS 역할을 살펴보고자 2015년 4 29 재 보궐 선거 기간 동안의 정동영 후보와 변희재 후보의 SNS 상 메시지에 대한 내용 분석을 실시하였다. 본 연구의 결과로 첫째, 두 후보자의 SNS에 나타난 메시지의 내용적 측면을 분석한 결과 두 후보자 모두 '단순홍보'와 관련된 메시지를 가장 적극적으로 사용한 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, SNS상에 나타난 메시지의 목적을 베노이트(1999)가 제안한 설득적 전략방법에 따라 분석한 결과 두 후보자 모두'주장'의 전략을 가장 두드러지게 사용한 것으로 드러났다. 셋째, SNS상 메시지의 논제를 분석한 결과, 정동영 후보는 '인간적 특성'을, 변희재 후보는 '정책'에 관한 언급이 더 많은 것으로 나타났다.