Informatization Policy (정보화정책)

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Is Political Polarization Reinforced in the Online World?: Empirical Findings of Comments about News Articles

온라인 공간의 정치 양극화는 심화될 것인가?: 선거 기사 댓글에 대한 경험적 분석

  • Received : 2021.07.23
  • Accepted : 2021.08.18
  • Published : 2021.12.31
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Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the attributes of the online world and to analyze their influence on democracy. The research focuses on the mayoral by-elections that were held in Seoul and Busan, South Korea, on April 4, 2021. The study demonstrates the characteristics of online spaces and the polarization of the online public through news articles and user comments from the Internet. The research includes topic modeling to measure the diversity of media reports, sentiment analysis to measure online public opinion, and interrupted time series analysis to understand how a particular event influences online attitudes. A combination of these methods is used to attempt to estimate the strength of political polarity in the online environment. The study shows diverse media reports by election region and candidate, where the online public repeatedly reveals high negative and low positive attitudes towards each candidate. Moreover, political polarity can differ based on the level of interest in an election. Although voters pay less attention to a by-election than a presidential election, there is a solid political polarity in the online world. Hence, the research recommends preparing measures to alleviate the polarization as politics requires significant online participation.

본 연구의 목적은 온라인 공간의 속성을 규명하고, 이러한 속성이 민주주의 운영에 미칠 영향을 경험적으로 분석하는 데 있다. 본 연구는 2021년 4월 7일 치러진 서울시장 및 부산시장 보궐선거에 관한 언론 기사와 댓글을 수집하여 온라인 공간의 속성과 정치 양극화를 경험적으로 분석하고 있다. 구체적으로 본 연구는 토픽모델링을 활용하여 보궐선거에 나타난 언론 보도의 다양성을 측정하였으며, 감성분석을 활용하여 기사 댓글에 비친 온라인 여론을 측정하였다. 이후 언론이 가장 주목한 보도가 온라인 여론에 영향을 미치는 여부를 단절적 시계열 분석을 통하여 분석하였다. 이러한 시도는 온라인 여론의 견고성을 검증하는 시도로써 정치 양극화의 수준을 측정하는 지표로 사용된다. 분석 결과를 보면, 첫째 언론은 보궐선거 지역과 후보에 따라 선거 관심도와 주제가 달랐다. 둘째, 언론 보도의 다양성에도 불구하고, 기사 댓글에 나타난 온라인 여론은 높은 부정 여론, 낮은 긍정 여론이 지속적으로 나타났다. 특히 선거일에 즈음할수록 양극화의 수준은 더욱 분명했다. 셋째, 단절적 시계열 분석 결과를 보면, 선거 관심도에 따라 정치 양극화의 변화 가능성이 차별적인 것으로 나타났다. 향후 온라인 공간을 통한 정치참여가 거부할 수 없는 흐름이란 점을 고려할 때, 본 연구는 온라인 공간에서 재현되는 정치 양극화 해소를 위한 방안 마련이 시급하다고 제언하고 있다.

Keywords

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