• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.199-219
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• 2018

With the everyday use of the Internet and the spread of various smart devices, users have been able to communicate in real time and the existing communication style has changed. Due to the change of the information subject by the Internet, data became more massive and caused the very large information called big data. These Big Data are seen as a new opportunity to understand social issues. In particular, text mining explores patterns using unstructured text data to find meaningful information. Since text data exists in various places such as newspaper, book, and web, the amount of data is very diverse and large, so it is suitable for understanding social reality. In recent years, there has been an increasing number of attempts to analyze texts from web such as SNS and blogs where the public can communicate freely. It is recognized as a useful method to grasp public opinion immediately so it can be used for political, social and cultural issue research. Text mining has received much attention in order to investigate the public's reputation for candidates, and to predict the voting rate instead of the polling. This is because many people question the credibility of the survey. Also, People tend to refuse or reveal their real intention when they are asked to respond to the poll. This study collected comments from the largest Internet portal site in Korea and conducted research on the 19th Korean presidential election in 2017. We collected 226,447 comments from April 29, 2017 to May 7, 2017, which includes the prohibition period of public opinion polls just prior to the presidential election day. We analyzed frequencies, associative emotional words, topic emotions, and candidate voting rates. By frequency analysis, we identified the words that are the most important issues per day. Particularly, according to the result of the presidential debate, it was seen that the candidate who became an issue was located at the top of the frequency analysis. By the analysis of associative emotional words, we were able to identify issues most relevant to each candidate. The topic emotion analysis was used to identify each candidate's topic and to express the emotions of the public on the topics. Finally, we estimated the voting rate by combining the volume of comments and sentiment score. By doing above, we explored the issues for each candidate and predicted the voting rate. The analysis showed that news comments is an effective tool for tracking the issue of presidential candidates and for predicting the voting rate. Particularly, this study showed issues per day and quantitative index for sentiment. Also it predicted voting rate for each candidate and precisely matched the ranking of the top five candidates. Each candidate will be able to objectively grasp public opinion and reflect it to the election strategy. Candidates can use positive issues more actively on election strategies, and try to correct negative issues. Particularly, candidates should be aware that they can get severe damage to their reputation if they face a moral problem. Voters can objectively look at issues and public opinion about each candidate and make more informed decisions when voting. If they refer to the results of this study before voting, they will be able to see the opinions of the public from the Big Data, and vote for a candidate with a more objective perspective. If the candidates have a campaign with reference to Big Data Analysis, the public will be more active on the web, recognizing that their wants are being reflected. The way of expressing their political views can be done in various web places. This can contribute to the act of political participation by the people.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.32
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• pp.113-146
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• 2006

This study explored how media and interpersonal communication affected voters in Busan mayoral by-election, focusing on the mutual relations among media use and attentive use of political campaign, interpersonal communication, and voting participation. Also, comparative analysis between image factor and the factor of political party influencing the decision of a candidate were examined. Additionally, it was analysed differential media effects on candidates' image. According to the results, the local media use and attentive use of political campaign had the influence on the increase of interpersonal communication about the election. Voters who had much interpersonal discussion with others participated more than voters who had less interpersonal discussion. Media use did not directly affect the participation of voting, but indirectly contributed to participation of voting through interpersonal discussion. The assumption of differential media effects on candidates image was partly proved. There were statistically significant differences in the factor of competence of candidates' image among three experimental groups (attentive use of TV discussion program, Internet web sites of two candidates, and printing materials of political advertisement). Furthermore, with three main vote variables, issues, candidates image, party identification, the results of comparative analysis between image factor and the factor of political party influencing the choice of a candidate suggested that a sense of oneness with a party was highly related to the choice of the candidates of the party, however, candidates' image was not related to the decision of a candidate. Political party had more impact on for whom to vote than candidates' image in this study.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.36
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• pp.399-422
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• 2006

Whether to reduce the current 'screen quota' for domestic films in conjunction with the FTA discussions between Korea and the United States is one of the hotly debated issues in Korea. Using Toulmin's Argumentation Model, this study attempts to trace the use of data and warrants for each pro and con claims as portrayed in newspaper editorial columns and to find its rhetorical significance. A total of 67 editorial columns were collected from 9 nationwide news dailies in Korea for the purpose. The rhetorical analysis of those articles showed that the major warrants used in each pro and con opinion were absent of the potential issues of the opponents, which inherently fails to invite rebuttals from the opposite sides. This conceptual wall in each argumentation models implies an inactive conversation and subsequent absence of clash between the pro and con argumentation fields. It is thus suggested for opinion writers to find more adequate evidences to support the data and warrants to hold persuasive power of their respective claims, ultimately to enhance the public discourse among citizens.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.213-261
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• 2018

On May 9, 2018, regime change took place in Malaysia. It was the first regime change that took place in 61 years after independence in 1957. The regime change was an unexpected result not only in Malaysian experts but also in political circles. Moreover, the outcome of the election was more shocking because the opposition party was divided in this general election. The regime change in Malaysia was enough to attract worldwide attention because it meant the collapse of the oldest regime in the modern political system that exists, except North Korea and China. How could this have happened? In particular, how could the regime change, which had not been accomplished despite opposition parties' cooperation for almost 20 years, could be achieved with the divided opposition forces? What political implications does the 2018 general election result have for political change and democratization in Malaysia? How will the Malaysian politics be developed in the aftermath of the regime change? It is worth noting that during the process of finding answers, a series of general elections since the start of reformasi in 1998 tended to be likened to a series of "tsunami" in the Malaysian electoral history. This phenomenon of tsunami means that, even though very few predicted the possibility of regime change among academia, civil society and political circles, the regime change was not sudden. In other words, the regime in 2018 was the result of the desire and expectation of political change through a series of elections of Malaysian voters last 20 years. In this context, this study, in analyzing the results of the election in 2018, shows that the activation of electoral politics triggered by the reform movement in 1998, along with the specific situational factors in 2018, could lead to collapse of the ruling government for the first time since independence.