• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.32
• /
• pp.49-73
• /
• 2006

During the past decades, public opinion polls have become an ubiquitous tool for probing the complexity of people's beliefs and attitudes on a wide variety of issues. Especially since the late 1970s, the use of polls by news organizations has increased dramatically. Along with the proliferation of traditional polls, in the past few years pollsters and news organizations have come to recognize the advantages of online polls. Increasingly there has been more effort to take the pulse of the public through the Internet. With the Internet's rapid growth during the past years, advocates of online polling often emphasize the relative advantages over traditional polls. Researchers from Harris Black International Ltd., for example, argue that "Internet polling is less expensive and faster and offers higher response rates than telephone surveys." Moreover, since many of the newer online polls draw respondents from large databases of registered Internet users, results of online polls have become more balanced. A series of Harris Black online polls conducted during the 1998 gubernatorial and senatorial elections, for example, has accurately projected the winners in 21 of the 22 races it tracked. Many researchers, however, severely criticize online polls for not being representative of the larger population. Despite the often enormous number of participants, Internet users who participate in online polls tend to be younger, better educated and more affluent than the general population. As Traugott pointed out, the people polled in Internet surveys are a "self selected" group, and thus "have volunteered to be part of the test sample, which could mean they are more comfortable with technology, more informed about news and events ... than Americans who aren't online." The fact that users of online polls are self selected and demographically very different from Americans who have no access to the Internet is likely to influence the estimates of what the majority of people think about social or political issues. One of the goals of this study is therefore to analyze whether people perceive traditional and online public opinion polls differently. While most people might not differentiate sufficiently between traditional random sample polls and non representative online polls, some audiences might perceive online polls as more useful and representative. Since most online polls allow some form of direct participation, mostly in the form of an instant vote by mouse click, and often present their findings based on huge numbers of respondents, consumers of these polls might perceive them as more accurate, representative or reliable than traditional random sample polls. If that is true, perceptions of public opinion in society could be significantly distorted for those who rely on or participate in online polls. In addition to investigating how people perceive random sample and online polls, this study focuses on the perceived impact of public opinion polls. Similar to these past studies, which focused on how public opinion polls can influence the perception of mass opinion, this study will analyze how people perceive the effects of polls on themselves and other people. This interest springs from prior studies of the "third person effect," which have found that people often tend to perceive that persuasive communications exert a stronger influence on others than on themselves. While most studies concerned with the political effects of public opinion polls show that exit polls and early reporting of election returns have only weak or no effects on the outcome of election campaigns, some empirical findings suggest that exposure to polls can move people's opinions both toward and away from perceived majority opinion. Thus, if people indeed believe that polls influence others more than themselves, perceptions of majority opinion could be significantly altered because people might anticipate that others will react more strongly to poll results.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.29-39
• /
• 2020

Online communities, such as Internet portal sites and social media, have become popular since they allow users to share opinions and to obtain information anytime, anywhere. Accordingly, an increasing number of opinions are manipulated to the advantage of particular groups or individuals, and these opinions include falsified product reviews and political propaganda. Existing detection systems are built upon the characteristics of manipulated opinions for one particular time period. However, manipulation tactics change over time to evade detection systems and to more efficiently spread information, so detection systems should also evolve according to the changes. We therefore propose a system that helps observe and trace changes in manipulation tactics. This system classifies opinions into clusters that represent different tactics, and changes in these clusters reveal evolving tactics. We evaluated the system with over a million opinions collected during three election campaigns and found various changes in (i) the times when manipulations frequently occur, (ii) the methods to manipulate recommendation counts, and (iii) the use of multiple user IDs. We suggest that the operators of online communities perform regular audits with the proposed system to identify evolutions and to adjust detection systems.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.21 no.9
• /
• pp.806-816
• /
• 2021

This study aims to describe the reporting patterns of articles on the Emergency Grant for all citizens(EGAC) and compare the reporting attitudes by newspaper companies. The main results are as follows: First, conservative newspapers reported more than four times as much coverage of EGAC as liberal newspapers. Newspaper articles reported during the week of the National Assembly Election Day accounted for about a quarter of the total, and 79.1% of the articles were reported in the political realm of newspapers, and only 2.8% in the social realm. Second, a conservative newspaper reported a critical attitude toward EGAC at 52.6% and favorable articles at 5.3%. On the other hand, in a liberal newspaper, critical articles were 17.1% and favorable articles were 37.1%. The inefficiency of selectivism was reported as the basis for the argument in favor, and concerns about the burden of deterioration in the financial soundness of the opponents were reported the most. Politicians are the most cited sources of information in articles. Finally, in prior to policymaking, the proportion of the media in favor of and against the news was similar, and the proportion of articles with a neutral attitude accounted for more than half. And in the specific method discussion stage, the articles in favor of the article exceeded the proportion of articles on the opposite side.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.18 no.9
• /
• pp.633-647
• /
• 2018

Ramyeon is a wheat-food that has been mixed a dietary culture of China, Japan, American and Korea. Simultaneously it was the first convenience food that made of flour in Korea, which had been relatively few recipes until the early 1960's. To examine the changes of Ramyeon which has been consumed in large quantities since the late 1960s, this paper classified 1963~2012 into 6 periods. From political, economic, social, cultural and international perspectives we considered the changes of Ramyeon through the articles analysis of mass media(DongaIlbo, The KyunghyangShinmun, MBC news). The total number of articles was 3,823 with an average of 76.46/y. Each field was summarized as following sub-topics; In political(Election, North Korea), in economic(Price, Economy), in social(Promotion campaign for eating of flour, Incidents, Donation), in cultural(Consumption, Extreme situations, Nutrition) and in international field(Exporting). Each period was named according to the feature; Early stage, Expansion stage, Domestic growth stage, Overseas stage, Advanced stage, Transition stage. Ramyeon has changed in a closely relation with society for past 50 years.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.1-22
• /
• 2017

'The worstest environment disaster', 'World's first biocide massacre', 'Home-based Sewol ferry disaster' are all phrases attached to the recent humidifier disinfectant disaster. In the spring of 2011, four of 8 pregnant women including 1 adult man passed away at a university hospital in Seoul due to breathing failure. Epidemiologic investigation conducted by the Korean CDC soon revealed the inhalation of humidifier disinfectant, which had been widely used in Korea during the winter, to be responsible for the disease. As well as lung fibrosis hardening of the lungs, other diseases including asthma, rhinitis, skin disease, liver disease, fetal disease or cancers have been researched for their relation with exposure to the products. By February 9, 2017, 5,342 cases had registered for health problems and 1,131 of them were already dead (20.8% mortality rate). Based on studies by government agencies and a telephone survey of the general population by Seoul National University and civic groups, around 20% of the general public of Korea has used these products. Since the market release of the first product by SK Chemical in 1994, over 7.1 million items from around 20 brands were sold up to 2011. Most of the products were manufactured by well-known large conglomerates such as SK, Lotte, Samsung, Shinsegye, LG, and GS, as well as some European companies including UK-based Reckitt Benckiser and TESCO, the German firm Henkel, the Danish firm KeTox, and an Irish company. Even though this disaster was unveiled in 2011 by the Korean government, the issue of the victims was neglected for over five years. In 2016, an unexpected but intensive investigation by prosecutors found that Reckitt Benckiser manipulated and concealed animal tests for its own brand and brought several university experts and company employees to court. The matter was an intense social issue in Korea from May to June with a surge in media coverage. The prosecutor's investigation and a nationwide boycott campaign organized by victims and environmental groups against Reckitt Benckiser, whose product had been used by more than 70% of victims, led to the producer's official apology and a compensation scheme. A legislative investigation organized after the April 2016 national election revealed the producers' faults and the government's responsibility, but failed to meet expectations. A special law for the victims passed the National Assembly in January 2017 and a punitive system together with a massive environmental epidemiology investigation are expected to be the only solutions for this tragedy. Sciences of medicine, toxicology and environmental health have provided decisive evidence so far, but for the remaining problems the perspectives of social sciences such as sociology and jurisprudence are highly necessary, similar to with the Minamata disease and Wonjin Rayon events. It may not be easy to follow this issue using unfamiliar terminology from medical and chemical science and the long, complicated history of the event. For these reasons the author has attempted to write this article in a question and answer format to render it easier to follow. The 17 questions are: Q1 What is humidifier disinfectant? Q2 What kind of health problems are caused by humidifier disinfectant? Q3 How many victims are there? Q4 What is the analysis of the 1,112 cases of death? Q5 What is the problem with the government's diagnostic criteria and the solution? Q6 Who made what brands? Q7 Has there been a recall? What is still on sale? Q8 Was safety not checked by any producers? Q9 What are the government's responsibilities? Q10 Is it true that these products were sold only in Korea? Q11 Why and how was it unveiled only in 2011 after 17 years of sales? Q12 What delayed the resolution of the victim issue? Q13 What is the background of the prosecutor's investigation in early 2016? Q14 Is it possible to report new victim cases without evidence of product purchase? Q15 What is happening with the victim issue? Q16 How does it compare with the cases of Minamata disease and Wonjin Rayon? Q17 Are there prevention measures and lessons?

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
• /
• s.42
• /
• pp.293-313
• /
• 2016

The target stimulating human's sensitivity can include several things; the first is human like us including beautiful women and cute babies. The next ranking is the dog animal that established itself as a human's companion. It is the 3B law(beauty, baby, beast - much used in the ad or election due to the positive image) that is widely used in the advertising. This relationship is being expressed in the art history for a long time. Dogs that have lived a history more than 10 thousand years with humans hunted, protected flock of sheep, and kept the farmer's house and property. They have been human's assistants and companion who entered into the modern urban culture. Like this, dogs have adapted to several situations endlessly such as the nomadic life, farming, country life, and urban life. This paper will explore the close relationship of humans and companion animals through various icons of dogs and pups that appeared through a number of artists' skills. The companion animal means an animal that lives with people, which means the relationship of round-trip rather than the one-way relation those each other gives a help. Therefore, there artist tries to examine the figure of great hunter for survival, highly evaluated figure as the royal dignity, and the mascot-like figure delivering the daily happiness to modern people as presenting joy through a discussion of the 'countenance', a visual signal of the dogs and pups. They have been influenced by screen and popular media in 20C. Snoopy, a main character of and the movie <101 Dalmatians> made a success on the theater and television when Beagle and Dalmatian were prevalent. These main characters make audience feel happy involuntarily. Like this, the continuous and old friendship of the human and dogs will be confirmed again through the icon of dogs and pups consisting of the communication of artists and readers in the modern shape art, and it is hoped to be a psychological stabilizing effect to modern people living in the intense modern society. Therefore, it is expected this study paper will be reborn as a new text and be expanded as an effective communication in the journey of dogs and human in the future in investigating the communion of dogs and human.