comparing political cultures through political websites

South Korean and Japanese Politicians Online: Comparing

Political Cultures Through

Political WebsitesLeslie M. Tkach-Kawasaki and

Han Woo ParkAoir 8.0 Vancouver, Canada

October 18-20, 2007

AoIR 8.0 Tkach-Kawasaki/Park 2

Overview

Introduction and research questions Theorizing website content analysis South Korean and Japanese political

cultures: Same? Different? Methodology Results and Discussion Conclusion


Research questions

1. What kind of political information and communications features are present on politician websites?

2. What kind of hyperlink strategies are they demonstrating?

3. Are they utilizing blogs and wireless websites?


Theorizing website content analysis

Optimists/Pessimists

Normal-ization

Best Practices (Congress

Online Project)

Web Campaign-

ing Typology

Hyperlink and Network

Analysis

PoliticalCulture


Content analysis overviewWebsite type Research area Selected article(s) Geographical orientation

Party Collection of various website contents including hyperlinks

Margolis et al. (1997, 1999) USA

Gibson & Ward (1998) UK

Gibson et al. (2003) USA & UK

Tkach-Kawasaki (2003) Japan

Kluver (2004) Singapore

Mainly hyperlinks Ting & Kluver (2004) Singapore

Ackland & Gibson (2004) Australia

Individualpolitician

Candidate Collection of various contents (links)

Davis (1999), Kamarck (1999) USA

Ward & Gibson (2003) UK

Mainly hyperlinks Foot et al. (2003) USA

Elected member

Collection of various contents and links

Owen et al. (1999), Carter (1999) USA

Mainly hyperlinks Park et al. (2004, 2005) South Korea

Party & politician

Party & candidate

Collection of various contents and links

Foot & Schneider (2002) USA

Lusoli, W. & Ward, J. (2005) UK

Party & member

Tkach-Kawasaki (2006) Japan


Political Culture….

“…is the pattern of individual attitudes and orientations toward politics among the members of a political system (Almond and Verba, 1989)

the system of empirical beliefs, expressive symbols, and values which define the situation in which political action takes place” (Verba et al., 1978)

“…sets the parameters of the political game…” (Martin and Stronach, 1992)

Relationship-oriented (Pye 1985)


South Korean and Japanese political cultures: Same? Different?Relationships South Korea Japan

Party-politician Weak Leader has strong

influence on party

Weak/strong (major/ minor parties)

Mediated leader role

Political parties-public Ideologically oriented (recently)

Two-party system

Ruling-opposition Emerging two-party

system

Politicians-public Increasingly transparent

Strong civil society

Increasingly transparent

Weak civil society Local support

Election regulations Strict (media, donations, and F2F)

Strict (media, timing, and distribution)


Methodology

200 websites of current members (100 each from South Korea and Japan)

January-February 2006 Sampled according to party strength in

respective national legislative assemblies Features analysis (based on IE Project but

modified/expanded for non-election period) of information, communications, and links


Sampling: South Korea

Parties Status Ratio/Sample Total # of seatsNo. of politicians

With websites

Percentage of politicians with

websites

Woo-ri Ruling Party 48.5% (49) 145 136 93.8%

Han-na-ra Opposition 42.5% (42) 127 117 92.1%

Min-no Opposition 3% (3) 9 9 100%

Min-joo Opposition 3.3% (3) 10 8 80%

Ja-min Opposition 1% (1) 3 3 100%

Kook-min Opposition 0.3% (1) 1 1 100%

Independent Opposition 1.3% (1) 4 3 75%

Total 99.9% (100) 299 277 92.6%


Sampling: Japan

Parties 　 Status RatioTotal # of

seats# of politicians with

websites

Percentage of politicians with

websites

Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)

Ruling Party 61.7% (63) 296 277 93.6%

Democratic Party of Japan and Club of Independents (DPJ)

Opposition 23.3% (23) 112 112 100%

New Komeito (Clean Government Party) (CGP)

Ruling Coalition Member

6.5% (6) 31 30 96.8%

Japanese Communist Party (JCP)

Opposition 1.9% (2) 9 9 100%

Social Democratic Party (SDP)

Opposition 1.5% (1) 7 7 100%

Other minor parties Opposition 1.3% (1) 6 6 100%

Independents Opposition 4% (4) 19 18 94.7%

Total 100% (100) 480 459 95.6%


Features analysis (1): Political information Background (SK) Photo/image/graphic

(J) Party logo (SK) Photo collection (J) Issues position (SK) Endorsements (SK)

Calendar/events Recent policy documen

ts (SK)

Newspaper clippings (J)

Publications Activity reports (J) (SK) Privacy/terms of use


Background information (SK)


Photograph/graphic (Japan)


Image, link to party, assembly bldgs. (SK)


Photograph album/collection (J)


Issue position/statements (SK)


Endorsements (SK)


Recent policy documents (SK)


Newspaper Clippings (J) (Nagashima Akihisa)


Activity reports (J) (Hajiuda Koichi)


Activity (voting record) (SK)


Features analysis (2): Communications Join politician’s organiz

ation (SK)

Join political party (J) Donate Get email from site Participate in online

forum/communication space

Distribute political materials offline

Send links Obtain e-paraphernali

a (SK)

Volunteer or internship opportunities (J)


Join politician’s organization (SK)


Join political party (J)


Obtaining e-paraphernalia (SK)


Volunteer/Internship (J) (Seki Yoshihiro)


Features analysis (3): Linking

Own/other political parties (J)

Politicians (same party) national/local (SK)

Politicians (different party) national/local

Governments (central, local) (SK)

Local assemblies Election-related govt bodies National assemblies

Parliamentary committees Broadcasters Internet broadcasters Newspapers Internet newspapers Civic/advocacy groups (J) Wireless sites (J) Blogs International bodies General public/other (J) (S

K)


Link and banner to peer politicians (SK)


Link to central government (SK)


Link to own political party (J) (Hirasawa Katsuei)


Link cell phone website (J) (Nishimura Shingo)


Link NGOs/civil society groups (J) (Maruya Kaori)


General Public/Other (Lee Seung Kwon) (Kono Taro)


Results (1): Political information

* = sig. p<0.01

Information-provision feature present on site South Korean politicians (N=100)

Japanesepoliticians (N=100)

Background information 100 93

Portrait/image/photograph of politician 86 87

Party logo 87* 33*

Photo collection or album 98* 40*

General position on issues 75 75

Issue comparison with other politicians 16* 0*

Endorsements 67* 15*

Calendar/List of events 82* 12*

Policy documents issued within the past month 32* 0*

Newspaper clippings about the politician 89* 24*

Information about publications such as books 21 27

Activity reports 93* 69*

Privacy or terms of use policies 32* 13*


Results (2): Communications

* = sig. p<0.01

Communications-oriented features South Korean politicians (N=100)

Japanese politicians (N=100)

Join politician’s organization 20* 34*

Join politician’s political party 5 8

Donate 93* 11*

Get e-mail from the site 75* 23*

Participate in an online forum/communications space 99* 17*

Distribute political materials offline 59* 2*

Send links 9 0

Obtain e-paraphernalia 7 0

Volunteer or internship opportunities 14 20


Results (3a): Linking

* = sig. p<0.01

Linking strategies South Korean politicians (N=100)

Japanese politicians (N=100)

Own political party 89* 70*

Other political parties 4 4

Other politicians in the same party (national level) 3* 18*

Other politicians in the same party (local level) 0* 12*

Other politicians in a different party (national level) 0 0

Other politicians in a different party (national level) 0 0

Central government 52 38

Local governments 60 44

Local assemblies 8 3

Election-related government bodies 11 3

National assemblies 67* 37*

Parliamentary committees 11 4


Results (3b): Linking

* = sig. p<0.01

Linking strategies South Korean politicians (N=100) Japanese politicians (N=100)

Broadcasters 3 6

Internet broadcasters 0* 27*

Newspapers 9 7

Internet newspapers 9 1

Civic & advocacy groups 37 23

Wireless sites 2* 15*

Blogs 57* 20*

International bodies 4 7

General public 3* 20*

Other 43 28


Conclusion South Korean politician websites show more

involvement between politicians and the public with regard to information and communications features

Japanese politicians have more cross-linkage with other politicians and channel online interest to formalized offline support organizations

Future of permanent e-campaign?


Minimalist top page (Japan) (Ohshima Atsuji)


The endThank you for listening, and thank you to our coders

Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki

Email: [email protected]

Han Woo Park

Email: [email protected]

www.hanpark.net

Partially supported by a Korea Research Foundation Grant

comparing political cultures through political websites

Technology

party strength

political partyj

political materials

political action

japanese political cultures

opposition independents

political system almond

kind of political information