Credibility and Attitudes toward Politicians

Sungwook Hwang ^a

a Department of Communication , Pusan National University , Republic of Korea

Published online: 29 May 2013.

To cite this article: Sungwook Hwang (2013): The Effect of Twitter Use on Politicians’ Credibility and Attitudes toward Politicians, Journal of Public Relations Research, 25:3, 246-258

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1062726X.2013.788445

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The Effect of Twitter Use on Politicians’

Credibility and Attitudes toward Politicians

Sungwook Hwang

Department of Communication, Pusan National University, Republic of Korea

This study examined how Korean young adults evaluate the use of Twitter by Korean politicians, perceive politicians’ credibility, and evaluate politicians who use Twitter, and the relationships among these 3 variables. Although respondents gave slightly positive, but nearly neutral, answers to ques-tions regarding Twitter use, perceived credibility, and overall evaluation of politicians, the model represented by these 3 variables fits the responses of young Korean voters. In other words, this study shows that attitudes toward the use of Twitter by Korean politicians positively influenced perceived credibility, which, in turn, positively influenced attitudes toward Twitter-using politicians. In addition, attitudes toward Twitter use directly influenced attitudes toward politicians in a positive way. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in this article.

Twitter was created in March 2006 in the United States, and over 175 million people now use the social networking and micro-blogging service (Wikipedia.com, 2011). Twitter has also become popular in South Korea, as the number of smartphone users has increased (Lee, 2011). As of January 2, 2011, approximately 2.39 million Koreans were Twitter users (Lee, 2011). Notably, some Korean sports celebrities, CEOs, and politicians have influenced the rapid diffusion of social networking services (Lee, 2011). The 2010 Olympic champion Kim Yun-A, Shinsegae department store CEO Jeong Yong Jin, Doosan Infracore CEO Park Yong Man, legislator U Si Min, legislator Shim Sang Jeong, legislator Na Kyung Won, and legislator Park Geun Hye are all examples of leading Twitter users.

The popularity of social media tools, including Twitter, has also inspired communication scholars to study these new media outlets. In particular, strategic communication scholars have examined public relations (PR) practitioners’ use of social media tools (e.g., Avery et al., 2010;

Curtis et al., 2010; Eyrich, Padman, & Sweetser, 2008), role of online social media in media relations (e.g., Lariscy, Avery, Sweetser, & Howes, 2009; Waters et al., 2010), use of social media in political campaigns (e.g., Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010; Metzgar & Marrugi, 2009;

Utz, 2009), and use of Twitter in the communication of leading companies (e.g., Barnes &

Mattson, 2009; Rybalko & Seltzer, 2010). That is, scholars have examined the use of social media in diverse communication areas. However, few studies have investigated the effect of social media on the perceived images of politician users.

Correspondence should be sent to Professor Sungwook Hwang, Ph.D., Pusan National University, Communication, Geumjeong-gu, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea. E-mail: hsw110@pusan.ac.kr

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this research aims to examine how general Korean audiences evaluate these politicians’ Twitter use, perceive the credibility of politician Twitter users’ images, and evaluate them as individuals.

More important, this study uses a structural model to examine the relationships between the three aforementioned variables. Acknowledging that younger generations tend to better understand or more quickly embrace new technological innovation, this study specifically investigated Korean undergraduate students’ perceptions of politicians’ use of social media.

In doing so, the study theoretically contributes to the building of a comprehensive model that can be used to evaluate the social media use and perceived credibility of politicians, as well as attitudes toward them. If the model proposed by this study fits the responses of young voters, it implies that political practitioners can use social media to strategically manage and build credible images and encourage favorable attitudes among their politician clients.

STUDY BACKGROUND

Because this study investigates South Korean politicians’ Twitter use and its effect, this section briefly explains South Korean politics. According to the National Election Commission (2010), the South Korean congress consists of 298 legislators. The number of seats held by negotiation groups formed by political parties in the National Assembly is as follows: the ruling Grand National Party (57.38%), the largest opposition party, that is, the Democratic Party (29.19%), and others (13.43%). A general election is held every 4 years. The current South Korean presi-dent, Lee Myung Bak, belongs to the ruling party.

As of November of 2010, 189 politicians, including incumbent legislators, former legislators, and mayors had their own Twitter accounts (J. A. Kim, 2011). The most notable Korean politician Twitter users are U Simin (the representative of the Participation Party), Roh Hoichan (the representative of the New Progressive Party), Park Geunhye (the former representative of the ruling Grand National Party), Shim Sangjung (the former representative of the New Progressive Party), Lee Jeonghee (the legislator of the Democratic Labor Party), and Han Myungsook (the former prime minister). These politicians communicate with 50 to 200 thousand Twitter followers (Park, 2011). Scholars estimate that, currently, Twitter influences 8% to 12%

of voters and its influential power will grow in the coming elections because it is likely to be used for encouraging voting behavior (Y. J. Choi, 2011).

LITERATURE REVIEW

This study aims to examine the empirical effect of Twitter use by politicians on their personal PR. PR practitioners and scholars describe Twitter as a popular social media tool with the potential to encourage better practices. However, few studies have directly spotlighted the effect of Twitter use on high profile personal PR. Therefore, this study comprehensively reviews the relevant research. This section investigates research regarding social media and political campaign PR. Further, it reviews previously performed studies in terms of practitioners’ Twitter use. In addition, this section examines the credibility concept and relevant studies as a means of understanding and measuring the cognitive effect of a politician’s personal image.

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Social Media and Political Campaign PR

Definition and typology of social media. Social media is defined as a two-way platform that allows users to construct personal identities through self-presentation and dialogue (Rettberg, 2009). According to Sweetser and Lariscy (2008), social media is ‘‘the concept of a read–write Web, where the online audience moves beyond passive viewing of Web content to actually contributing to the content’’ (p. 179). That is, social media make it possible for users to share content they have generated and establish an extended social network online.

Popular social media tools include the following: blogs, intranets, podcasts, video sharing (e.g., YouTube), photo sharing (e.g., Shutterbug, Flickr), social networks, wikis (e.g., Wikipedia), gaming, virtual worlds (i.e., Second Life), micro-blogging (e.g., Twitter, Pownce, Plurk), text messaging, videoconferencing, PDAs, social event=calendar systems (e.g., Upcoming, Eventful), social bookmarking (e.g., Delicious), news aggregation=RSS, and e-mail (Eyrich et al., 2008). Of the leading corporations listed as Fortune 500 companies, 76% use these social media tools (Sweetser, Avery, & Lariscy, 2009).

Political campaigns through social media. Social media is also a vital issue in political campaigns. Metzgar and Maruggi (2009) monitored social media online during the 2008 US presidential election by using Radian 6, a social media tracking tool. According to their study results, social media was an effective tool for disseminating a campaign message and communi-cating promptly with those to whom the message appealed. Overall, although both traditional and social media dealt with prominent issues with comparable effectiveness, social media tended to spotlight information excluded from traditional media as well. For example, social media often engaged discussion of the Iraq War, unlike traditional media, which focused on the economy.

In addition, social media gave equal mention to all four candidates during campaigns. These results indicate that social media offers more balanced opportunities for political discourse.

In making comparisons among several generations, young adults appear more likely to actively gather information from social media. It was found that 27% of adults younger than 30 collected political campaign information from social network sites (SNS), whereas only 4%

of the adults between 30 and 39 used social media for such purpose and 1% of the adults older than 40 did so (Kohut, 2008). Social media users showed the following political communication activities online. Facebook users tend to make online donations, inspire their colleagues to vote, and upload graphics or comments about political attitudes and opinions (Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010). Candidates and voters use Twitter and blogs for discussing social and political issues, sharing information, and encouraging political participation (Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010). In their study, Kushin and Yamamoto classified types of political Internet activity as attention to social media, attention to traditional Internet sources, and online expression. They concluded that young adults are more likely to become involved in an election campaign by expressing opinions, discussing issues, and sharing information through social media.

Utz (2009) also examined the benefits of SNS as tools for campaigns. According to the first survey results, SNS exposed those less interested in politics to political messages. Viewing a can-didate’s social media profile secured users’ attitudes. However, politicians did not fully use the interactive functions offered by SNS during the 2006 Dutch General Elections. The results of the second experimental study indicated that respondents perceived politicians who reacted to users’ comments through SNS favorably. The effect of feedback was particularly strong in the

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candidates could increase their appeal to left-wing voters by utilizing the user-to-user interactive functions of social media. Her study is especially relevant in that, like this study, it dealt with attitudes toward politicians who use social media; however, her study differed from this study in that it did not include a specific cognitive variable, such as perceived credibility, and did not investigate Twitter in detail.

Twitter and PR

Micro-blogging is ‘‘a system of communication or an Internet-based publishing platform that con-sists of sending short text messages with a maximum length of 140 characters through tools such as Twitter’’ (Xifra & Grau, 2010, p. 171). Barnes and Mattson (2009) examined the 2008 Fortune 500 list to monitor corporate use of social media outlets, including Twitter. Eighty-one companies had blogs and 23 (28%) of these blogs linked to corporate Twitter accounts. Although the ratings of companies that were linked to Twitter on the Fortune 500 list were not high at the time, the popularity of Twitter among individuals has been growing rapidly. The number of users has increased dramatically, and Twitter’s average yearly growth rate measures 1382% (McGiboney, 2009; Milian, 2009). Arceneaux and Weiss (2010) insisted that both traditional media, including newspapers and magazines, and social media, including blogs, facilitated the diffusion of Twitter, supporting their claim with the content analysis results of media coverage regarding new tech-nology. According to the study by Shim and Hwang (2010), which applied the theory of uses and gratifications, individuals use Twitter for the followings purposes: ‘‘social participation by exchanging information, formation of follower group based on social interactions, convenient communication tool, easiness of transferring information, relaxation and entertainment, private memory place, and usefulness of 140 characters’’ (p. 233).

Several studies (Rybalko & Seltzer, 2010; Smith, 2010; Xifra & Grau, 2010) have examined Twitter from a PR perspective. Xifra and Grau (2010) analyzed 653 tweets including the words public relations or PR. The coding categories were labor introspective dealing with new PR positions, academic introspection regarding scholarly information, practices including information provided by practitioners, press release references, general information on the PR field, and Twitter users’ conversation with the community, research, and announcements. The results of the study indicated that, where PR is concerned, Twitter is more frequently utilized for professional purposes than theoretical development (Xifra & Grau, 2010). The study concluded that Twitter is useful for communicating users’ experiences, case studies, ideas, and new academic approaches.

Rybalko and Seltzer (2010) investigated how Fortune 500 companies use Twitter to appeal to stakeholders. Similar to traditional Web sites, blogs, and SNS, Twitter served as a useful tool for corporations who wanted to effectively conduct dialogic communication with stakeholders (Rybalko & Seltzer, 2010). A Web site can promote relationships through dialogic communi-cation (Kent & Taylor, 1998; Kent, Taylor, & White, 2003). Likewise, Twitter allows corpora-tions to realize dialogic communication by promoting an easy interface, conserving visitors, promoting return visits, offering useful information to various public sectors, and providing a dialogic loop (Rybalko & Seltzer, 2010). These are the five dialogic communication principles that make social media useful tools for cultivating relationships (Seltzer & Mitrook, 2007).

Notably, the dialogic communication among the most effective companies (74.5%) has targeted a broad general audience (Rybalko & Seltzer, 2010).

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Twitter’s notability is based on its organizational strengths and relationship management.

Smith (2010) examined how Twitter users discussed Haiti relief efforts and which PR relation-ship management strategies were employed by these users. Early in the relief effort, tweets by members of the public favorably influenced the reputation of participating organizations (Smith, 2010). Through Twitter, people were able to connect with a community of supporters, encourage involvement in the Haiti relief effort, and offer individualized perspectives on public issues (Smith, 2010). Twitter users also utilized the following relationship cultivation strategies:

relational commitment, conversational human voice, dialogic feedback loops, positivity, and openness (Smith, 2010). In other words, a core force driving Twitter use is interactivity, and the two dimensions of interactivity, functional technological interactivity and contingent interde-pendent messaging interactivity, are strongly associated with individuals’ involvement with Twitter (Smith, 2010).

Considering the highly interactive mode of micro-blogging, Gilpin (2010) reasonably suggested that organizations take a more flexible approach to their image, because it is easier for stakeholders to control the direction of conversations on Twitter than in press releases or blogging.

Perceived Credibility

Advertising scholars have mainly studied endorser credibility and its effects. They have explored the issue of the credibility of an advertising message source (i.e., endorser). Similarly, this study examines the credibility of politicians who post information and messages in their own Twitter feeds, thereby using Twitter as a PR medium. Therefore, the following discussion of credibility studies aims to explain and measure the perceived credibility of politician Twitter users.

Credibility is defined as ‘‘judgments made by a perceiver concerning the believability of a communicator’’ (O’Keefe, 1990, pp. 130
131). Credibility is one of the most important image dimensions for politicians, in addition to leadership, warmth, and salience (Y. J. Choi, 2006).

Scholars (Berlo, Lemert, & Mertz, 1969; McCroskey, 1966) found that the concept of credibility is multidimensional. Most studies depicted trustworthiness and expertise as two common factors of credibility (Gass & Seiter, 2004). Erdogan (1999) also identified expertise and trustworthiness as the main components of credibility, whereas Ohanian (1990) classified the dimensions of credibility as expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Expertise is conceptualized as the extent of a person’s knowledge, skills, and experience and to what extent he or she communi-cates accurate information (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953). Trustworthiness is defined as the extent to which an audience believes a person is capable of sincerely communicating information without prejudice (Ohanian, 1991). Attractiveness refers to the extent to which an audience finds a person physically attractive (Ohanian, 1991).

Many scholars who have examined the effects of endorsers in advertising have utilized the credibility dimensions of Ohanian (1990). In establishing the dimensions of endorser credibility, Erdogan, Baker, and Tagg (2001) have identified specific characteristics of high-profile endor-sers, which include congruence, credibility, profession, popularity, and obtainability. S. M. Choi and Rifon (2007) have also tested endorser credibility by employing exploratory and confirma-tory factor analyses. Their research confirmed that credibility is composed of attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise.

In general, studies on the effect of endorsements on corporate advertising have found that credible endorsers are effective in producing positive consumer responses and encouraging

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1984; Goldsmith, Lafferty, & Newell, 2000; Kamins, 1989; Lafferty & Goldsmith, 1999;

Lafferty, Goldsmith, & Newell, 2002; Ohanian, 1991). Goldsmith and his colleagues (2000) found that the credibility of endorsers strongly influences attitudes toward advertising, whereas corporate credibility affects attitudes toward brands. Lord and Putrevu (2009) examined the relationship between consumer motivation (informational vs. transformational) and the three dimensions of credibility. Adult consumers with informational motivation strongly perceived expertise and trustworthiness through cognitive processing, whereas those with transformational motivation more strongly perceived attractiveness through affective processing. Such processing further influenced attitudinal and behavioral responses. In summary, endorser credibility positively influences the effectiveness of corporate advertising.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES

This study, which highlights the use of Twitter by politicians, first questions how Korean young adults evaluate politicians’ Twitter use as follows:

RQ1: Which attitude do members of the younger generation take toward politicians’ Twitter use?

This study also examines how young adults perceive the credibility of politician Twitter users:

RQ2: How do members of the younger generation perceive the credibility of politician Twitter users?

Furthermore, this study investigates how young adults evaluate politicians who use micro-blogging:

RQ3: How do members of the younger generation perceive politicians who use Twitter?

More important, the study examines the relationship between the three variables previously mentioned. Twitter makes it possible to fully engage dialogic communication and interact promptly. As compared to unidirectional information sharing, the two-way information sharing that this social medium allows is a more effective means for people to perceive politicians as credible. Open and candid information sharing could lead to the perception that a politician Twitter user is highly credible. That is, when people feel optimistic about the use of Twitter by a politician, they may also begin to view that politician as credible:

H1: Attitudes toward the use of Twitter by politicians positively influence perceived politician credibility.

The results of the aforementioned endorser effect studies indicated that perceived credibility positively influences attitudinal responses, such as attitudes toward advertisements or brands.

Because politicians, themselves, can be regarded as brands, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

H2: Perceived politician credibility positively influences attitudes toward politician Twitter users.

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Moreover, when people favorably evaluate politicians’ use of fully interactive social media, it can directly and positively affect their evaluation of the politicians themselves:

H3: Attitudes toward the use of Twitter by politicians positively influence attitudes toward politician users.

METHOD Procedure

For this study, undergraduate students at four large universities located in the two major cities of South Korea, Seoul and Busan, were recruited to examine young voters’ evaluations and percep-tions of the use of Twitter by politicians. The survey questionnaire was distributed to a total of 400 students, all of whom were enrolled in various classes in the subjects of English, journalism, economics, or politics during the month of October in 2010. Three hundred and eighty students voluntarily participated in the survey and these students were rewarded with extra credit. Of these, 369 students completed their surveys, whereas 11 students did not complete the survey (N¼ 369).

Measurement

Attitudes toward the use of Twitter by politicians were measured using three questions based on the measurement scale developed by MacKenzie and Lutz (1989). Seven-point semantic differential scales were used (good=bad, favorable=unfavorable, and positive=negative; a¼ .94).

Politicians’ credibility was measured according to the perceived dimensions of credibility:

attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise (see Ohanian, 1990). The specific items are as follows: attractive=unattractive, classy=nonclassy, sincere=insincere, reliable=unreliable, trustworthy=untrustworthy, expert=inexpert, experienced=inexperienced, and skilled=unskilled.

Sexy=nonsexy was excluded as a measurement item because it did not apply to politicians overall. Again, seven-point semantic differential scales were used and the Cronbach alpha value

Sexy=nonsexy was excluded as a measurement item because it did not apply to politicians overall. Again, seven-point semantic differential scales were used and the Cronbach alpha value