Sungwook Hwang
William Benoit
University of Missouri – Columbia
A Functional Analysis of the 2006
South Korean Seoul Mayoral
Purpose of the Study
ü
Content-analyzing the televised South Korean
mayoral debates, this study will answer whether
previous findings in functional analysis of many
presidential debates can be applied to a lower
political election level in non-U.S. setting.
Why debates?
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Watching debates increases viewers’ issue knowledgeü
Viewers use more issues to evaluate the candidatesü
Watching debates can change viewers’ policypreferences
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Viewers perceive that the issues discussed in debates are important (agenda setting effect)ü
Watching debates influences perceptions of the candidates’ personality….(Benoit et al., 2003)à Televised debates have the potential to influence the viewers who watch them.
n H1: South Korean mayoral candidates will depend on
acclaims, attacks, and defenses, respectively, in terms of the frequency of functional messages.
n H2: South Korean mayoral candidates will discuss more
policy than character.
n H3: Incumbent party candidate will use more acclaims
and less attacks than challengers.
n H4: Incumbent party candidate will acclaim more and
attack less in discussing past deeds than challengers.
n H5: South Korean mayoral candidates will discuss general
goals more to acclaim than to attack.
n H6: South Korean mayoral candidates will discuss ideals more
to acclaim than to attack.
n RQ1: What are the proportions of the three forms of policy in
South Korean mayoral debates?
n RQ2: What are the proportions of the three forms of character
in South Korean mayoral debates?
n H7: South Korean mayoral candidates will use more simple
denial strategy than any other defense strategies: evading responsibility, reducing offensiveness, corrective action, and mortification.
Method
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Sampling: six South Korean mayoral televised debates: CBS (5/15/06), KBS (5/03/06), MBC (5/11/06), SBS(5/05/06), SBS (5/26/06), and YTN (5/16/06).
ü
1,733 themes were analyzed in the six debatesü
Coding category: function (acclaims, attacks, ordefenses), topic (policy and character), policy (past deeds, future plans, or general goals), character
(personal quality, leadership ability, or ideals)
ü
Cohen’s (1960)kappa:
.78 for functions, .73 fortopics, .85 for form of policy, and .72 for form of character
Results & Discussion:
Theoretical extension
n H1:acclaims (50.3%) > attacks (28.4%) > defenses
(21.2%)
à Supported (χ2 [df = 2] = 238.48, p < .0001)
n H2: policy (79.8%) > character (20.2%)
à Supported (χ2 [df = 1] = 615.75, p < .0001)
n H4: Incumbent party candidate Oh mentioned past deeds for
acclaims rather than for attacks (23 to 6), whereas all challengers discussed past deeds more negatively than positively (23 to 9, 27 to 1, 42 to 2, 11 to 0).
Results & Discussion:
Theoretical extension
n H5: All candidates discussed general goals positively: 233 acclaims
to 11 attacks.
à Supported (χ2 [df = 1] = 201.98, p < .0001)
n H6: there were more acclaims than attacks on ideals, 44 to 16
Results & Discussion:
Multiple party system &
The absence of a real incumbent
n H3: Incumbency effect was not supported.
- Why did the incumbent party candidate Oh acclaim less than the other candidates?
à Oh did not seem to ignore attacks commonly raised from multiple candidates.
à The absence of a real incumbent
n RQ1 & 2: emphasized future oriented policies & personal qualities
à Since no candidate had official records as the real mayoral incumbent, they seemed to have a limitation in spotlighting past deeds (only 13.7%) and leadership ability (only 17.5%).
n H7: Reducing offensiveness (57.6%) > simple denial (21.7%)
Conclusion
n Theoretical extension & safe discourse guidelines for
low level election candidates
n Differences of political system à Moderating variables?! n Future studies: e.g., how message receivers process the
functions …
à Much scholarly effort is required to understand