Observation of online forums

Sangwon Lee

Why political issue My interest

Flanigan & Zingale (2009)

Party affiliation as a useful shortcut

Strong partisanship blindly adopt the positions

Important : how partisans think and communicate

“ Partisanship is the single most important influence

on political opinions and voting behaviors. No model

of voting behavior or public opinion is complete

without some measure of party identification”

Why online forum?

How people interact

How people make political reasoning

process in this internet era.

How people express, exchange, and form

their opinions in online sphere.

How to analyze?

Qualitative method

Observation

Writing once a week

Quantitative method

Content analysis on top-popular postings

(2014.1.1-3.13 // More than 25 replies)

Common Aspects

1) Function

A platform to discuss/share political news

2) Homophily network (McPherson, Smith-

Lovin, & Cook, 2001).

Like-minded groups

Different Aspects

1. Focusing area

Con: Ideological or policy issues >

Election or political figures

Dem: Election or political figures >

Ideological or policy issues

What do they focus?

35.3%(12)

52.9%(18)

11.8%(4)

Conservativesforum.com

Election or political

figures

Ideological or

policy issues

Etc

What do they focus?

64.4%(29)

31.1%(14)

4.4%(2)

Democraticunderground.com

Election or political

figuresIdeological or policy

issuesEtc

Election/ Political figure(Con)

Have their preferred candidates(Paul,Cruz, Christie..)

But low polarized attitudes toward the figure

Election/ Political figure (Con)

“Rand Paul wins CPAC straw Poll”(Replies: 44)

Election/ Political figure(Dem)

Polarized attitudes toward the figure.

Top 2 postings on the website

“The Why-Hillary in 2016” (Replies: 457)

“Ohhhh now Hillary is the big bad wolf” (Replies: 188)

Election/ Political figure(Dem)“Hillary or not Hillary?” (87 replies)

Political Issues(Con)

0

1

2

3

4

Issues

Diplomacy/Security

Immigrant/race

Economy/financial

Express patriotism

Party itself/Party id

Marijuana

Salient ideological themes: loyalty ,authority, patriotism,

Americanism

Political Issues(Dem)

0

1

2

3

4

Issues

Economy/financial

Diplomacy/security

Party issue/id

Climate change

Executive order

Health Care

Loyalty, authority, patriotism, and Americanism themes

much smaller

Other communicative characteristics

DemocraticundergroundConservativeforums

1. Tone

Joking, light, sarcastic

* Republicans are out-

dated, dumb, empty-

headed

1. Tone

Serious, resolute-

determined

* Obama accelerates

the collapse of U.S.

We have to save it

with loyalty.

Other communicative characteristics

DemocraticundergroundConservativeforums

2. Image Use 2. Image Use

NO

Conclusion

Both:

Political platform

Homophily network (Like-minded groups)

Con : Ideological or policy issues >

Election or political figures

Dem : Election or political figures>

Ideological or policy issues

<Election>

Higher polarizing figure for Dem.

<Issue>

Some issues are different: Immigrant (race) issue

& Issues related with patriotism

But, much more different ideological themes

(loyalty, authority, patriotism, and Americanism

much higher in Con)

Limitation

Lack rigorousness

Observation: Depend on my intuition

Data: Restricted to ‘very hot topic’ (25)

: 2014~ (Not representative)

->Hard to generalize!

What have I learned?

What kind of postings gain popularity.

What users are concerned about

How people actually interact in online forums.

Interesting experience.

Motivate me to study more about U.S. politics.

Bartels, L. M. (2000). Partisanship and voting behavior, 1952-

1996. American Journal of Political Science, 44, 35-50.

Bartels, L. M. (2002). Beyond the running tally: Partisan bias in political

perceptions. Political Behavior, 24, 117-150.

Bartels, L. M. (2003). Democracy with attitudes. In M. MacKuen & G.

Rabinowitz (Eds.), Electoral democracy (pp. 48–82). Ann Arbor, MI :

University of Michigan Press.

Campbell, A., Philip, E. C., Warren, E. M., & Donald, E. S. (1960). The

American Voter. Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press.

Downs, A. (1957). An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York, NY:

Harper and Row.

Flanigan, W. H., & Zingale, N. H. (1999). Political Behavior of the

American Electorate 9th Ed. Washington: Congressional Quarterly

Press.

References

Green, D., Palmquist, B., & Schickler, E. (2002). Partisan Hearts and Minds. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press.

Haidt, J., & Joseph, C. (2008). The moral mind: How five sets of innate intuitions guide the development of many culture-specific virtues, and perhaps even modules. The Innate Mind, 3, 367-391.

Layman, G. C., Carsey, T. M., & Horowitz, J. M. (2006). Party polarization in American politics: Characteristics, causes, and consequences. Annual Review of Political Science, 9, 83-110.

Lewis-Beck, M. S., Jacoby, W., Norpoth, H., & Weisberg, H. F. (2008).The American voter revisited. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Cook, J. M. (2001). Birds of a feather: Homophily in social networks. Annual Review of Sociology, 415-444.

Shively, W. P. (1979). The development of party identification among adults: Exploration of a functional model. The American Political Science Review, 1039-1054.

Thank You ! ! !