Twittering Politics : Content analysis of politicians’tweets

< Work-in-progress >

Se Jung ParkDept of Media & Communication, YeungNam University, Korea

Yon Soo LimWCU Webometrics Institute, YeungNam University, Korea

Steven SamsWCU Webometrics Institute, YeungNam University, Korea

Han Woo Park (Corresponding author)

hanpark@ynu.ac.kr Dept of Media & Communication, YeungNam University, Korea

*Citation information: Park, S. J., & Lim, Y. S., & Sams, S., & Park, H. W. (2009 forthcoming). Twittering Poli -

tics: Who is twittering to whom and who is listening?

• we examine politicians’ messages on Twitter. To fulfill this goal, we suggest a content anal-ysis for their tweets.

• We’ve already automatically gathered politi-cians’ twitter data in several countries (Korea, UK, US, Canada) using API tool.

• We preliminarily examined Korean politician’s tweets using Content analysis.

Twitter list of Korean politicians*Subjects of anal-

ysisUpdated on 14 Aug, 2009

　 Politician in Korea politician ID Political Party Tweets Followers Count Following Count Favorites Count1 Gabwon Suh suhgabwon Democractic Party 5 132 46 02 HeyyoungWon wonhyeyoung Democractic Party 5 347 96 23 Hyosuk Kim hskimpro Democractic Party 25 152 22 04 JaeHyunBack jhok100 Democractic Party 4 15 9 05 Jongkul Lee leejongkul Democractic Party 1 384 292 06 Jungbae Choen jb_1000 Democractic Party 35 579 32 07 Miae Choo choomiae Democractic Party 40 625 17 08 Moonsoon Choi moonsoonc Democractic Party 131 1240 60 19 Yeungkil Song Bulloger Democractic Party 83 1250 1994 3

10 Yoojung Kim KimYoojung Democractic Party 61 363 173 011 Dooun Jung doorun Grand National Party 12 172 92 012 Hyongo Kim hyongo Grand National Party 31 1268 211 813 JeWonJang jangjewon Grand National Party 18 106 143 114 Soohee Chin sheechin Grand National Party 26 226 62 115 Sungtae Kim kimsungtae Grand National Party 1 9 0 116 Yongsuk Kang mapo_kys Grand National Party 32 107 22 217 Yunsun Cho yoonsunforyou Grand National Party 1 72 11 018 Gyeongwon Na Nakw Grand National Party 5 523 3 319 Dongyeung Jung coreacdy Independent Party 239 1469 1403 320 Seongsu Cho ssbuk New Progressive Party 11 622 633 121 Yongkyung Lee greatlistener Renewal of Korea Party 58 254 7 322 Wootack Jung bigkorean 15,16th United Liberal Democrats 26 239 407 123 Jaeoh Yi JaeOhYi former(17th Grand National Party ) 58 563 279 024 Jongin Im imjongin Former(17th Independent ) 73 541 552 0

25 Hoichan No hcroh Former(17th New Progressive Party

)525 5332 5405 133

26 Sangjung Sim sangjungsim Former(17th New Progressive Party

)657 4633 4556 11

Updated Twitter list of Korean politi-cians

Updated on 20 Sep, 2009

Politician in Korea Twitter ID Political Party Tweets Followers Count Following CountFavorite Count

1 Dongyeung Jung coreacdy Independent Party 404 2367 2256 52 Jongkul Lee leejongkul Democractic Party 1 478 291 03 JaeHyunBack jhok100 Democractic Party 15 37 14 04 Gabwon Suh suhgabwon Democractic Party 5 171 45 05 HeyyoungWon wonhyeyoung Democractic Party 9 489 391 2

6 Hyosuk Kim hskimpro Democractic Party 31 189 30 07 Jungbae Choen jb_1000 Democractic Party 106 927 32 18 Miae Choo choomiae Democractic Party 81 888 17 19 Mikyung Lee lmk2014 Democractic Party 6 121 6 1

10 Yoojung Kim KimYoojung Democractic Party 92 513 212 011 Yeungkil Song Bulloger Democractic Party 134 1447 1969 112 Moonsoon Choi moonsoonc Democractic Party 156 1539 63 113 Seongsu Cho ssbuk New Progressive Party 51 1005 1029 114 Yongkyung Lee greatlistener Renewal of Korea Party 97 315 18 415 Sungtae Kim kimsungtae Grand National Party 1 15 0 116 Yunsun Cho yoonsunforyou Grand National Party 1 82 17 017 Gyeongwon Na Nakw Grand National Party 5 171 45 018 Dooun Jung doorun Grand National Party 21 341 97 019 JeWonJang jangjewon Grand National Party 27 125 141 120 Soohee Chin sheechin Grand National Party 31 337 93 121 Hyongo Kim hyongo Grand National Party 40 1516 213 722 Yongsuk Kang mapo_kys Grand National Party 32 141 22 223 Sangjung Sim sangjungsim Former(17th New Progressive Party ) 801 6482 6520 1424 Hoichan No hcroh Former(17th New Progressive Party ) 1054 9041 9212 182

25 Wootack Jung bigkoreanFormer(15,16th United Liberal

Democrats)30 319 477 1

*Ruling Party(GNP) * Former

Party*Democratic Party *New Progressive Party

*Renewal of Krea Party

*Indepen-dent

International politicians' usage of Twitter

Korea; 7.19%

US ; 29.18%

UK; 10.63%

Canada; 18.47%

Total

International politicians' usage of Twitter

National Identity Politicians on Twitter Total politicians

Korea 22 292

US 157 538

UK 64 602

Canada 58 314

Total 300 1746

International politicians' using rate of Twitter

National Identity Politicians on Twitter(%)

Korea 7.19%

US 29.18%

UK 10.63%

Canada 18.47%

Type of Tweets

• (1) A Socio-political message This includes political events, the situation of con-

ference, the states regarding their party, socio-politic news, ongoing or future policy and political campaign, social views, public relations.

• (2) A Private message Private message is an informal message. This

refers to an individual story. This contains their daily routine, current feeling,

what they are currently doing and where they are currently, self disclosure or their free story.

• (3) A conversational messages This refers to intended talking to-

ward others. For instances, when someone tries to

speak to others, they uses “@+ID of the person”.

Type of Tweets

Socio-politicial message

Private message Conversation message

13615.49%

23626.88%

50657.63%

N(number of Tweets) = 878

x2=250.34, df=2, p<.01

Conversational Message

Peer-politician Public

61.19%

50098.81%

Audience of message

N=506

Socio-political message

Private message

13626.88%

37073.12%

Topic of Tweets

N=506

x2=482.28, df=1, p<.01 x2=108.21, df=1, p<.01

WWIWCUWEBOMETRICSINSTITUTEINVESTIGATING INTERNET-BASED POLITICS WITH E-RESEARCH TOOLS

THE END

This research was supported by WCU(World Class University) program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (No. 515-82-06574).

WWI homepage- http://english-webometrics.yu.ac.kr

Thank you for listening, and thank to WWI members!