1. Decomposing the structure of online protests against U.S. beef import in South Korean blogosphere Woo Young CHANG Catholic University of Daegu, Korea (South) Han Woo PARK YeungNam University, Korea (South) WCU Webometrics Institute [email_address] http:// www.hanpark.net Presented to the 4S (Society of Social Study of Science) Conference, Tokyo, Japan, August 2010
3. Socio-cultural background to the case under study Early motivation: Food Risk - Korean government’s action to import a beef of cattle older than 30 months, which is known to have considerable potential of ‘ mad cow disease ’ from the US
4. * Food risk is not important any more… A public expression against neo-liberal policies of new President MB Lee (e.g., privatizing nat’l health care system) Unnecessary or excessive use of police force, including the misuse of police and security equipment during the protests
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7. Research questions What is the nature of online network among citizens about US beef issue? How and to what extent is the structure of citizen’s online participation altered during a protest against US beef imports?
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10. FRE Trackbacked blogs No. of entries No. of bloggers No. of entries No. of trackbackers May 111 75 387 237 June 152 83 409 240
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12. FRE analysis shows that polarization about US beef import become weaker with a significant increase in neutral position (10 -> 55, p=0.000) N=152 June N=111 May Neutral Neutral 36.18%
13. Other issues related to Lee’s neo-liberal policy programs were not salient in both FRE and the trackbacked in terms of their occurrence frequencies (FRE: 25 entries, Trackbacked 22 during May and June) However, the excessive use of police force emerged as a new agenda among trackbackers during June: ProGov (20.5%), Neutral(31.1%), AntiGov (48.4%)
14. Network analysis among FRE bloggers 28 bloggers are consistent for 2 months, that is, ‘ Core ’ group produced 19 and 14 entries Central bloggers are related to media industry Network becomes sparser over time The majority of pro-import bloggers are isolated Betweenness of neutral bloggers is not high
15. Central bloggers in indegree, May Bloggers Indegree centralities Gender Residence Occupation Trackbackers Trackbacks chchtan 6 9 M Seoul 뉴시스 기자 mongu 4 4 M Gyeongsang 전문블로거 idomin 4 4 Mixed Gyeongsang 경남도민일보 hands 4 4 F Seoul 미디어스 기자 jkspace 3 4 M Seoul 건축가 pdjournal 3 3 Mixed Seoul PD 저널 parismadame 3 3 F Overseas 주부 kimjongbae 3 5 M Seoul 시사평론가 ( 김종배 ) ccdm1984 3 3 Mixed Seoul 민주언론시민연합 radiostar11 3 3 M Seoul 웹디자인관련 회사원
16. Central bloggers in outdegree, May Bloggers Outdegree centralities Gender Residence Occupation Trackbackers Trackbacks dongnae 15 25 F Unknown Unknown yjua 7 8 F Seoul 메디컬투데이 기자 wantkorean 6 12 M Seoul 대학교 강사 neopet71 5 6 M Seoul 무역회사직원 totobox 4 4 F Gyeongsang 공부방 강사 daidalos 4 4 F Seoul 주부
18. Central bloggers in indegree, June Bloggers Indegree centralities Gender Residence Occupation Trackbackers Trackbacks sisain 5 5 Mixed Seoul 시사인 블로그 2kim 4 5 Mixed Gyeongsang 김주완 ( 남 ), 김주훤 ( 녀 ) 로서 경남도민일보의 팀블로거 팀블로그 운영자 mediaus 4 5 Mixed Seoul 미디어스 블로그 ctzxp 3 3 M Seoul 월간 [ 말 ] 박형준 기자 kimjongbae 3 9 M Seoul 시사평론가 ( 김종배 ) hangulo 2 5 M Seoul 전문블로거 photohistory 2 3 M Seoul 회사원 migojarad 2 3 M Gyeongsang 고등학생 ( 고 3) peoplepower21 2 2 Mixed Seoul 참여연대 블로그 chchtan 2 3 M Seoul 뉴시스기자 medwon 2 3 M Seoul 의대생 showbiz 2 3 M Seoul 기업 대표 urijeri 2 2 M Seoul 교회목사
19. Central bloggers in Outdegree, June Bloggers Outdegree centralities Gender Residence Occupation Trackbackers Trackbacks luvyooz 21 35 M Seoul 모름 okhong 7 8 M Seoul 민주노동당 국회의원 ( 홍희덕 ) may 5 5 M Seoul 무직 2kim 4 4 Mixed Gyeongsang 김주완 ( 남 ), 김주훤 ( 녀 ) 로서 경남도민일보의 팀블로거 팀블로그 운영자 newzealandstory 3 3 M Overseas 대학생 sisain 2 4 Mixed Seoul 시사인 블로그 ddokbaro 2 2 M Unknown 모름 hangulo 2 3 M Seoul 전문블로거 , 뉴스보이기자 ( 객원 ) sdlp 2 2 Mixed Seoul 민주노동당 서울지역 대학생당원들 팀블로그블로그
21. Profile of Trackbackers Items May June Consistent group No. of trackbackers 237 240 85 Also included in the FRE 25 (10.55%) 25 (10.42%) 22 (25.88%)
22. Just like Wikipedians, FRE bloggers contribute to the continuing extension and improvement of American beef-related online resource, observe this common property with some engagement, and are rewarded from this ongoing process as their level of involvement changes overtime Bruns emphasizes, “ That’s why I suggest that they are neither simply users nor producers (and they’re certainly not consumers): they’re produsers instead ”
25. Structural change over time: Disappearing long-tail participation An over-time result shows that the agenda-setting function of head bloggers (A-list) , whose entries were included more than two times in the FRE, become stronger than that of tail bloggers in terms of writings , views, replies, and trackbacks
27. What makes the structure of comm. network change over time? Aggressive state intervention for cyberspace Distorted reporting of conservative media on mass candlelight protests Gradual decrease of rally participants Becomes peripheral agenda among citizens
28. The results indicate that there is indeed a change in terms of online discourse and network structure over this short span of time Balkanization and Mobilization theories need to be modified and discussed in terms of new ‘produsage’, ‘crowd wisdom’, and ‘long-tail’ concepts
![Decomposing the structure of online protests against U.S. beef import in South Korean blogosphere Woo Young CHANG Catholic University of Daegu, Korea (South) Han Woo PARK YeungNam University, Korea (South) WCU Webometrics Institute [email_address] http:// www.hanpark.net Presented to the 4S (Society of Social Study of Science) Conference, Tokyo, Japan, August 2010](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/usbeefjapanconference25aug2010-100908083707-phpapp01/85/us-beef-japan-conference-25-aug2010-1-320.jpg)
