Understanding social viewing through discussion network and emotion: A focus on South Korean presidential debates
Introduction
Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube have become popular in use during television viewing in the age of the Internet. This new phenomenon has been termed as social viewing, that refers to engaging in conversations with other viewers through social media while watching television programs (Lee & Choi, 2017). During the presidential debates, social media served as a major forum for voters to communicate with each other about political issues (Lee & Shin, 2017), as Pew Research Center noted in its 2012 report that one-in-10 used second screens while watching the U.S. presidential debates.
Despite the growth of social viewing, scant research has proposed a theoretical model of how social viewing operates in perceptions and emotions of television viewers. Recent research has found that discussion networks such as bridging and bonding social capital that television viewers develop during social viewing play critical roles in understanding television program content (Lee & Choi, 2017); but this is an initial step for developing theoretical models, that raises the need to better understand the effects of social viewing.
As such, focusing on diverse emotion-oriented discussions such as an intra-audience role of emotions, emotional contagion theory (Hatfield et al., 1993), and affective intelligence theory (AIT) (Marcus et al., 2000), this study takes an in-depth look at the role of emotions in the relationship between discussion networks formed by having discussions with other co-viewers while watching presidential debates and attitudes of television viewers. Based on the emotional contagion theory that argues the transfer of emotions among groups of people (e.g., Hocking, 1982, Wenner and Gantz, 1998), it is plausible to assume that discussion networks formed by social viewing could elicit emotional reactions to television programs. Such emotions could further affect television viewers’ attitudes, according to the AIT, such that individuals experiencing anger and enthusiasm are likely to rely on their pre-existing partisan cues whereas those experiencing fear search or process information in thoughtful ways (Brader, 2006, Marcus et al., 2000, Marcus et al., 2006). Applying extant discussions on emotions to social viewing research, emotions brought by discussion networks in social viewing could determine television viewers’ attitude changes.
Acknowledging that much further work on social viewing is needed to systematically examine social viewing effects, especially focusing on certain types of television programs, this study explores the influences of social viewing in the context of the South Korean presidential debates. The 2017 South Korean presidential election may be marked as an exceptional case in political history, as it was held after the former South Korean president was impeached. Amid the heightened uncertainty, the then presidential candidates spent most of the time in the presidential debates engaging in political assaults (Kim, 2017), stirring controversies on social media among voters.
Reflecting these situations, this study will specifically focus on the relationship between social viewing networks (i.e., bridging and bonding), emotions (i.e., anger, fear, and enthusiasm), and if those relationships ultimately affect reinforcing one’s pre-existing opinions (i.e., opinion consolidation) or converging opinions with others with different perspectives from oneself (i.e., weakening of pre-existing opinion) about the presidential election. From a democratic perspective, excluding uncongenial opinions while reinforcing one’s opinions is a contributor to a fragmented society (Sunstein, 2001). By examining the predicted relationships, this study will be beneficial for media scholars to develop the theoretical model of social viewing research, one of the burgeoning topics in the media field.
Section snippets
Social viewing on the South Korean presidential debates
The South Korean presidential election in 2017 was surrounded by the unsettled circumstances that the former South Korean president was impeached, that left a major challenge for the next president of South Korea to effectively transit political leadership (Snyder, 2017). Amid political change, presidential debates aggravated uncertainties pervading among South Korean voters by intensifying ideological conflicts (Korea Herald, 2017).
Such presidential debates were broadcast live on social media
Participants
Four-hundred seven South Koreans enrolled as panels of the South Korea-based survey company Embrain participated in this study. The sample only included those that participated in discussions with others through online media including social media (e.g., Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) while watching the South Korean presidential debates April 3-May 2, 2017. The survey approximately took 15 min and participants completing the survey received a small amount of money. The survey data were
Results
This study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test hypotheses and research questions as SEM is a useful tool for analyzing mediating effects (Gunzler et al., 2013).
Discussion
This study offers a conceptual framework on how social viewing networks affect emotions, and opinion changes in the context of presidential debates. The empirical evidence in this study supports the traditional view of AIT that highlights the complex role of emotion in politics (Marcus & MacKuen, 1993). Clearly, social viewing operates with discussion network and emotions in predicting attitudes towards opinions of other people.
To examine reasons for the effects of social viewing networks, this
Jiyoung Lee is a Ph.D. student at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. Her research areas include interactive media, international risk communication, emotional communication, collective action, and social psychology.
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Jiyoung Lee is a Ph.D. student at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. Her research areas include interactive media, international risk communication, emotional communication, collective action, and social psychology.
Yun Jung Choi is an Associate Professor in the Division of Communication and Media at Ewha Womans University. Her research focuses on television studies, social viewing, audience research, and political communication.