This study compares the nomination results of candidates for the 18th and 22nd general elections, starting from the 17th National Assembly, where e-voting was introduced in earnest, and analyses the influence of media exposure and party loyalty on the...
This study compares the nomination results of candidates for the 18th and 22nd general elections, starting from the 17th National Assembly, where e-voting was introduced in earnest, and analyses the influence of media exposure and party loyalty on the re-nomination of incumbent legislators in the current media-political competition. Starting from the problem of the contemporary media politics that makes party nominations, which should be more important than elections in the realization of a proper representative democracy, dysfunctional, this study points out that the phenomenon of incumbent lawmakers engaging in a competition for prominence, such as survival-oriented media exposure and excessive partisan behavior, is a consequence of the growing influence of the media in the political sphere. This study examines the factors that influence incumbents' reelection, focusing on their media exposure and party loyalty as measured by their tendency to vote in parliament. Furthermore, an exploratory analysis was conducted to determine whether a lawmaker's media exposure and party loyalty affect his or her ability to be nominated in a favorable district, i.e., to be nominated effectively. The main findings of the study are summarized below. The average media exposure of both parties increased significantly in the 22nd General Election compared to the 18th General Election; the voting behavior of Democratic Party(DP) shifted slightly further to the left on average and became less extreme than in the past, while the voting behavior of Poeple Power Party(PPP) became somewhat more extreme than in the past; and the re-nomination rate of recent freshman legislator was lower in both parties than in the past. The first analysis to test our hypotheses shows that in the 18th General Election, media exposure and voting behavior had no direct effect on reelection, but for incumbents, more extreme voting behavior had a negative effect on reelection, while more media exposure had a positive effect on reelection for third-term legislators. In the 22nd General Election, unlike the 18th General Election, the more media exposure a legislator had, the more positive the effect on reelection, with PPP legislators being more affected by media exposure than Democratic legislators. Finally, in the third analysis, which examined the relationship between the variables and the difficulty of the district, we found that in both the 18th and 22nd General Election, media exposure and voting tendency did not directly affect the difficulty of the district. However, in the 18th General Election, the more extreme the voting behavior of three-term legislators and the more extreme the voting behavior of four-term legislators and above, the greater the overall likelihood of being nominated in a relatively low-difficulty district, i.e. a district that is more favorable to win. The main result of the 22nd general election was that the probability of being in a dominant region increased slightly with increasing media exposure for incumbent legislators, while the probability of being in a higher difficulty region, i.e., a disadvantaged region, tended to increase with increasing media exposure for the PPP members. The significance of this study is that it analyses the influence of media exposure in relation to the Korean nomination system, where media effects have not been clearly demonstrated, and explores the empirical implications of media effects in the contemporary political communication field dominated by media political logic. Keywords : Party Nominations, Media Exposure, Party Loyalty, Voting Trends, 18th General Election, 22nd General Election
Student Number : 2022-28825