The 18th presidential election in Korea that was held on December 19, where Park Geun-hye of South Korea's ruling Saenuri Party prevailed, deserves to be marked as one of the most exciting presidential elections in the history of Korea. Voter turnout ...
The 18th presidential election in Korea that was held on December 19, where Park Geun-hye of South Korea's ruling Saenuri Party prevailed, deserves to be marked as one of the most exciting presidential elections in the history of Korea. Voter turnout was at 75.8 percent and Park became the first woman to lead the country. The race was neck to neck until the last minute for candidates Park Geun-hye gaining 51.6 percent of the votes against her archi-rival Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party's 48.0%. An independent runner Ahn Cheol-soo who had been one of the front runners in the election resigned shortly before the registration of presidential candidates which was one of the most important variables in the election.
This study is undertaken in an attempt to analyze how the images of candidates were structured for the 18th presidential candidates during the course of election campaign through the press photo analysis. The subjects of analysis for this study were four daily newspapers, such as, the Chosun Ilbo, the JoongAng Ilbo, the Hankyoreh Newspaper and Kyunghyang Daily News. The analysis period was for four months, from September 19 to December 19. Setting the starting point of the analysis period to 19 September is attributable to the fact that the three-party competition structure, consisting of Park Geun-hye, Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo, was formed on that day when Ahn declared of his candidacy.
Research Question 1. How did the image composition of respective candidate affect on differences with respect to the development of the electoral process and the changes in the competitive landscape between the candidates?
Research Question 2. How did the political bias in newspapers influence on photo adoption of the candidates?
As a result of analysis, there were clear differences in the image configuration of images for candidates following the development of the election process and the change in competition structure. First of all, in the period of formulating the three-party competition structure, all three candidates focused on building up the image of presidential candidate. They all endeavored to wear bright expression to visit various fields to display a variety of dynamic images. Candidate Park had her photos of apologizing for his father, the late President Park Chung-hee, to be placed in almost all newspapers. Candidate Moon had the most active appearance of all three candidates. Candidate Ahn showed his unique political approach in delivering special lectures.
Press photos during the negotiation period for unifying candidates for opposition parties showed completely different pattern from the three-party competition structure. When compared to the three-party competition phase, Candidate Park showed energetic election campaign with active visits to the fields of livelihoods. On the other hand, Candidate Moon and Candidate Ahn were reported through press photos of serious appearance in struggling from the unification negotiations.
Due to the failure for unified candidacy by Candidate Moon Jae-in and Candidate Ahn Cheol-soo, the unification effect was declined, but with Ahn actively assisting Candidate Moon after his resignation, it brought into a significant change in the election. The election frame was formed with two-way competition, unification of opposition to change the regime, participation in election to change the administration and so forth and they were well displayed through the press photos. The campaigning on the last day of election showed the head-on collision with the symbolic election frames at its peak; Candidate Park showed her conservative election frame of patriotism and Candidate Moon showed his progressive election frame in democracy. Supporters of Candidate Park were waving the Taekgeukgi, the national flag, to chant the name of Candidate Park while supporters of Candidate Moon waved the yellow pinwheels as it symbolizes former President Roh Moo-hyun.
As a result of quantitative analysis on the press photos after the election, there was a showing of slight bias in the quantitative aspect between conservative newspapers and progressive newspapers, but it was insignificant. Conservative newspapers had photos of Candidate Park more while progressive newspapers had photos of Candidate Moon more. Furthermore, photos of both Candidate Moon and Moon were significantly more on the progressive newspapers. The quantitative difference following the political bias was not that significant.