Abstract
This paper presents results of an investigation into political communication expressed by links connecting politicians’ web sites with the sites of other political actors in South Korea. Additionally, this study examines whether a set of socio-demographic variables for web site producers is associated with linking behavior. Both traditional methods and social network analytical techniques are employed to investigate linking patterns between sites. Perhaps unsurprisingly, members of the South Korean National Assembly linked most to party web sites, and linking patterns did not change between 2003 and 2004. Out of a range of demographic variables investigated, the only ones that related significantly to linking practices were party affiliations and friendship networks.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
References
Adamic, L.A., Glance, N.: The Political Blogosphere and the 2004 U.S. Election: Divided They Blog. Last Accessed May 4, 2005: http://www.blogpulse.com/papers/2005/AdamicGlanceBlogWWW.pdf (2005)
Adamic L., Adar E. (2003). Friends and neighbors on the Web. Soc. Networks 25(3): 211–230
Adar, E., Zhang, L., Adamic, L., Lukose, R.: Implicit structure and the dynamics of blogspace. Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem, 13th International World Wide web Conference, May 18th, 2004. http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/idl/papers/blogs/blogspace-draft.pdf (2004)
Bar-Ilan J. (2002). Methods for measuring search engine performance over time. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 54(3): 308–319
Bar-Ilan J. (2004). A microscopic link analysis of academic institutions within a country—the case of Israel. Scientometrics 59(3): 391–403
Barnett G.A., Park H.W. (2005). The structure of international internet hyperlinks and bilateral bandwidth. Ann. Telecomm. 60(9–10): 1115–1132
Barnett, G., Jun, S.J.: An examination of the determinants of international internet. Presented to the 5th international conference of the association of internet researchers, University of Sussex, UK (2004)
Beaulieu A. (2005). Sociable hyperlinks: an ethnographic approach to connectivity. In: Hine, C. (eds) Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet, pp 183–198. Berg, London
Borgatti S.P., Everett M.G., Freeman L.C. (2002). Ucinet for Windows: Software for Social Network Analysis. Analytic Technologies, Harvard, MA
Björneborn, L.: Small world networks. Ph.D. thesis, Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark (2004)
Björneborn L., Ingwersen P. (2004). Toward a basic framework for webometrics. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 55(14): 1216–1227
Brin S., Page L. (1998). The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual web search engine. Comput. Netw. ISDN Syst. 30: 107–117
Burnett R., Marshall P. (2002). Web Theory: An Introduction. Routledge, London
Burris V., Smith E., Strahm A. (2000). White Supremacist Networks on the Internet. Sociol. Focus 33(2): 215–35
Chakrabarti, S., Joshi, M.M., Punera, K., Punera, K., Pennock, D.M.: The structure of broad topics on the Web, WWW2002, http://www2002.org/CDROM/refereed/338/ (2002)
Chan, J.M.: Who can mobilize Hong Kong people to protest? A survey-based study of three large-scale rallies. Paper presented at Asian Media and Communication Centre (AMIC) Conference, Beijing, China (2005)
Cho-sun daily: Anatomy of networks amongst the 17th South Korean Assembly legislators. http://www.chosun.com/feature/2004/politics04/17net/index.html (2004)
Davis R. (1999). The Web of Politics: The Internet’s Impact on the American Political System. Oxford University Press, New York
Daily D.-A. (2004). A Directory About the 17th national assembly Members. Dong-A daily, Seoul
Foot, K., Schneider, S., Dougherty, M., Xenos, M., Larsen, E.: Analyzing linking practices: candidate sites in the 2002 US electoral web sphere. J. Comput. Mediated Commun. (special issue: Internet Networks: The Form and the Feel) 8(4) URL (consulted 8 February 2004): http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol8/issue4/foot.html (2003)
Garrido, M., Halavais, A.: Mapping networks of support for the Zapatista movement. In: McCaughy, M., Ayers, M.D. (eds.) Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice. Routledge, London (2003)
Kim, H., Park, H.W.: The political competition on the web during the Korean election in 2004. A paper presented to the 2005 annual conference of international communication association, New York, USA (2005)
Kim H.D., Park H.W., Thelwall M. (2006). Comparing academic hyperlink structures with journal publishing in Korea: a social network analysis. Sci. Commun. 27(4): 540–564
Kluver R., Banerjee I. (2005). Political culture, regulation and democratization: the internet in nine Asian nations. Inf. Commun. Soc. 8(1): 1–17
Kretschmer H., Aguillo I.F. (2004). Visibility of collaboration on the web. Scientomerics 61(3): 405–426
Hellsten I., Leydesdorff L., Wouters P. (2006). Multiple presents: how search engines re-write the past. New Media Soc. 8(6): 901–924
(2005). Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet. Berg, London
Internet and Election Project: An International Project for the Comparative Study of the Role of the Internet in the Electoral Process. Unpublished manuscript. Accessed on July 10, 2004: http://www.webarchivist.org/ie/ (2004)
Jacobs D. (2005). Internet activism and the democratic emergency in the US. Ephemera 5(1): 68–77
Lusoli, W.: The internet and the European parliament elections: Theoretical perspectives, empirical investigations and proposals for research. Information Polity, 10 (3/4). A Special Issue about the World Wide web and the 2004 European Parliament Election. Special issue. 153–163 (2005)
O’Madadhain, J., Smyth, P., Adamic, L.: Learning predictive models for link formation. Presented to international sunbelt social network conference XXV, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Redondo Beach, CA, USA, 16–21 Feb (2005)
Owen D., Davis R., Strickler V.J. (1999). Congress the Internet. Harv. Int. J. Press Politics 4(2): 10–29
Palmer, J.W., Bailey, J.P., Faraj, S.: The role of intermediaries in the development of trust on the WWW: the use and prominence of trusted third parties and privacy statements. J. Comput.-Mediated Commun. 5(3). Retrieved Jun 22, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol5/issue3/palmer.htm (2000)
Pastor-Satorras R., Vespignani A. (2004). Evolution and Structure of the Internet: A Statistical Physics Approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Park H.W. (2004). Presence of taiwan on the world wide web in south korea: dynamics of digital and geographical presence on cyberspace. Int. Inf. Library Rev. 36(4): 329–340
Park H.W., Barnett G.A., Nam I.Y. (2002a). Hyperlink-affiliation network structure of top websites: examining affiliates with hyperlink in Korea. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 53(7): 602–611
Park, H.W., Barnett, G.A., Nam, I.Y.: Interorganizational hyperlink networks among websites in South Korea. NETCOM: Networks and communications studies, 16(3/4, Special issue on the Internet development in Asia), 155–173 (2002b)
Park H.W., Kim C.S., Barnett G.A. (2004). Socio-communicational structure among political actors on the web in South Korea: The dynamics of digital presence in cyberspace. New Media Soc. 6(3): 403–423
Park, H.W., Thelwall, M.: Hyperlink analyses of the World Wide Web: A review [Electronic Version]. J.Comput.-Mediated Commun.8. Retrieved Nov 1, 2005 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol8/issue4/park.html (2003)
Park, H.W., Thelwall, M., Kluver, R.: Political hyperlinking in South Korea: technical indicators of ideology and content. Sociological Research Online, 10(3), http://www.socresonline.org.uk/10/3/park.html (2005)
Park H.W., Thelwall M. (2006). Web science communication in the age of globalization. New Media Soc 8(4): 629–650
Preece, J., Maloney-Krichmar, D. (eds.): Journal of Computer-Mediated communication’s Special Theme: Online Communities. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue4/ (2005)
Rafael V. (2005). The cell phone and the crowd: messianic politics in the contemporary Philippines. In: Madanmohan, R., Lunita, M. (eds) Asia unplugged: the wireless and mobile media boom in the Asia-Pacific. The Asia-Pacific Internet Handbook, VI., pp 286–318. Sage, New Delhi
Rheingold, H.: Smart mobs: the next social revolution. New York: Perseus Books (2003)
Rogers R., Marres N. (2000). Landscaping Climate Change: A Mapping Technique for Understanding Science & Technology Debates on the World Wide Web. Public Underst. Sci. 9(2): 141–163
Scharnhorst, A.: Complex networks and the web: insights from nonlinear physics. J. Comput.-Med. Commun. 8(4). http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol8/issue4/scharnhorst.html (2003)
Shirky, C.: Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality. Publisehd on the Networks, Economics, and Culture mailing list. Retrieved October 3, 2003 from http://www.shirky.com/writings/powerlaw_weblog.html (2003)
Soon C.W.T., Kluver R. (2005). The internet and online political communities in Singapore. Paper presented to the International Communication Association, New York
Sunstein C.R. (2001). Republic. Com. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
Tateo, L.: The Italian extreme right on-line network: an exploratory study using an integrated social network analysis and content analysis approach. J. Comput.-Med. Commun. 10 (2), article 10. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/tateo.html (2005)
Terveen, L., Hill, W.: Evaluating emergent collaboration on the web. Presented to the Conference of Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Seattle, Washington (1998)
Thelwall M., Vaughan L., Björneborn L. (2005) Webometrics. In: Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 39:81–135
Thelwall M., Harries G. (2004). Do better scholars’ web publications have significantly higher online impact?. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 55(2): 149–159
Thelwall M., Tang R. (2003). Disciplinary and linguistic considerations for academic web linking: an exploratory hyperlink mediated study with Mainland China and Taiwan. Scientometrics 58(1): 153–179
Thelwall M., Wilkinson D. (2004). Finding similar academic web sites with links, bibliometric couplings and colinks. Inf. Proc. Manage. 40(3): 515–526
Thelwall M. (2002). Conceptualizing documentation on the Web: an evaluation of different heuristic-based models for counting links between university web sites. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 53(12): 995–1005
Thelwall, M.: Link analysis: an information science approach. Academic Press, San Diego, http://linkanalysis.wlv.ac.uk/ (2004)
Thelwall M. (2005). Interpreting social science link analysis research: a theoretical framework. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 57(1): 60–68
Thelwall M. (2002). Evidence for the existence of geographic trends in university web site interlinking. J. Doc. 58(5): 563–574
Thelwall M., Tang R., Price E. (2003). Linguistic patterns of academic web use in Western Europe. Scientometrics 56(3): 417–432
Tkach-Kawasaki, L.: Clicking for votes: assessing Japanese political campaigns on the Web. In: Ho, K.C., Kluver, R., Yang, K. (eds.) Asia.com: Asia Encounters the Internet, Routledge, London (2003)
Trentayne M. (2004). The web of context: applying network theory to the use of hyperlinks in journalism on the web. J. Mass Commun. Q. 81(2): 237–253
Vaughan L., Thelwall M. (2003). Scholarly use of the Web: What are the key inducers of links to journal web sites?. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 54(1): 29–38
Vaughan L., Thelwall M. (2004). Search engine coverage bias: evidence and possible causes. Inf. Proc. Manage. 40(4): 693–707
Vaughan L., Thelwall M. (2005). A modeling approach to uncover hyperlink patterns: The case of Canadian universities. Inf. Proc. Manage. 41(2): 347–359
Vaughan L.W. (2004). Exploring web site features for business information. Scientometrics 61(3): 467–477
Vogt W.P. (1999). Dictionary of statistics & methodology: a nontechnical guide for the social sciences. Sage, London
Wellman, B., Haythornthwaite C., eds. (2002). Internet in everyday life. Blackwell, Oxford
Wasserman S., Faust K. (1994). Social network analysis: Methods and applications. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, NY
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Park, H.W., Thelwall, M. Link analysis: Hyperlink patterns and social structure on politicians’ Web sites in South Korea. Qual Quant 42, 687–697 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-007-9109-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-007-9109-z