Philippine E-Journals

Exploring the Relationship Between Online Comments Usage and Civic Engagement in South Korea

Kyung Han You | Misun Lee

Discipline: Social Science

 

Abstract:

Using logistic and hierarchical regression analysis (N=798), the present study explored the relationship between civic participation and daet-geul, the online comments posted under online news articles as well as comments underneath other comments. Our analyses showed that individuals’ online media use (two types of online news use and online community use) principally predicted two types of daet-geul behavior. Also, writing daet-geul behavior increased the level of individuals’ community participation, whereas reading daet-geul has no effect on either political participation or community participation. The results also indicated that civic attitudes (trust in community, trust in individuals, and tolerance) significantly enhanced civic and political participation, but those effects on each kind of participation were varied. The implications and limitations of the study were also discussed.