정치적 갈등 상황에서의 소셜미디어 행동주의: 전통미디어에 대한 적대와 분노의 역할 = Social Media Activism during Severe Political Conflicts: Examining the Roles Played by Hostility and Anger Toward Traditional Media

국문 초록 (Abstract)

본 연구는 정치적 갈등 상황에서 이념 극단성이 전통미디어에 대한 인식과 정서를 거쳐 소셜미디어 행동주의에 영향을 미치는 심리적 메커니즘을 검증하였다. 2019년 조국 전 법무부장관 관련 검찰 수사를 둘러싼 정치적 갈등을 배경으로 한 연구 결과, 이념 극단성은 SNS 의견표현과 SNS 정보전달에 직접적인 영향을 미치지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 대신에 이념 극단성은 전통미디어를 적대적으로 지각하게 하고, 이러한 지각은 전통미디어에 대한 분노와 관련이 있었다. 또, 전통미디어에 대한 적대적 지각은 SNS 의견표현에만 영향을 미쳤으나, 전통미디어에 대한 분노는 SNS 의견표현과 SNS 정보전달을 유의하게 예측하였다. 매개효과 분석 결과에서 이념 극단성은 전통미디어에 대한 적대적 지각과 분노를 차례로 거쳐 소셜미디어 행동주의에 간접적인 영향을 미친 반면, 전통미디어에 대한 적대적 지각만을 매개로 한 경로 효과는 유의하지 않았다. 연구 결과는 정치적 갈등 상황에서 소셜미디어 행동주의를 촉발하는 핵심 요인이 인지적 평가보다 분노라는 정서적 반응임을 시사하며, 소셜미디어 환경에서 정치 참여의 심리적 기반을 이해하는 데 기여한다.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examined the psychological mechanisms through which ideological extremity leads to social media activism via negative attitudes toward traditional media—namely, hostile media perception at the cognitive level and anger at the emotional level—in the context of political conflict. As social media proliferation and political polarization increasingly coincide in contemporary democracy, the ideologically extreme tend to distrust traditional media and turn to social media as an alternative space for political action. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this study proposed a theoretical model in which cognitive evaluations of traditional media trigger emotional responses, which in turn promote online political behavior.
Social media activism was conceptualized along two dimensions: (1) expressive activism in which users directly create posts, images, or videos to articulate their positions, and (2) informational activism in which users share others' content or express reactions. Ideological extremity was operationalized not as the direction of ideology (progressive vs. conservative) but as its intensity—the degree to which one's ideological position departs from the center. Using survey data collected from 1,008 South Korean adults in January 2020, at the height of social conflict surrounding the 2019 investigation of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and his family, this study tested the proposed model through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.
Results showed that ideological extremity was not directly associated with either expressive or informational social media activism. However, ideological extremity significantly heightened hostile perceptions of traditional media and directly intensified anger toward traditional media. Hostile media perception strongly predicted anger, and anger in turn significantly predicted both expressive activism and informational activism. The direct effect of hostile media perception was limited to expressive activism and was not significant for informational activism. Mediation analyses confirmed a significant indirect path from ideological extremity to social media activism through the sequential mediation of hostile media perception followed by anger. Notably, the pathway through hostile media perception alone—without the mediating role of anger—was not significant for informational activism, indicating that hostile perception influences online political behavior only when it gives rise to emotional response.
These findings suggest that emotional reaction, particularly anger, rather than cognitive evaluation alone, is the more decisive factor in triggering social media activism. This study contributes to the theoretical and empirical understanding of online political participation and media perception research by identifying the psychological pathway through which the ideologically extreme, driven by anger toward traditional media, come to utilize social media as an alternative political arena. The findings further carry policy implications for the health of the digital public sphere, given the potential of anger-driven social media activism to accelerate the spread of extreme opinion and deepen social conflict.