Background
The 20th presidential election held on March 9, 2022 showed a different characteristic from the
previous one in that both the ruling and opposition party candidates concentrated on the microtargeting strategy. Micro-targeting pledges need t...
Background
The 20th presidential election held on March 9, 2022 showed a different characteristic from the
previous one in that both the ruling and opposition party candidates concentrated on the microtargeting strategy. Micro-targeting pledges need to be wary of pushing domestic health policy
concerns out of priority due to concerns about populist competition. This is because the presidential
election is an important opportunity for the policy window to be opened and the policy agenda that
has been publicized through the media to lead to actual policies. Therefore, in this study, we will
explore the characteristics and problems of health policy-related communication revealed in the
presidential election through big data analysis of the presidential candidate's health policy pledge
and media coverage of health policy.
Subject and Methods
The subject of this study is the media reported in relation to the policy pledges of Yun Seokyul and Lee Jae-myung during the 20th presidential election and the health care policy for the
relevant period. It's an article. The media that collected the articles were the Chosun Ilbo, the DongA Ilbo, the JoongAng Ilbo, the Hankyoreh newspaper, the Kyunghyang newspaper, and the Yonhap
News, and the collection period was from October 10, 2021 to March 8, 2022.
As for the research method, first, the policy pledges are used to grasp the main contents of the
health care policy officially announced by the political parties to which both candidates belong, and
frequency analysis, semantic network analysis(using pie coefficient), and comparative
analysis(using log odds ratio). In order to understand what kind of content of the health and medical
policy pledges of both candidates was taken up by the media and how it was recognized, the
transition of media coverage by time and the semantic network analysis by time(using pie coefficient)
We proceeded with comparative analysis(using TF-IDF) according to the political tendency of the
media, and derived the core theme that attracted attention in the media through topic modeling.
Finally, a comparative analysis(using TF-IDF) was performed to confirm the mutual differences
between the three types of text data.
Results
It was confirmed that the two candidates confirmed through the policy pledges proposed
different health care policies, and although some subjects were treated in common, the details and
policy directions were almost different. The policies that both candidates took up in the same way
were ‘Support medical expenses to war veterans’, ‘Support for infant development’, ‘Support for
infertility and HPV vaccine’. Policies related to ‘Convalescence and nursing’ and ‘Family doctor
system’ were proposed both, however, details were different between candidates. The policies that
Yun treated relatively more importantly than Lee were ‘Support catastrophic medical expenses’ and
‘Support medical system and side effect of COVID19 vaccine’. On the other hand, the policies that
Lee treated relatively more importantly than Yun were ‘Non-face-to-face medical care’, ‘Nursing
law enactment’, ‘Support contraception and pregnancy discontinuation’ and ‘Working safety and
health’.
As a result of analyzing the media articles reported related to the health policy pledges of both
candidates, Lee's pledge ‘Reimbursement of hair losses’ was reported most intensively during the
overall presidential period. Thus, there were some policies alienated among major policies in the
previous analysis. The result of classifying media articles into 10 topics through topic modeling were
here. ‘Nursing law enactment’, ‘COVID19 epidemic prevention measures’, ‘Support for persons
with disabilities’ of both candidates, ‘Reorganize health insurance system’ of Yun and
‘Reimbursement of hair losses’, ‘Support bio-health industry’ and ‘Expansion of public health care’.
Through comparisons between three texts; Yoon's policy pledges, Lee's policy pledges and
media articles, the policies in each candidate's policy proposal which were not proposed by the other
candidate as well as referred to public opinion by media were analyzed. Yun's policies that unique
but out of the spotlight were ‘Support for intractable fertility treatment costs’, ‘Support for medical community related to COVID19’, ‘Be responsible for side effects of COVID19’, ‘Improve health
checkups for infants / children and support for infants with developmental disabilities’, ‘New drug
rapid registration system’ and ‘Health doctors for the disabled’. Lee’s policies were ‘Non-face-toface treatment’, ‘Support for war veterans’, ‘Working safety and health’, ‘Reimbursement for atopy
dermatitis’, ‘Crackdown illegal hospitals’ and ‘Sexual / reproduction rights’.
Conclusion
This study is significant that it was the first case using big data analysis that showed how the
health care policies proposed by the candidates were selected, disseminated, or exposed by the media
at the period of the presidential election that the important time when the policies are actively
promoted. The presidential election is an important momentum to determine the direction of
domestic health policy in the next five years so that the policies more fundamental and important
should be taken attention of media and public and discussed actively among them. Therefore, if
follow-up studies are conducted, such as analyzing a wider range of media articles or using more
recent big data analysis techniques, it could be helpful in terms of strategies to improve health and
medical policies.