Textual analysis of a political message: the inaugural addresses of two Korean presidents

What is it about?

This article analyzes the inaugural addresses of two Korean presidents using mixed methods of social network-oriented and socio-psychological linguistic text analyses. The analyses determined that former President Roh frequently used words relating to international affairs and politics, while current President Lee used rhetoric related to the economic perspective, emphasizing the construction of an advanced nation. The former was popularly known for his progressive (leftwing) policies while the latter emphasized his conservative and neo-liberal political stances during the presidential campaigns. As the first political-message analysis of its kind in Korea, this study has broad implications for inaugural-address research as an analytical tool to help understand not only the relationship between rhetorical substance and style but also the characteristics of presidential administrations’ political and social viewpoints.

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