THE ANALYSIS OF THE CLUSTER EFFECT OF TAIWAN MASS MEDIA''S POLITICAL GROUND－TAKING 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION FOR EXAMPLE

• Main Authors: Min-feng Chen, 陳敏鳳
• Other Authors: Yung-tai Hung
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/18086114034386345804

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 政治學研究所 === 94 === In the traditions of mass communication theory, mass media is responsible for social integration, public interests and national democratization. In recent years, however, Taiwan’s mass media, including newspapers and television stations, has been developing an organism in a symbiotic relationship with conspicuous political high profile--- so-called green and blue. As green-blue political ground is considered as different political ideologies, Taiwan’s mass media has become a unit of political mobilization. Most of he previous studies have showed that political party identity is a significant predictor of voting behavior, while scant attention in the literature has been paid to the effect of mass media political ground on voting saviors. This study is a breakthrough by using Hierarchical Linear Model that allows us to examine cross-level effect, including aggregate and individual levels. This study aims to answer whether there is a significant cluster effect of mass media with different degree of political ground on voting behaviors in 2004 presidential election in Taiwan. Correspond analysis was first used to quantify mass media’s political ground, which was classified into green or blue imaged by the public in the past. The findings accord with people’s image about Taiwan mass media’s political ground. This thesis, however, unlocks the answer in the first step. Second, the results of multilevel model confirm the existence of cluster effect of media. The audiences of media with more blue ground are more likely than their counterparts to vote for Lien-Song, and vice versa. After controlling for party identity, the cluster effect slightly declines but is still statistically significant. We still have no direct answer to the question whether audience‘s political ground in mind comes first and then affects their choice of mass media or they are under the influence of mass media to choose the political parties and candidates. It is similar to the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg and is worthy to be further investigated in the future.